HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American
publishing company
Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...
that is considered to be one of the "
Big Five" English-language publishers, along with
Penguin Random House
Penguin Random House Limited is a British-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, with the merger of Penguin Books and Random House. Penguin Books was or ...
,
Hachette,
Macmillan, and
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...
. HarperCollins is headquartered in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
and
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
and is a subsidiary of
News Corp
The second and current incarnation of News Corporation, doing business as News Corp, is an American mass media and publishing company headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company was formed on ...
.
The company's name is derived from a combination of the firm's predecessors.
Harper & Brothers
Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship Imprint (trade name), imprint of global publisher HarperCollins, based in New York City. Founded in New York in 1817 by James Harper (publisher), James Harper and his brother John, the compan ...
, founded in 1817 in New York, merged with Row, Peterson & Company in 1962 to form
Harper & Row
Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins, based in New York City. Founded in New York in 1817 by James Harper and his brother John, the company operated as J. & J. Harper until 1833, when ...
, which was acquired by News Corp in 1987. The
Scottish publishing company
William Collins, Sons
William Collins, Sons & Co., often referred to as Collins, was a Scotland, Scottish printing and publishing company founded by a Presbyterianism, Presbyterian schoolmaster, William Collins (publisher), William Collins, in Glasgow in 1819, in par ...
, founded in 1819 in
Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
, was acquired by News Corp in 1987 and merged with Harper & Row to form HarperCollins. The logo for the firm combines the fire from Harper's torch and the water from Collins' fountain.
HarperCollins operates publishing groups in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, India, and China, and publishes under various
imprints.
Brian Murray has served as the company's president and chief executive officer since 2008.
History

The earliest of the publishing firms that comprise HarperCollins was founded in 1817 by
James Harper and his brother John, initially operating under the name J & J Harper. They were later joined by two other brothers, Joseph Wesley and
Fletcher Harper
Fletcher Harper (January 31, 1806 – May 29, 1877) was an American publisher in the early-to-mid 19th century.
Biography
Fletcher Harper was born January 31, 1806, in Newtown, New York. He was the youngest of four sons born to Joseph Henry H ...
, with the firm becoming Harper & Brothers in 1833.
Harper & Brothers originated several notable magazine publications in the nineteenth century that would later be sold or discontinued, including ''
Harper's Magazine
''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the United States. ''Harper's Magazine'' has ...
'', ''
Harper's Weekly
''Harper's Weekly, A Journal of Civilization'' was an American political magazine based in New York City. Published by Harper (publisher), Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916, it featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many su ...
'', ''
Harper's Bazaar
''Harper's Bazaar'' (stylized as ''Harper's BAZAAR'') is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. Bazaar has been published in New York City since November 2, 1867, originally as a weekly publication entitled ''Harper's Bazar''."Corporat ...
'', and ''
Harper's Young People
''Harper's Young People'' was an American children's magazine between 1879 and 1899. The first issue appeared in the fall of 1879. It was published by Harper & Brothers. It was Harper's fourth magazine to be established, after ''Harper's Magazi ...
''.
In 1962, Harper & Brothers merged with Row, Peterson & Company to become
Harper & Row
Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins, based in New York City. Founded in New York in 1817 by James Harper and his brother John, the company operated as J. & J. Harper until 1833, when ...
. The firm acquired
Thomas Y. Crowell Co. and
J. B. Lippincott & Co. in the 1970s, with Crowell and the trade operations of Lippincott merged into Harper & Row in 1980. In 1988, Harper & Row purchased the religious publisher
Zondervan
Zondervan is an international Christian media and publishing company located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States. Zondervan is a founding member of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA). It is a part of HarperCollins, Ha ...
, including subsidiary
Marshall Pickering.
William Collins, Sons was established in
Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
in 1819 by
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
schoolmaster
William Collins. The firm's early emphasis was on religion and education, but diversified over time, making a significant move into fiction in 1917 under the leadership of
Godfrey Collins.
