Tag: Classics

To Kill a Mockingbird

When J. B. Lippincott (later acquired by HarperCollins) editor Therese (Tay) von Hohoff saw the first draft of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), she saw a promising story, but one in need of some reshaping and editing. More

1958: Collins publishes the first English translation of Doctor Zhivago…

Collins publishes the first English translation of Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. More

1961: The first Beginner Books by Dr. Seuss are published by Collins in the UK…

The first Beginner Books by Dr. Seuss are published by Collins in the UK. This series includes The Cat in the Hat (which had been previously published by Collins in 1958 and was an immediate success) and Green Eggs and Ham. More

1891: Harper & Brothers purchases rights to Conan Doyle’s Adventures of Sherlock Holmes…

Enabled by the 1891 International Copyright Treaty, Harper & Brothers purchases the rights to Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. More

Amelia Bedelia

The first book featuring the now-classic, hilariously literal-minded character Amelia Bedelia. More

Brave New World

Huxley’s best-known novel; a prophetic classic of speculative fiction that continues to resonate. More

Bridge to Terabithia

Newbery Medal–winning novel; a true modern classic and touchstone of children’s literature. More

1956: Harper & Brothers publishes Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy…

Harper & Brothers publishes Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy, which wins the Pulitzer Prize in 1957 and helps propel the young senator to the White House. More

Letter from Katharine White (E. B. White’s wife) regarding Stuart Little’s illustrations

This letter from E. B. White’s wife, Katharine White, to Ursula Nordstrom, head of the U.S. Harper Children’s division, expresses her husband’s excitement... More

Goodnight Moon

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

Agatha Christie at her Devonshire home

Agatha Christie, known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime, is the best-selling novelist in history, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. 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

Their Eyes Were Watching God

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

Judith Kerr: Beyond The Tiger Who Came to Tea

Collins author Judith Kerr may be best known in the UK for her classic children’s picture books The Tiger Who Came to Tea and Mog the Forgetful Cat, but she is also renowned for her powerful autobiographical novels about her childhood and young adulthood. 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

Agatha Christie

The house of Collins acquired “Queen of Crime” Agatha Christie after she disagreed with her former publisher over the spelling of “coco”/”cocoa” in her first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. More

Katherine Paterson

I read because I want more than one life, and books give me a limitless number of lives—lives that are different from the one I was born into. More

Katherine Paterson

Marketing and publicity brochure for Charlotte’s Web

This 1963 marketing and publicity brochure for Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White includes a letter from White explaining how he got the idea for the story. More

The Woman in White

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

Our Town

Pulitzer Prize–winning drama; hailed by Edward Albee as “The finest play ever written by an American.” More

Page from the original manuscript of “The Man from Snowy River”

A handwritten page from the original manuscript of “The Man from Snowy River” by Banjo Paterson. 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

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

The Cat in the Hat

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

Profiles in Courage

Harper & Brothers helped groom the image of a future president when it agreed in the mid-1950s to work with a young senator on a collection of biographical sketches about courageous American lawmakers. More

The Carrot Seed

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