Social Change: African American Identity in the U.S.
HarperCollins has published a number of books that explore the racial identity of African Americans during periods of great social conflict. More
A Bear Called Paddington
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
Alistair MacLean signing books
The young Alistair MacLean in 1957 signs a book during a promotional event for The Guns of Navarone. More
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
Harry the Dirty Dog
Classic dog story; childhood favorite that has charmed readers for more than fifty years. More
The Giving Tree
Poignant, game-changing picture book for readers of all ages that has been a favorite for generations. More
Where the Wild Things Are
This winner of the 1964 Caldecott Medal changed the face of children’s literature. More
Profiles in Courage
Pulitzer Prize winner that helped propel the young senator to the White House. More
The Carrot Seed
An early classic in children’s literature about perseverance; never out of print. More
1941: Avon Books is established…
Avon Books is established by New York businessman Joseph Meyers in association with Edna B. Williams. Now renowned for widely popularizing the historical romance category, the publisher originally begins with a focus on paperback reprints. More
Letter from Garth Williams regarding illustrations for the Little House series
When acclaimed illustrator Garth Williams was commissioned to create new illustrations for Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series, he traveled west to see the actual sites Wilder referred to in her writings and to meet Laura herself. More
Letter from Ursula Nordstrom regarding Frog and Toad Are Friends
This humorous letter from 1970 was written by Ursula Nordstrom, head of the U.S. Harper Children’s division, to Frog and Toad Are Friends author and illustrator Arnold Lobel. More
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943), a story about growing up poor in turn-of-the-century Brooklyn, was originally an entry for a Harper & Brothers memoir contest. More
How Harlequin Became Romance
When Richard H.G. Bonnycastle, a former Arctic explorer with the Hudson Bay Company, launched Harlequin Books in Winnipeg in 1948, he had little interest in building a publishing empire around romance novels. More
1943: Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is published…
Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, a story about growing up poor in turn-of-the-century Brooklyn, shines a light on first- and second-generation Americans living in poverty. More
Under the Volcano
A landmark of modernism, hailed as “one of the towering novels of this century” (New York Times). More
Stride Toward Freedom
Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s memoir of the Montgomery bus boycott. More
Agatha Christie at her Devonshire home
Agatha Christie, known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime, is the best-selling novelist in history, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. More
V.
Winner of the William Faulkner Foundation Award for best debut novel in 1963. More
Being and Time
Perhaps the twentieth century’s most influential philosophical work, which shaped existentialism and postmodern thought. More
C.S. Lewis and Christianity
Born in 1898 in Belfast, Clive Staples Lewis lost his faith in Christianity at a young age after his mother died and he was sent away to boarding school. More
Doctor Zhivago
Collins was the first to publish this epic romantic drama by the Nobel Prize winner in English. More
Our Town
Pulitzer Prize–winning drama; hailed by Edward Albee as “The finest play ever written by an American.” More
Inventing the Western
Zane Grey and A. B. Guthrie Jr. were considered two of the foremost writers on the American West. More
Goodnight Moon
Every child’s must-have bedtime classic; beloved by generations of readers and listeners. More
Original contract for Thorn-Apple Tree
Grace Campbell’s debut novel, Thorn-Apple Tree, was one of the earliest works of fiction written by a Canadian to be published by William Collins Sons & Co. Canada Ltd. More
1949: Harlequin Books is founded…
Harlequin Books is founded in Winnipeg by Richard Bonnycastle, Doug Weld, and Jack Palmer. More