The
Collins Crime Club imprint published many works in the
Golden Age of Detective Fiction
The Golden Age of Detective Fiction was an era of classic murder mystery novels of similar patterns and styles, predominantly in the 1920s and 1930s. While the Golden Age proper is usually taken to refer to works from that period, this type of f ...
, including novels by
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English people, English author known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving ...
and
Rex Stout. The religious imprint Fount would be home to
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer, literary scholar and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Magdalen College, Oxford (1925–1954), and Magdalen ...
. Collins would become the
British Commonwealth
The Commonwealth of Nations, often referred to as the British Commonwealth or simply the Commonwealth, is an international association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire
The B ...
publisher for a number of popular American juvenile series and authors, including
The Hardy Boys,
Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew is a fictional character appearing in several mystery book series, movies, video games, and TV shows as a teenage amateur sleuth. The books are ghostwriter, ghostwritten by a number of authors and published under the collective pseudo ...
, and
Dr. Seuss.
In November 2024, Harper Collins signed a licensing agreement with Microsoft to provide book content for training generative AI models, becoming the first major book publisher to do so.
Mergers and acquisitions
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...
's
News Corporation
The original incarnation of News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp. and also variously known as News Corporation Limited) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media corporation founded and controlled by media mogul Ru ...
acquired Harper & Row in 1987. News Corp had owned a 40% stake in Collins since 1981 and became the sole owner in 1989. News Corp merged the two publishers in 1989, combining the name as HarperCollins and creating a logo with a stylized depiction of flames atop waves derived from the torch logo for Harper & Row and the fountain logo for Collins.
In 1990, HarperCollins sold
J. B. Lippincott & Co., its medical publishing division, to the
Dutch publisher
Wolters Kluwer
Wolters Kluwer N.V. is a Dutch information services company. The company serves legal, business, tax, accounting, finance, audit, risk, compliance, and healthcare markets.
Wolters Kluwer in its current form was founded in 1987 with a merger bet ...
.
In 1996, HarperCollins sold
Scott Foresman
Scott Foresman was an elementary educational publisher for PreK through Grade 6 in all subject areas. Its titles are now owned by Savvas Learning Company which formed from former Pearson Education K12 division. The old Glenview headquarters ...
and HarperCollins College to
Pearson, which merged them with
Addison-Wesley Longman.
News Corporation purchased the Hearst Book Group, consisting of
William Morrow & Company
William Morrow and Company is an American publishing company founded by William Morrow in 1926. The company was acquired by Scott Foresman in 1967, sold to Hearst Corporation in 1981, and sold to News Corporation (now News Corp) in 1999. The c ...
and
Avon Books
Avon Publications is a leading publisher of romance fiction. At Avon's initial stages, it was an American paperback book and comic book publisher. The shift in content occurred in the early 1970s with multiple Avon romance titles reaching and ma ...
, in 1999. These imprints are now published under the rubric of HarperCollins. HarperCollins bought educational publisher
Letts and Lonsdale
Letts and Lonsdale is a British educational publisher of revision guides under the Letts and Lonsdale brand names. The company is a subsidiary of HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is ...
in March 2010.
In 2011, HarperCollins announced they had agreed to acquire the publisher
Thomas Nelson. The purchase was completed on 11 July 2012, with an announcement that Thomas Nelson would operate independently given the position it has in Christian book publishing. Both Thomas Nelson and
Zondervan
Zondervan is an international Christian media and publishing company located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States. Zondervan is a founding member of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA). It is a part of HarperCollins, Ha ...
were then organized as imprints, or "keystone publishing programs," under a new division, HarperCollins Christian Publishing. Key roles in the reorganization were awarded to former Thomas Nelson executives.
In 2012, HarperCollins acquired part of the trade operations of
John Wiley & Son in Canada.
