1903: Collins is the first to publish illustrated shilling-priced paperbacks…

Collins is the first to publish a series of illustrated, shilling-priced pocket size classics with the introduction of Collins Illustrated Pocket Classics. Included in this series are a maroon cloth-bound David Copperfield, many other Charles Dickens favorites, Sir Walter Scott’s Kenilworth, George Eliot’s Adam Bede, and Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley. More

Charlotte’s Web

Considered a classic of children’s literature; a novel of friendship, love, life, and death. More

Incidents of Travel in Yucatán

In 1839, American diplomat John Lloyd Stephens and British artist Frederick Catherwood—both already celebrated for their adventures in Egypt, the Holy Land, Greece, and Rome—sailed together out of New York harbor on an expedition into the forbidding rain forests of present-day Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. More

The Boy in the Dress

The sharp and funny first novel for children from bestselling publishing phenomenon David Walliams. More

Frank Warren

The book that set a course. At The Book Thing in Baltimore I saw a man persistently searching over the used-book shelves. More

A planning meeting at Collins Canada, circa 1940s

In this photograph, Charles H. Sweeny, Editorial and Production, F. F. Appleton, publisher (center), and Margaret V. Paull, staff artist and typographer, plan the first Canadian production of Little Grey Rabbit Books. More

The Giving Tree

Poignant, game-changing picture book for readers of all ages that has been a favorite for generations. More

New Naturalists

William Collins V (known as Billy Collins) and the printers AdPrint came up with the idea of the New Naturalist Library in 1942. More

Little Bear

The very first I Can Read! book has sold more than one million copies. More

“The Most Beautiful Printing Ever Done”

James Harper went to Europe in 1835 to compile a set of fairy tales for publication, and Harper & Brothers enlisted Joseph A. Adams to make 81 detailed wood-cut engravings for the collection. More