1964: Harper & Row publishes The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein…
Harper & Row publishes The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, a “moving story about the love of a tree for a boy.” More
Collected Poems 1947–1997
Poetry from a chief figure of the Beats that helped catalyze a revolution in contemporary culture. 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
Letter from “Padington”
Signed with a paw print, this letter from “Padington” (circa 1966) was sent to Australian booksellers and sales staff, encouraging them to sell the latest Paddington title. 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
Little Bear
The very first I Can Read! book has sold more than one million copies. More
2003: HarperCollins partners with an e-book loan service catering to public libraries…
HarperCollins becomes the first major trade publisher to partner with an e-book loan service catering to public libraries. More
Becoming Children’s Authors: Sendak, Silverstein And Ursula Nordstrom
Neither Maurice Sendak nor Shel Silverstein started their careers with children’s literature as a focus. More
Barbara Taylor Bradford
When I say I have the need to write, I do mean need. More
Letter recommending Sounder for publication
Harper editor Ferd Monjo wrote this letter to the head of the U.S. Harper Children’s division, Ursula Nordstrom, regarding a manuscript he had received in July 1968. More
Building Literary Identities: Canada, Australia, India
In the mid-1800s, William Collins took his UK publishing business international–from the Americas, through Australia, to Africa. More
2017: HarperCollins celebrates its 200th anniversary…
HarperCollins Publishers celebrates its 200th anniversary. More
1971: William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist is published…
William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist becomes the first horror story to reach number one on the New York Times bestseller list and helps initiate the modern horror film movement. 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
Publishing Firsts: The Historical Romance Genre
At the time of its publication in 1972, nothing like Kathleen Woodiwiss’s The Flame and the Flower had ever been published. More
1978: Harper & Row publishes Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City series…
Harper & Row publishes the first book in Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City series after it is serialized in the San Francisco Chronicle. The series highlights gay issues and becomes a cultural icon for generations of readers. More
The Woman in White
One of the earliest works of detective fiction, this story caused a sensation with readers at the time. 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
Where the Wild Things Are
This winner of the 1964 Caldecott Medal changed the face of children’s literature. More
1957: The I Can Read! series launches with the publication of Little Bear…
The I Can Read! series launches with the publication of Little Bear, written by Else Holmelund Minarik and illustrated by Maurice Sendak, and becomes the number one beginning reader series in the United States. More
The History of HarperCollins Children’s Books in the U.S.
The Department of Books for Boys and Girls at Harper was established in the U.S. in 1926. More
Thomas Nelson: The Beginning
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
Publishing Firsts: Stereotyping
The Harper brothers first began publishing in the early 1800s, when emerging technologies were fundamentally changing the process of printing–replacing the painstaking compositing, inking, and pulling processes needed for each page. More
1903: Collins is the first to publish illustrated shilling-priced paperbacks…
Collins is the first to publish a series of illustrated, shilling-priced pocket size classics with the introduction of Collins Illustrated Pocket Classics. Included in this series are a maroon cloth-bound David Copperfield, many other Charles Dickens favorites, Sir Walter Scott’s Kenilworth, George Eliot’s Adam Bede, and Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley. More
1963: Maurice Sendak receives the Caldecott Medal for Where the Wild Things Are…
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak is published. It is awarded the 1964 Caldecott Medal. More
Angus & Robertson in Australia
Ten thousand miles from his homeland, Scotsman David Mackenzie Angus paid £50 to open a small bookshop on Market Street in Sydney, Australia. More
1830: J. & J. Harper is the first publisher to adopt stereotyping
J. & J. Harper is the first publisher to adopt the process of stereotyping, using papier-mâché molds to forge reusable metal plates of entire pages. More