HarperCollins Publishers

Bleak House

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

Profiles in Courage

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

Nostromo

A sweeping masterpiece considered by many to be Conrad’s greatest novel. 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

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

Middlemarch

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

1848: Harper & Brothers publishes the first American editions of the Brontë’s works

The Brontë Sisters by Patrick Branwell Brontë restored

Harper & Brothers publishes the first American editions of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, and Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. 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

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

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

1990: HarperCollins becomes the new global company name…

On May 29, 1990, HarperCollins becomes the new global name for the combined Harper & Row and Collins. 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

Two Years Before the Mast

An early landmark of adventure and travel writing, now considered one of America’s first literary classics. More

From Clerk to Chairman of the Board

An 1885 letter from Henry Hoyns to the Harper brothers requesting a raise after being promoted to the stock desk.

One summer day in 1884, Horatio Harper, grandson of founder John Harper, began talking with a bright young boy during his regular steamboat commute from Long Island to Manhattan. 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

Moby-Dick

Often called the greatest American novel of all time. 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

1938: Harper & Brothers publishes Richard Wright’s debut story collection…

Harper & Brothers publishes Richard Wright’s debut story collection, Uncle Tom’s Children. More

A Light in the Attic

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

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

Under the Volcano

A landmark of modernism, hailed as “one of the towering novels of this century” (New York Times). 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

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