The Butterfly Lion
A moving story of enduring friendship, this is the award-winning favorite from a master storyteller. More
The Hours
Winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award; made into an Oscar-winning film. More
Original cover artwork for a 1965 edition of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
This original illustration by Italian artist Giorgio de Gasperi was used as cover art for a 1965 edition of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe published by Collins in the U.K. More
Peace with God
First book from Billy Graham, said to be the most influential Christian voice of this century. More
Letter from C. S. Lewis
In this letter to Collins publisher Billy Collins, dated November 1954, C. S. Lewis—author of The Chronicles of Narnia series, Mere Christianity, and The Screwtape Letters, among others—outlines what he sees as his three types of “literary output”: “A. Religious and General. B. Fiction. C. Academic.” More
The Golden Notebook
A feminist landmark and the best-known work by Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing. More
The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly
Memoir offering a haunting, harrowing look inside the cruel prison of locked-in syndrome. 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
Bernard Cornwell
Born in London in 1944, Bernard Cornwell grew up in Essex and, after a stint as a teacher, moved on to the BBC, where he took a job as a producer in Northern Ireland. More
Wolf Hall
Winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. More
1954: The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien is published…
Publisher George Allen & Unwin, later purchased by HarperCollins, publishes the 9,250-page manuscript of The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien. More
Empire of the Sun
Winner of the Guardian Fiction Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. More
1973: William Collins and Sons secures the rights to Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago…
William Collins and Sons secures the rights to Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago, an eye-opening work that exposes in startling detail the horrors of the communist regime in Russia. More
Mere Christianity
Considered one of the most popular introductions to Christianity ever written. More
2015: HarperCollins expands into a global publisher…
HarperCollins expands from a primarily English-language publisher to one publishing in 17 languages, with operations in 18 countries around the world. More
A Bear Called Paddington
In 1958, an editor at Collins named Barbara Ker Wilson received a manuscript submission about a talking bear, which she opened with “initial suspicion” —as the publisher had received many other proposals featuring humanized animals that “are invariably either whimsy-whamsy, written down, or filled with adult innuendoes.” More
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
The bestselling American novel of the nineteenth century; an epic tale of betrayal and honor. More
Alistair MacLean signing books
The young Alistair MacLean in 1957 signs a book during a promotional event for The Guns of Navarone. More
The Woman in White
One of the earliest works of detective fiction, this story caused a sensation with readers at the time. More
Education and Publishing
Beginning in 1830, the Harper brothers believed that the increasingly literate populace might clamor for turnkey collections. More
The Alchemist
An inspirational phenomenon; one of the bestselling books in history. More
The Hobbit
In October 1936, Stanley Unwin, chairman of British publishers George Allen & Unwin (later acquired by HarperCollins), received a children’s book submission. More
Bel Canto
Patchett’s critically acclaimed novel that won the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction. More
Anne O’Brien
Writing about medieval women is compulsive. More
Sharon Kendrick
I read to remind myself of the power of words and what they’re capable of when the subtle alchemy of a good storyteller kick-starts the imagination and flies you into a different world. 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
Gorky Park
First book in the Arkady Renko series, which became an instant bestseller and changed the crime fiction genre. More