HarperCollins Publishers

The Intelligent Investor

The stock market bible, hailed by Warren Buffett as “the best book on investing ever written.” More

The Fellowship of the Ring

First volume in The Lord of the Rings series, which has sold more than 100 million copies. More

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

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

V.

Winner of the William Faulkner Foundation Award for best debut novel in 1963. More

Henry Huggins

The debut novel from Newbery Medal–winning author Beverly Cleary. 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

Flashman

When this novel was first published, many critics mistakenly accepted it as a genuine historical memoir. More

The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World

With more than one million copies sold worldwide, it’s the world’s largest commercially available world atlas in print. More

Eugene Exman and Martin Luther King

Strength to Love by Martin Luther King Jr.

Shortly after the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955 and ‘56, Harper & Brothers religious books editor Eugene Exman left New York City for Alabama and secured a meeting with Martin Luther King Jr. More

1946: William Morrow establishes its first children’s imprint…

William Morrow establishes its first children’s imprint, Morrow Junior Books, and develops successful children’s author Beverly Cleary. More

The Odyssey of Homer

Hailed as “the best translation there is of a great, perhaps the greatest, poet” (New York Times Book Review). 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

The Once and Future King

White’s masterful retelling of the Arthurian legend. More

Peace with God

First book from Billy Graham, said to be the most influential Christian voice of this century. More

The Zondervans on their silver anniversary

Bernie and Pat Zondervan, founders of the religious publishing firm Zondervan, review some of their early publications on the silver anniversary of their company in 1956. More

1937: Zora Neale Hurston’s masterpiece, Their Eyes Were Watching God is published…

J. B. Lippincott publishes Zora Neale Hurston’s masterpiece, Their Eyes Were Watching God. More

Danny and the Dinosaur

I Can Read! classic that was named a 1958 New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year. More

Goodnight Moon

Every child’s must-have bedtime classic; beloved by generations of readers and listeners. More

Flat Stanley

This series celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2014 and has sold more than one million copies. More

Under the Volcano

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

J. B. Lippincott

Born in 1813 in New Jersey, Joshua Ballinger Lippincott became a bookseller shortly after he moved to Philadelphia at age 14. More

J.R.R. Tolkien and the Trilogy

Sir Stanley Unwin, chairman of British publishers George Allen & Unwin (later acquired by HarperCollins), originally rejected the 9,250-page manuscript of The Lord of the Rings, the sequel to J. R. R. Tolkien’s moderately successful (at the time) The Hobbit, as it was too long, and the author would make a deal with the publisher only if they also agreed to take another of his unfinished books. More

Tag: Mid 1900s