It was Michael Lynton's idea to extend the Penguin brand name to a series of classical music CDs, but the notion has now expanded to embrace a decidedly literary element, too. Penguin's director of group strategy, Duncan Campbell-Smith, told PW from London that the Penguin Music Classics, to be launched in the U.S. this week, will also carry brief essays by noted authors to accompany their favorite works. So buyers of the first batch of releases will be treated to such nonmusicological appreciations as John Fowles on Beethoven piano sonatas, Douglas Adams on Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, Garrison Keillor on Handel's Messiah (in which he has sung) and Stephen Jay Gould on Mozart's Requiem. Other authors tapped for the first releases -- all of whom were happy to contribute, said Campbell-Smith -- include Arthur Miller, Wendy Wasserstein, Ethan Canin, William Boyd, Edmund White, Paul Johnson, Douglas Coupland, David McCullough, Alison Lurie, Kazuo Ishiguro and Jane Smiley. The discs, with the Penguin logo prominently displayed, offer highly praised performances from the PolyGram labels of London, Deutsche Grammophon and Philips. They will appear initially in music stores and book superstores with music departments, and beginning in November, they will be sold in independent bookstores, housed in special display units, said Campbell-Smith. The idea is to expand the issue, in bimonthly installments, to 50 discs; strong sales could bring further expansion, perhaps into jazz.