Bernie and Pat Zondervan outside their Grand Rapids headquarters
The publishing house of Zondervan was launched during the Great Depression (1931) by brothers Pat and Bernie Zondervan in the spare bedroom of a Michigan farmhouse. More
Geronimo Johnson
I write to unread what has been written about me in error and with malice. More
1931: Pat and Bernard Zondervan start a religious publishing firm…
Pat and Bernard Zondervan start a religious publishing firm out of their mother’s farmhouse. 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
Becoming Children’s Authors: Sendak, Silverstein And Ursula Nordstrom
Neither Maurice Sendak nor Shel Silverstein started their careers with children’s literature as a focus. More
Crime & Mystery At HarperCollins
In 1860, Harper & Brothers had paid Wilkie Collins £750 for The Woman in White, which heralded the publisher’s entry into the crime and mystery genre. 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
1969: Sam Moore’s Royal Publishing acquires Thomas Nelson and Sons…
After founding the religious publishing firm Royal Publishing in 1962, Sam Moore acquires Thomas Nelson and Sons and adopts the company’s name. More
One Hundred Years of Solitude
This landmark of magical realism sparked a wave of interest in Central and South American literature. More
Collins Reference and Education
William Collins spent his earliest years teaching before starting his publishing venture in 1819. More
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel García Márquez drew on his childhood experiences in Colombia when crafting the story of the fictional Buendía family in the classic One Hundred Years of Solitude. More
Sam Moore with Ronald Reagan
Sam Moore was the founder of Royal Publishing, which acquired Thomas Nelson in 1969 and adopted its name. 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
1972: Avon launches the historical romance genre…
Avon launches the historical romance genre when it publishes Kathleen Woodiwiss’s The Flame and the Flower, a historical romance with a strong female lead and sexual situations that go a step beyond the tame romances of earlier eras. 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
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
Science Fiction & Fantasy
HarperCollins’s connections to nascent science fiction and fantasy worlds began with works such as Edward Lytton Bulwer’s The Coming Race (1871), and H. G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds (1898) and The Invisible Man (1898). 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
1937: Zora Neale Hurston’s masterpiece, Their Eyes Were Watching God is published…
J. B. Lippincott publishes Zora Neale Hurston’s masterpiece, Their Eyes Were Watching God. More
1941: Avon Books is established…
Avon Books is established by New York businessman Joseph Meyers in association with Edna B. Williams. Now renowned for widely popularizing the historical romance category, the publisher originally begins with a focus on paperback reprints. 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
1871: Harper’s Weekly serializes Middlemarch by Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot)
Harper’s Weekly serializes Middlemarch by Mary Ann Evans, who worked under the male pseudonym George Eliot. More
2014: HarperCollins acquires Harlequin Enterprises…
HarperCollins acquires Harlequin Enterprises from Torstar. More
Coming of Age in Samoa
A classic that brought science and literature together for both scholars and the general public. More
The Rise and Fall of the Harper Rule
In the early 1800s, American printers had no qualms about pirating books from abroad and selling them at discount prices. More
1962: Harper & Brothers merges with Row, Peterson & Co. to form Harper & Row…
Harper & Brothers merges with textbook publisher Row, Peterson & Co. to form Harper & Row. More
Letter recommending Sounder for publication
Harper editor Ferd Monjo wrote this letter to the head of the U.S. Harper Children’s division, Ursula Nordstrom, regarding a manuscript he had received in July 1968. More