HarperCollins Publishers

1877: Thomas Nelson introduces the Royal Readers and Royal School series

Thomas Nelson introduces the Royal Readers and Royal School series in response to the enactment of compulsory schooling laws and increased demand for instructional books. More

1972: Avon launches the historical romance genre…

Kathleen E. Woodiwiss Author of Shanna. The Flame and the Flower. (Cover)

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

Profiles in Courage

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

1999: William Morrow, Avon, Ecco Press, Amistad and 4th Estate are acquired…

HarperCollins acquires William Morrow, mass market romance imprint Avon, independent publisher Ecco Press, and Amistad Press, the pre-eminent publisher of African-American authors. A year later Collins acquires independent press 4th Estate. More

2003: HarperCollins partners with an e-book loan service catering to public libraries…

New York Public Library at 42nd Street Rendering (Creative Commons License)

HarperCollins becomes the first major trade publisher to partner with an e-book loan service catering to public libraries. 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

Crime & Mystery At HarperCollins

The Case of the Velvet Claws by Erle Stanley Gardner (William Morrow, 1933) and The Corpse in the Green Pyjamas by R. A. J. Walling (Avon Books, 1941).

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

1946: William Morrow establishes its first children’s imprint…

Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary. Illustrated by Louis Darling (Cover)

William Morrow establishes its first children’s imprint, Morrow Junior Books, and develops successful children’s author Beverly Cleary. More

1957: The I Can Read! series launches with the publication of Little Bear…

Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik. Pictures bt Maurice Sendak. an I CAN READ book. (Cover)

The I Can Read! series launches with the publication of Little Bear, written by Else Holmelund Minarik and illustrated by Maurice Sendak, and becomes the number one beginning reader series in the United States. 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

Middlemarch

Ranked number one in a 2015 BBC poll of the 100 greatest British novels. More

Employees in the Collins Canada general office, circa 1940s

Collins Canada employees working in the general office during the 1940s More

200 Years of HarperCollins Publishers

HarperCollins Publishers began as J. & J. Harper, a small family printing shop run by brothers James and John Harper in New York City in March 1817. More

Employees in the Collins Canada mailroom, circa 1940s

Collins Canada employees working in the general office during the 1940s More

Social Change: Civil Rights

A page from the Fall 1937 Harper & Brothers catalog touting This Is My Story by Eleanor Roosevelt.

Beginning with This Is My Story (1937), Harper & Brothers published many works by Eleanor Roosevelt that promoted civil rights and the need for government action, including This I Remember (1949), On My Own (1958), and Tomorrow Is Now (1963). More

Founded on Religion

The 1859 license granted to William Collins and Company, giving it permission to print the Bible.

Though a shared love of the written word inspired those who laid the foundation of HarperCollins, spreading Christian principles was a calling for them. 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

Zondervan

Launched during the Great Depression in the spare bedroom of a Michigan farmhouse, the publishing house of Zondervan was never a conventional religious publisher. 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

Sam Moore with Ronald Reagan

Sam Moore was the founder of Royal Publishing, which acquired Thomas Nelson in 1969 and adopted its name. More

The Zondervans on their silver anniversary

Bernie and Pat Zondervan, founders of the religious publishing firm Zondervan, review some of their early publications on the silver anniversary of their company in 1956. More

2017: HarperCollins celebrates its 200th anniversary…

HarperCollins Publishers celebrates its 200th anniversary. More

1992: John Gray’s Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus is published…

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. A Practical Guide for Imporving Communcation and Getting What You Want in Your Relationships. Jhn Gray, Ph.D. (Cover)

John Gray’s Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus is published and becomes one of the bestselling nonfiction books of the 1990s, launching an era of gender and relationship dialogue. 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

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

Letter to Eleanor Roosevelt regarding a new autobiographical book

Harper editor and chairman of the board Cass Canfield sent this letter, dated April 10, 1951, to Eleanor Roosevelt... More

Tag: Expanding literature