Tag: Art & Design

Original cover artwork for a 1965 edition of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis

This original illustration by Italian artist Giorgio de Gasperi was used as cover art for a 1965 edition of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe published by Collins in the U.K. More

Where the Wild Things Are

This winner of the 1964 Caldecott Medal changed the face of children’s literature. More

The Look of Stuart Little

In early 1945, Ursula Nordstrom, head of Harper’s Department of Books for Boys and Girls was awaiting completion of E. B. White’s manuscript for a children’s story about a talking mouse, titled Stuart Little. 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 Carrot Seed

An early classic in children’s literature about perseverance; never out of print. More

What Do People Do All Day?

Over 100 million Scarry books have sold worldwide; a favorite in his classic Busytown series. More

Original cover design for a Collins Crime Club title

Here you can see the progression of the cover art for the Collins Crime Club title Nothing is the Number When You Die by Joan Fleming (circa 1940s). More

The Muddleheaded Wombat

First introduced on ABC Radio, Muddleheaded Wombat is one of Australia’s most adored children’s book characters. More

Collins Reference and Education

William Collins spent his earliest years teaching before starting his publishing venture in 1819. More

Bread and Jam for Frances

Beloved story featured on at least two “top 100 picture books of all time” lists. More

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

The Tiger Who Came to Tea

The beloved multimillion-copy-selling British picture book no childhood should be without. More

1963: Maurice Sendak receives the Caldecott Medal for Where the Wild Things Are…

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak is published. It is awarded the 1964 Caldecott Medal. More

Charlotte’s Web

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

Publishing Firsts: Producing Books Electronically

Although word-processing programs and electronic typewriters had been around since the late 1960s, Harper & Row was the first to help pioneer electronic publishing with Andrew Garve’s The Long Short Cut in 1968, which was, according to the New York Times, “the first book set into type completely by electronic composition.” More

Publishing Firsts: Collins Illustrated Pocket Classics

At the turn of the century, William Collins III combined innovative packaging and distribution with innovative aesthetics by creating shilling-priced illustrated paperbacks. More

Robin Preiss Glasser

Robin Preiss Glasser

1836: Harper & Brothers begins publishing books for children

Harper & Brothers begins publishing books for children with the Fairy Book Collection. More

Becoming Children’s Authors: Sendak, Silverstein And Ursula Nordstrom

Neither Maurice Sendak nor Shel Silverstein started their careers with children’s literature as a focus. More

Publishing Firsts: The Historical Romance Genre

At the time of its publication in 1972, nothing like Kathleen Woodiwiss’s The Flame and the Flower had ever been published. More

1902: Collins publishes the first Gem…

Collins publishes the first Gem, a Pocket Pronouncing Dictionary that has 608 pages and is 2½" x 4½" in size. More

Harry the Dirty Dog

Classic dog story; childhood favorite that has charmed readers for more than fifty years. More

1964: Harper & Row publishes The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein…

Harper & Row publishes The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, a “moving story about the love of a tree for a boy.” More

The New Kid on the Block

Prelutsky was named America’s first Children’s Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation. More

Harold and the Purple Crayon

Classic children’s story about imagination that has never been out of print. More

Original artwork suggested by Syd Hoff for Danny and the Dinosaur

Illustrator Syd Hoff sent these sketches to Ursula Nordstrom, head of the U.S. Harper Children’s division, as suggestions for the now-classic Danny and the Dinosaur. More

Jackie French

I write for kids because each book builds kids’ intelligence. It’s muscle-building for the brain. More

Jackie French