The Hobbit

J. R. R. Tolkien’s enchanting tale became an instant success when it was first published. More

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943), a story about growing up poor in turn-of-the-century Brooklyn, was originally an entry for a Harper & Brothers memoir contest. More

Wicked

Bestseller that is the basis for the hit Tony Award–winning Broadway musical. More

To Kill a Mockingbird

Much-loved Pulitzer Prize–winning classic, voted by librarians across America as the best novel of the twentieth century. More

Inventing the Western

Zane Grey and A. B. Guthrie Jr. were considered two of the foremost writers on the American West. More

Jane Eyre

Brontë’s masterpiece of Gothic romance; a milestone title in the history of British feminist literature. More

From Clerk to Chairman of the Board

One summer day in 1884, Horatio Harper, grandson of founder John Harper, began talking with a bright young boy during his regular steamboat commute from Long Island to Manhattan. More

Doctor Zhivago

Collins was the first to publish this epic romantic drama by the Nobel Prize winner in English. More

A Bear Called Paddington

In 1958, an editor at Collins named Barbara Ker Wilson received a manuscript submission about a talking bear, which she opened with “initial suspicion” —as the publisher had received many other proposals featuring humanized animals that “are invariably either whimsy-whamsy, written down, or filled with adult innuendoes.” More

Little Bear

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

Room

Winner of the 2011 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize regional prize; made into a major motion picture. More

American Gods

An instant classic and winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards. More

Gregory Maguire

One of the reasons HarperCollins has been my most frequent publisher for thirty-three years is that I admired three children’s books published by Harper & Row within a year of each other (the year I was turning nine). More

Papillon

A bestselling phenomenon and classic memoir of prison breaks and adventure. More

Ben-Hur

Lew Wallace, a Union general in the Civil War, wrote the biblical novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ in 1880. More

Fahrenheit 451

Though set in a dystopian world without books, Bradbury’s most famous work has never gone out of print. More

The Cat in the Hat

This iconic Dr. Seuss book is one of the bestselling children’s books of all time. More