HarperCollins Publishers

Internal memo from Collins Canada announcing a hot air balloon publicity stunt

To launch the new Canadian trade paperback imprint Totem, in September 1975, Collins Canada’s head of publicity Lucinda Vardey organized the release of hot air balloons over Toronto and neighboring suburbs. More

1930: Collins establishes the Collins Crime Club…

Crime Club: Sign of Good Detective Novel

Collins establishes the Collins Crime Club, which continues for six decades. Members receive quarterly newsletters that list the best new releases as selected by a panel of experts. More

Social Change: Collins Gives Back

In the UK, William Collins II of Collins and Sons took up labor causes, especially child labor. More

1970: Zondervan publishes the number one nonfiction bestseller of the decade…

The Late Great Planet Earth. The National Best Seller by Hal Lindsey with C.C. Carlson. A penetrating look at incredible prophecies involving this generation. (Cover)

Zondervan publishes The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey, which becomes the number one nonfiction bestseller of the decade. More

1952: Caedmon Audio is founded…

Dylan Thomas Reading A Child's Christmas in Wales LPCover

Caedmon Audio, the first company to sell audio versions of works by writers such as Dylan Thomas, e. e. cummings, and Robert Frost, is founded. More

1837: Harper & Brothers debuts a first in packaging and distribution

Imahe of the a cabinet with text that reads: This New England School Library was probably assembled in 1843, although most of the titles were printed the preceding year. The Library was shipped in its self-contained, 19x29-inch, pine-board cabinet, which was fitted with shelves, a lock and key, and a top piece which could be nailed to a schoolroom wall. When this cabinet and its contents were recently found in the attic of a Connecticut house, only four of the seventy-five half-leather gold-stamped volumes were missing.

Harper & Brothers debuts its New England School Library, a first in packaging and distribution. More

“A Word of Apology” from Harper & Brothers regarding the Harper fire of 1853

In this “Word of Apology” published in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine in January 1854, the Harper brothers address the devastating fire that ruined their New York City offices on Cliff Street in late 1853. More

1978: Harper & Row publishes Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City series…

Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin (Original cover)

Harper & Row publishes the first book in Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City series after it is serialized in the San Francisco Chronicle. The series highlights gay issues and becomes a cultural icon for generations of readers. More

Collins Reference and Education

Title page of an 1869 Collins atlas, printed for the Scottish School Book Association and featuring Bartholomew maps.

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

One Hundred Years of Solitude

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

I’m OK—You’re OK

A defining work of self-help with more than 15 million copies in print. More

From Printers to Publishers

A 1923 New York Times advertisement placed by Harper & Brothers regarding its move from Franklin Square to 49 East 33rd Street in New York City.

James and John Harper began their business in 1817 primarily as printers, although they soon began to publish and sell original works. More

1862: Collins becomes the publisher for the Scottish School Book Association and Irish National Schools

The School Board Atlas // Twenty-Four Maps

Collins becomes the publisher for the Scottish School Book Association and Irish National Schools, by 1875 buying out the Scottish School Book Association and supplying books directly to schools. More

Publishing Firsts: The VendAvon

Chips, cookies, sodas–and books–from a vending machine. Avon’s entertaining comic books—western, horror, romance, war, science fiction, and gangster titles, mostly—appealed to readers of all ages from 1945 through the mid-1950s. More

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

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. A Novel by Betty Smith. Original Cover. Harper & Brothers. Established 1817.

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

Coming of Age in Samoa

A classic that brought science and literature together for both scholars and the general public. More

Alistair MacLean signing books

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

1850: Harper’s New Monthly Magazine launches

Cover: Harper's New Monthly Magazine. No 1 June, 1850, Proce 25 Cents. Published by Harpers & Brothers, 82 Cliff Street, New York. Sold by the trade generally.

Harper’s New Monthly Magazine launches in June, serializing Charles Dickens’s Bleak House, as well as then unknown authors Herman Melville and Mark Twain. More

Pushing the Boundaries of Children’s Literature

A 1972 edition of William’s Doll, written by Charlotte Zolotow and illustrated by William Pène Du Bois.

Children’s books explored uncharted territory in the mid-1960s as Harper & Row began to champion boundary-pushing children’s and young adult books. 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

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

Gordon Korman

I read to be astounded by other writers’ ideas. More

Gordon Korman

Angus & Robertson in Australia

The Angus & Robertson bookshop in Sydney (1916).

Ten thousand miles from his homeland, Scotsman David Mackenzie Angus paid £50 to open a small bookshop on Market Street in Sydney, Australia. 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

1860: Harper & Brothers enters into the crime fiction genre

The Woman in White. A Novel. By Wilkie Sollins, author of

Harper & Brothers pay Wilkie Collins £750 for The Woman in White, which heralds the firm's entry into the crime fiction genre. More

The Steam-Powered Press

For years, the Harper brothers relied on a white draft horse named Dobbin, who plodded a circular path in the basement of their offices, turning a wooden shaft that powered the Treadwell hand press two floors above, until new technology sent him out to pasture. More

Tag: Expanding literature