HarperCollins Publishers

2012: Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel wins the Man Booker Prize…

Winner of The Man Booker Prize 2012: Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel (Cover).

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel, published by HarperCollins in the UK, wins the Man Booker Prize. Mantel becomes the first woman ever to win the prize twice, having first won for Wolf Hall in 2009. More

1917: Harper & Brothers releases the first-ever book and phonograph record “bundles”…

The Bubble Book (The Harper Columbia Book that sings). Singing:-by Time the Piper's Son, Mary and her little lamb and Jack and Jill. Story:-by Ralph Mayhew and Burges Johnson. Pictures:-by Rhoda Chase.

Harper & Brothers releases a series of 12 Bubble Books, the first-ever book and phonograph record “bundle,” featuring nursery rhymes like “Jack and Jill” and “Simple Simon.” More

Publishing Firsts: Collins Illustrated Pocket Classics

An illustration from the Collins Illustrated Pocket Classics edition of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

At the turn of the century, William Collins III combined innovative packaging and distribution with innovative aesthetics by creating shilling-priced illustrated paperbacks. 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

I Can Read!

Inspired by an occasion in which she attempted to find an appropriate book for a young boy who had just learned to read, Boston librarian Virginia Haviland telephoned her friend Ursula Nordstrom, the head of children’s publishing at Harper & Brothers. More

1836: Harper & Brothers begins publishing books for children

Harper & Brothers begins publishing books for children with the Fairy Book Collection. 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

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

Publishing Firsts: The Rotary Press

American inventor Richard Hoe’s 1847 four-cylinder rotary press helped increase printing output tenfold, to 8,000 pages per hour. More

The Harper Fire of 1853

The Harper offices in New York City were claimed by fire in 1853, when a plumber lit a lamp with a roll of paper and then attempted to extinguish the burning roll in a tub of water. More

Riders of the Purple Sage

Often called “the most popular Western novel of all time,” this classic helped shape the Western genre. More

Bring Up the Bodies

Winner of the Man Booker Prize and the first to win as a sequel. More

1818: Thomas Nelson expands his secondhand bookstore into a publishing business

Thomas Nelson expands his secondhand bookstore into a publishing business… More

A planning meeting at Collins Canada, circa 1940s

In this photograph, Charles H. Sweeny, Editorial and Production, F. F. Appleton, publisher (center), and Margaret V. Paull, staff artist and typographer, plan the first Canadian production of Little Grey Rabbit Books. More

Doctor Zhivago

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

1926: William Morrow is founded and publishes its first book…

William Morrow is founded and publishes its first book, On to Oregon! by Honoré Morrow. More

Social Change: Thomas Nast, Illustrator

Illustrator Thomas Nast first made his name documenting the Civil War in all its gruesome reality, but he is best known for developing the political cartoon form and our modern depictions of Santa Claus. 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

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

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

Social Change: Women Writers

In the mid-late 1800s, Harper & Brothers reprinted several milestone titles in the history of British feminist literature as well as the global canon, such as Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847), Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847), and Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), as well as George Eliot’s Middlemarch (1872). 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

1862: Thomas Nast documents the Civil War and politics in Harper’s Weekly

Harper's Weekly A Journal of Civilization. New York, Saturday, January 3, 1863

Thomas Nast begins documenting the Civil War and politics through caricature in Harper’s Weekly. More

One Hundred Years of Solitude

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

1908: Collins obtains New Zealand Post Office Box #1…

Auckland's First Sky-Scrapper. The Wyndam Street Building.

During a time of expansion for Collins in New Zealand, the company obtains New Zealand Post Office Box #1 (which it continues to use to this day) and moves to a new building on Wyndham Street, which at eight stories high, was then Auckland’s tallest building. More

2013: HarperCollins partners with digital book subscription services…

HarperCollins is the first major publisher to partner with digital book subscription services. More

Queen Elizabeth II visiting the Collins Glasgow offices

Billy Collins, William Collins Sons & Co.’s incumbent chairman, greets Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, at the Collins Glasgow offices as part of the company’s celebration of its 150th anniversary in 1969. More

Tag: Firsts