HarperCollins Publishers

1936: Collins is the first major publishing house to create its own font…

Collins is the first major publishing house to create its own font. More

Caedmon Records and Audiobooks

Dylan Thomas: The Caedmon Collection audiobook.

In 1952, Barbara Cohen and Marianne Roney, a pair of recent college graduates, wrote a letter to Welsh poet Dylan Thomas that contained an unusual business proposal. 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

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

1978: Zondervan publishes the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible…

Zondervan publishes the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible, a contemporary English translation that provides an accurate and understandable alternative to the King James Version. 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

Social Change: Sex in the 20th Century

An advertisement for Is Sex Necessary? by James Thurber and E. B. White, published in The New York Times on January 19, 1930.

In between the two world wars, Harper authors tackled the then taboo subject of sex. 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

Publishing Firsts: Fontana

A sample of Fontana from the Font Specimen Book.

In 1936 Collins became the first major publishing house to create its own font. More

Collected Poems 1947–1997

Poetry from a chief figure of the Beats that helped catalyze a revolution in contemporary culture. More

The Rise and Fall of the Harper Rule

In the early 1800s, American printers had no qualms about pirating books from abroad and selling them at discount prices. More

Angus & Robertson in Australia

The Angus & Robertson bookshop in Sydney (1916).

Ten thousand miles from his homeland, Scotsman David Mackenzie Angus paid £50 to open a small bookshop on Market Street in Sydney, Australia. More

Thomas Nelson: The Beginning

Title page of the Thomas Nelson edition of the Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (1860).

In 1800, an upstart 20-year-old printer named Thomas Neilson (who later changed his name to Nelson) set off a firestorm of controversy throughout the Scottish publishing world by offering something never before seen in Great Britain: classic books produced and printed for “the common man.” More

New King James Version of the Bible

In the mid-1970s Bible publisher Thomas Nelson found itself with extra capital and decided to channel these profits into the New King James Version of the Bible. More

The Growth of Harlequin Romance

Lawrence Heisey, a former soap salesman who was appointed president of Harlequin in 1971.

Lawrence Heisey, a former soap salesman who had been appointed president of Harlequin in 1971, revolutionized romance publishing by distributing Harlequin romances to supermarkets and department stores, where they would be right at the fingertips of Canadian and American homemakers. 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

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

1853: William Collins introduces new steam presses

William Collins introduces new steam presses, allowing Collins and Sons to publish Shakespeare and The Pilgrim’s Progress in affordable editions available to the masses. More

Publishing Firsts: Producing Books Electronically

The Long Short Cut by Andrew Garve (1968).

Although word-processing programs and electronic typewriters had been around since the late 1960s, Harper & Row was the first to help pioneer electronic publishing with Andrew Garve’s The Long Short Cut in 1968, which was, according to the New York Times, “the first book set into type completely by electronic composition.” More

Tag: Innovation