In 2014, HarperCollins acquired Canadian romance publisher
Harlequin Enterprises
Harlequin Enterprises ULC (known simply as Harlequin) is a publisher of romance novel, romance, women's fiction and various other genres under multiple publishing imprints. Founded in Winnipeg, Canada, in 1949, from the 1960s, it grew into the l ...
for C$455 million.
In 2018, HarperCollins acquired the business publisher
Amacom
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the " Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster. HarperCollins is ...
from the
American Management Association.
In 2020, HarperCollins acquired the children's publishers Egmont Books UK, Egmont Poland and Schneiderbuch Germany from the
Egmont Group
The Egmont Group (officially Egmont International Holding A/S; known as Gutenberghus Group until 1992) is a Danish media corporation founded and rooted in Copenhagen, Denmark. The business area of Egmont has traditionally been magazine publishi ...
.
On 29 March 2021, HarperCollins announced that it would acquire HMH Books & Media, the trade publishing division of
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company ( ; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, and reference works. The company is based in the Financial District, Boston, Boston Financial District. It was fo ...
, for $349 million. The deal would allow HMH to pay down its debt and focus on digital education. The deal was completed on 10 May. As of 7 July 2021, HMH's adult books will be published as Mariner Books, while HMH's children's books will be published as Clarion Books.
In 2021, HarperCollins acquired the British publisher Pavilion Books.
In 2022 HarperCollins acquired Cider Mill Press.
Management history
Brian Murray, the current CEO of HarperCollins, succeeded
Jane Friedman
Jane Friedman is the Co-Founder of Open Road Integrated Media, which sells and markets ebooks. She was the President and Chief Executive Officer of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide, one of the world's leading English-language publishers, from 1 ...
who was CEO from 1997 to 2008. Notable management figures include Lisa Sharkey, current senior vice president and director of creative development and Barry Winkleman from 1989 to 1994.
''United States v. Apple Inc.''
In April 2012, the United States Department of Justice filed ''
United States v. Apple Inc.'', naming
Apple
An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...
, HarperCollins, and four other major publishers as defendants. The suit alleged that they conspired to fix prices for
e-books
An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. A ...
, and weaken
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc., doing business as Amazon, is an American multinational technology company engaged in e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. Founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos in Bellevu ...
's position in the market, in violation of
antitrust law
Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust ...
.
In December 2013, a federal judge approved a settlement of the antitrust claims, in which HarperCollins and the other publishers paid into a fund that provided credits to customers who had overpaid for books due to the
price-fixing.
US warehouse closings
On 5 November 2012, HarperCollins announced to employees privately and then later in the day publicly that it was closing its remaining two US warehouses, to merge shipping and warehousing operations with
R. R. Donnelley in Indiana. The Scranton, Pennsylvania, warehouse closed in September 2013 and a Nashville, Tennessee, warehouse, under the name Thomas Nelson (which distributes the religious arm of HarperCollins/Zondervan Books), in the winter of 2013. Several office positions and departments continued to work for HarperCollins in Scranton, but in a new location.
The Scranton warehouse closing eliminated about 200 jobs, and the Nashville warehouse closing eliminated up to 500 jobs; the exact number of distribution employees is unknown.
HarperCollins previously closed two US warehouses, one in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, in 2011 and another in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 2012. "We have taken a long-term, global view of our print distribution and are committed to offering the broadest possible reach for our authors," said HarperCollins Chief Executive Brian Murray, according to''Publishers Weekly''. "We are retooling the traditional distribution model to ensure we can competitively offer the entire HarperCollins catalog to customers regardless of location." Company officials attribute the closings and mergers to the rapidly growing demand for e-book formats and the decline in print purchasing.
Internet Archive lawsuit
In June 2020, HarperCollins was one of a group of publishers who sued the
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
, arguing that its collection of e-books was denying authors and publishers revenue and accusing the library of "willful mass copyright infringement".
