Tag: Championing authors

Ursula Nordstrom

When Anne Carroll Moore, the powerful and opinionated superintendent of children’s work at the New York Public Library, asked Harper & Brothers editor Ursula Nordstrom why she felt qualified to produce children’s books, Nordstrom said only this: “Well, I am a former child, and I haven’t forgotten a thing.” More

A Christmas Carol

Dickens’s beloved classic of the meaning of Christmas that has inspired countless adaptations. More

The Woman in White

One of the earliest works of detective fiction, this story caused a sensation with readers at the time. More

Barometer Rising

The first novel by MacLennan, one of Canada’s most significant novelists of the mid-twentieth century. More

The Birth of Perry Mason

Head of William Morrow and Company (later acquired by HarperCollins) since the death of its founder in 1931, Thayer Hobson searched widely for promising new authors, often traveling to Europe in pursuit of his next big title. More

Charlotte’s Web

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

The History of HarperCollins Children’s Books in the U.S.

The Department of Books for Boys and Girls at Harper was established in the U.S. in 1926. More

Alistair MacLean signing books

The young Alistair MacLean in 1957 signs a book during a promotional event for The Guns of Navarone. More

Journey to Jo’burg

Groundbreaking book set in South Africa during the apartheid era and banned by its government. More

Bleak House

Dickens’s tenth novel, often considered his finest; significantly influenced the development of mystery novels. More

1932: Laura Ingalls Wilder publishes Little House in the Big Woods…

Virginia Kirkus, inaugural department editor of Harper’s Department of Books for Boys and Girls, launches Laura Ingalls Wilder with the publication of Little House in the Big Woods. More

1943: Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is published…

Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, a story about growing up poor in turn-of-the-century Brooklyn, shines a light on first- and second-generation Americans living in poverty. More

1923: The Harper Prize Novel is introduced as a competition to discover unknown authors…

The Harper Prize Novel is introduced as a competition to discover unknown authors, and receives more than 700 submissions in its first year. The first winner, The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilson, is later awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel (1924). 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

Herman Melville and Moby-Dick

Harper & Brothers turned down Herman Melville’s first book, Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life, and it was released to strong sales by another publisher. More

Profiles in Courage

Pulitzer Prize winner that helped propel the young senator to the White House. More

Their Eyes Were Watching God

One of the most widely read and acclaimed novels in the canon of African-American literature. More

Sharpe’s Eagle

The first Sharpe novel published in Cornwell’s classic series. More

Building Literary Identities: Canada, Australia, India

In the mid-1800s, William Collins took his UK publishing business international–from the Americas, through Australia, to Africa. More

Native Son

Wright’s unsparing reflection on what it means to be black in America. More

1848: Harper & Brothers publishes the first American editions of the Brontë’s works

Harper & Brothers publishes the first American editions of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, and Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. More

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

An American classic called “one of the books of the century” by the New York Public Library. More

Doctor Zhivago

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

The Hobbit

In October 1936, Stanley Unwin, chairman of British publishers George Allen & Unwin (later acquired by HarperCollins), received a children’s book submission. More

1937: Harper & Brothers publishes This Is My Story by Eleanor Roosevelt…

Harper & Brothers publishes This Is My Story by Eleanor Roosevelt. More

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

The philosophical classic that inspired millions struggling to find meaning in the modern world. More

One Hundred Years of Solitude

This landmark of magical realism sparked a wave of interest in Central and South American literature. More