Tag: Mid 1900s

The Giving Tree

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Poignant, game-changing picture book for readers of all ages that has been a favorite for generations. 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

Little Bear

Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik. Pictures bt Maurice Sendak. an I CAN READ book. (Cover)
The very first I Can Read! book has sold more than one million copies. More

J. B. Lippincott

The Lippincott logo from 1937.
Born in 1813 in New Jersey, Joshua Ballinger Lippincott became a bookseller shortly after he moved to Philadelphia at age 14. More

New Naturalists

An advertisement for the New Naturalist Library.
William Collins V (known as Billy Collins) and the printers AdPrint came up with the idea of the New Naturalist Library in 1942. More

The Muddleheaded Wombat

The Muddleheaded Wombat
First introduced on ABC Radio, Muddleheaded Wombat is one of Australia’s most adored children’s book characters. More

Caps for Sale

Caps for Sale
Longtime classic about a peddler and a band of mischievous monkeys. More

Ariel

Ariel
Plath’s landmark poetry collection; includes “Ariel,” “Daddy,” and “Lady Lazarus.” More

The Odyssey of Homer

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

Our Town

Our Town
Pulitzer Prize–winning drama; hailed by Edward Albee as “The finest play ever written by an American.” 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

Letter from “Padington”

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

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

Judith Kerr: Beyond The Tiger Who Came to Tea

Judith Kerr.
Collins author Judith Kerr may be best known in the UK for her classic children’s picture books The Tiger Who Came to Tea and Mog the Forgetful Cat, but she is also renowned for her powerful autobiographical novels about her childhood and young adulthood. More