Tag: Mid 1900s

Beezus and Ramona

Beezus and Ramona
Newbery Medal winner; humorous and beloved tale of the ups and downs of sisterhood. More

Letter from C. S. Lewis

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

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

Goodnight Moon

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

Flat Stanley

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

The Cat in the Hat

The Cat in the Hat
This iconic Dr. Seuss book is one of the bestselling children’s books of all time. More

Amelia Bedelia

Amelia Bedilia
The first book featuring the now-classic, hilariously literal-minded character Amelia Bedelia. More

Ursula Nordstrom

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

Harry the Dirty Dog

Harry the Dirty Dog
Classic dog story; childhood favorite that has charmed readers for more than fifty years. More

Sounder

Sounder
Newbery Award–winning book that became an influential children’s work on race and class. More

Peace with God

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

A Bear Called Paddington

An early cover layout for A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond, published by Collins in 1958.
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

V.

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