Charlotte’s Web

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

Garth Williams, Illustrator

Garth Williams was a little-known but talented young illustrator when he was commissioned by Ursula Nordstrom, head of Harper’s Department of Books for Boys and Girls, to illustrate the classic Stuart Little by E. B. White. 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

The Muddleheaded Wombat

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

Caps for Sale

Longtime classic about a peddler and a band of mischievous monkeys. 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

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

Goodnight Moon

Every child’s must-have bedtime classic; beloved by generations of readers and listeners. More

The Carrot Seed

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

Social Change: Thomas Nast, Illustrator

Illustrator Thomas Nast first made his name documenting the Civil War in all its gruesome reality, but he is best known for developing the political cartoon form and our modern depictions of Santa Claus. 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