The Publisher of presidents
HarperCollins is the publisher of many United States presidents–beginning with the very first one. More
1937: Harper & Brothers publishes This Is My Story by Eleanor Roosevelt…
Harper & Brothers publishes This Is My Story by Eleanor Roosevelt. More
1973: William Collins and Sons secures the rights to Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago…
William Collins and Sons secures the rights to Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s The Gulag Archipelago, an eye-opening work that exposes in startling detail the horrors of the communist regime in Russia. More
Go Set a Watchman
This newly discovered novel from beloved author Harper Lee became the bestselling book of 2015. More
1958: Collins publishes the first English translation of Doctor Zhivago…
Collins publishes the first English translation of Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. More
James Harper, Mayor Of New York City
With corruption rampant in New York City politics, the newly formed American Republican Party convinced James Harper, one of the brothers who had founded J. & J. Harper in 1817, to run for mayor. More
2000: Gao Xingjian becomes the first Chinese author to win the Nobel Prize for Literature…
Gao Xingjian becomes the first Chinese author to win the Nobel Prize for Literature after HarperCollins Australia publishes his novel Soul Mountain. More
1895: Mark Twain signs an exclusive contract with Harper & Brothers
Mark Twain signs an exclusive contract with Harper & Brothers, which serializes Joan of Arc in its periodicals and publishes it as a book one year later. More
Lionel Shriver
Why I write: To find out what I think. More
1958: Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. selects Harper & Brothers to publish his memoir…
After leading the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 and becoming the voice of the civil rights movement, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. selects Harper & Brothers to publish Stride Toward Freedom, his memoir about the Montgomery bus boycott. More
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
A child’s perspective as a refugee during the rise of Nazism; now a modern classic. More
1960: The Pulitzer Prize–winning To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is published…
J. B. Lippincott publishes the Pulitzer Prize–winning To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, one of the most influential books on race in America, which goes on to sell more than 40 million copies. More
Collins Operations during WWII
Collins maintained combined office and warehouse space at Bridewell Place in London for many years, and in 1917, its new London publishing office at 48 Pall Mall was complemented by printing works in Mayfair that included a state-of-the-art bindery, warehouse, and distribution center. More
Their Eyes Were Watching God
One of the most widely read and acclaimed novels in the canon of African-American literature. More
The Gulag Archipelago
Named “the best nonfiction book of the 20th century” by Time magazine. 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
Eugene Exman and Martin Luther King
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
The Known World
The Pulitzer Prize–winning novel that examines the troubling complexities of slavery. More
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
An American classic called “one of the books of the century” by the New York Public Library. More
1993: Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher publishes The Downing Street Years…
Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher publishes The Downing Street Years, which recounts her eleven and a half years at London’s 10 Downing Street, the official prime minister’s residence, with HarperCollins. More
Social Change: Sex in the 20th Century
In between the two world wars, Harper authors tackled the then taboo subject of sex. More
Brenda Jackson
Of all the books I’ve read, it was a romance story that influenced me the most. More
Periodicals: Harper’s Weekly, Harper’s New Monthly and Harper’s Bazaar
The Harper brothers consistently sought ways to reach more readers with less expensive publications, and in 1850 they revolutionized the concept of the modern literary magazine with Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. More
Letter to Eleanor Roosevelt regarding a new autobiographical book
Harper editor and chairman of the board Cass Canfield sent this letter, dated April 10, 1951, to Eleanor Roosevelt... More
Tess of the d’Urbervilles
Major nineteenth-century English novel that challenged the sexual morals of late Victorian England. More
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel García Márquez drew on his childhood experiences in Colombia when crafting the story of the fictional Buendía family in the classic One Hundred Years of Solitude. More
Social Change: The Harper Brothers and The American Civil War
Literacy became both a predictor of and influence on the American Civil War, being one of the disparities between North and South. More