HarperCollins Publishers

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

The Look of Stuart Little

In early 1945, Ursula Nordstrom, head of Harper’s Department of Books for Boys and Girls was awaiting completion of E. B. White’s manuscript for a children’s story about a talking mouse, titled Stuart Little. More

Inventing the Western

Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey (1912).

Zane Grey and A. B. Guthrie Jr. were considered two of the foremost writers on the American West. More

Ben-Hur

Lew Wallace, a Union general in the Civil War, wrote the biblical novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ in 1880. 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

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

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

Education and Publishing

Title pages of several books featured in Harper’s Family Library in the 1830s, including The History of the Bible and The Lives of Celebrated Travelers.

Beginning in 1830, the Harper brothers believed that the increasingly literate populace might clamor for turnkey collections. 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

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

The Wapshot Chronicle

Winner of the 1958 National Book Award, it established Cheever as a major American novelist. More

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World

A 1946 edition of Brave New World (1934), which features a special introduction by Aldous Huxley.

One of Harper & Brothers’ most famous and influential authors was Aldous Huxley, who signed with the publisher in 1927 and published his first book, Texts and Pretexts, with them in 1932. 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

Garth Williams, Illustrator

Marketing flyer promoting the 1946 publication of Little Fur Family, written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Garth Williams.

Garth Williams was a little-known but talented young illustrator when he was commissioned by Ursula Nordstrom, head of Harper’s Department of Books for Boys and Girls, to illustrate the classic Stuart Little by E. B. White. More

A Light in the Attic

Classic collection of poems and illustrations by Shel Silverstein; ALA Notable Children’s Book. More

1895: Mark Twain signs an exclusive contract with Harper & Brothers

Image of men in suits (TO DO: add names)

Mark Twain signs an exclusive contract with Harper & Brothers, which serializes Joan of Arc in its periodicals and publishes it as a book one year later. More

Periodicals: Harper’s Weekly, Harper’s New Monthly and Harper’s Bazaar

The Harper brothers consistently sought ways to reach more readers with less expensive publications, and in 1850 they revolutionized the concept of the modern literary magazine with Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. 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

Sympathy telegram to Coretta Scott King following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

The day after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (April 5, 1968), Harper honorary director Cass Canfield sent this telegram... More

Brave New World

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

Bleak House

Dickens’s tenth novel, often considered his finest; significantly influenced the development of mystery novels. 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

Tag: Harper & Brothers