George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans, born in 1819, led a turbulent life that often broke with Victorian social norms. More
The Bell Jar
A haunting classic that chronicles the breakdown of a brilliant, talented, successful young woman. More
B. A. Paris
I write because it’s something I love doing. More
1923: The Harper Prize Novel is introduced as a competition to discover unknown authors…
The Harper Prize Novel is introduced as a competition to discover unknown authors, and receives more than 700 submissions in its first year. The first winner, The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilson, is later awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel (1924). More
Middlemarch
Ranked number one in a 2015 BBC poll of the 100 greatest British novels. More
Meg Cabot
I write because of readers like Diana Moreno, who handed me a letter recently telling me that, as the firstborn daughter of immigrants, she felt lonely and shy when she arrived here in 2004 . . . until she found my books. More
Jacqueline Winspear
I read because I love language, the way the joining of words and the rhythm of a story can make me laugh, cry, or take me out of my world or immerse me in the lives of others. 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
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
A child’s perspective as a refugee during the rise of Nazism; now a modern classic. More
Lucy Hughes-Hallett
One life is not enough. More
The Golden Notebook
A feminist landmark and the best-known work by Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing. More
Emma Freedman
Why I read: To escape the everyday in worlds that wildly creative people invite us into, and to expand the mind. More
Social Change: Sex in the 20th Century
In between the two world wars, Harper authors tackled the then taboo subject of sex. More
Lauren Oliver
I read so that I can learn and I write so that I can explore. More
Bridge to Terabithia
Newbery Medal–winning novel; a true modern classic and touchstone of children’s literature. More
Virgin River
Debut title in the series that took Robyn Carr to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. More
Caroline Overington
I read to observe the world as it is seen by others; to walk the planet as strangers do; to breathe a story that is not my own. More
Rita Williams-Garcia
My childhood reading helped to build me from the inside. More
Francesca Lia Block
It has been said that only two things helped survivors of the Holocaust: 1) massage and 2) telling their stories. More
Brenda Jackson
Of all the books I’ve read, it was a romance story that influenced me the most. 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
Red Scarf Girl
Searing memoir set during the height of the Cultural Revolution in China. More
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Pulitzer Prize winner; considered one of the classic works of creative nonfiction of the late twentieth century. More
Bel Canto
Patchett’s critically acclaimed novel that won the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction. More
1972: Avon launches the historical romance genre…
Avon launches the historical romance genre when it publishes Kathleen Woodiwiss’s The Flame and the Flower, a historical romance with a strong female lead and sexual situations that go a step beyond the tame romances of earlier eras. More
Goodnight Moon
Every child’s must-have bedtime classic; beloved by generations of readers and listeners. More
1932: Laura Ingalls Wilder publishes Little House in the Big Woods…
Virginia Kirkus, inaugural department editor of Harper’s Department of Books for Boys and Girls, launches Laura Ingalls Wilder with the publication of Little House in the Big Woods. More