Lindsay Lohan lawsuit
In September 2020, HarperCollins sued
Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Dee Lohan ( ; born July 2, 1986) is an American actress, singer, producer, and businesswoman. Born in New York City and raised on Long Island, Lohan was signed to Ford Models at age three. She appeared as a regular on the soap opera ' ...
for entering into a book deal and collecting a $350,000 advance for a tell-all memoir that never materialized.
Anne Frank's betrayal
A 2022 book written by
Rosemary Sullivan, with HarperCollins as main publisher, designated
a Jewish notary as the most likely suspect in
Anne Frank
Annelies Marie Frank (, ; 12 June 1929 – February or March 1945)Research by The Anne Frank House in 2015 revealed that Frank may have died in February 1945 rather than in March, as Dutch authorities had long assumed"New research sheds new li ...
's betrayal. The conclusion was challenged by experts. The notary's family members threatened a lawsuit and started a foundation. The Dutch publisher withdrew the book, but HarperCollins has not taken any definitive decision.
UAW strike
On 10 November 2022, approximately 250 unionized workers at HarperCollins began an indefinite strike.
Local 2110 of the
United Auto Workers
The United Auto Workers (UAW), fully named International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, is an American labor union that represents workers in the United States (including Puerto Rico) and sou ...
(UAW) union includes people in design, marketing, publicity, and sales for the company. The UAW union made the decision to strike after drawn-out negotiations between it and HarperCollins, which resulted in members "working without a contract since April." According to a spokesperson, HarperCollins "has agreed to a number of proposals that the UAW is seeking to include in a new contract" and "is disappointed an agreement has not been reached" but "will continue to negotiate in good faith."
On 21 December 2022 the local put their in-person picketing on "pause" to give strikers an opportunity to spend time with their loved ones. The picketing resumed as scheduled on 3 January 2023.
After three months of negotiations, the union agreed to a new contract with HarperCollins on February 16, 2023.
Under the new terms, the annual starting pay of HarperCollins employees has increased from $45,000 to $47,500 upon ratification, and is set to rise to $50,000 by 2025. Additionally, full-time employees in the union will receive a lump sum payment of $1,500.
The contract also allows workers making less than $60,000 to file for two hours of overtime pay per week without approval from a manager, and puts measures in place to compensate junior-level staff for diversity and inclusion work which is typically unpaid in the industry.
The workers returned to their duties on February 21.
Noted books
HarperCollins maintains the backlist of many of the books originally published by its many merged imprints, in addition to having picked up new authors since the merger. Authors published originally by Harper include
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...
, the
Brontë sisters, and
William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray ( ; 18 July 1811 – 24 December 1863) was an English novelist and illustrator. He is known for his Satire, satirical works, particularly his 1847–1848 novel ''Vanity Fair (novel), Vanity Fair'', a panoramic portra ...
. Authors published originally by Collins include
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...
and
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English people, English author known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving ...
. HarperCollins also acquired the publishing rights to
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''.
From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson ...
's work in 1990 when
Unwin Hyman was bought. Following is a list of some of the more noted books and series published by HarperCollins and their various imprints and merged publishing houses.
* ''
The Hobbit
''The Hobbit, or There and Back Again'' is a children's fantasy novel by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the ...
'',
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''.
From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson ...
(1937) (originally published by
George Allen & Unwin)
* ''
The Lord of the Rings
''The Lord of the Rings'' is an Epic (genre), epic high fantasy novel written by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's book ''The Hobbit'' but eventually d ...
'', J. R. R. Tolkien (1954–1955) (originally published by George Allen & Unwin)
* ''
The Art of Loving'',
Erich Fromm
Erich Seligmann Fromm (; ; March 23, 1900 – March 18, 1980) was a German-American social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was a German Jew who fled the Nazi regime and set ...
(1956)
* ''
Master and Commander'',
Patrick O'Brian
Patrick O'Brian (12 December 1914 – 2 January 2000), born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series. These sea novels are set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and ...
(1970) (adapted into the 2003 film ''
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World'')
* the ''
Leaphorn and Chee books'',
Tony Hillerman
Anthony Grove Hillerman (May 27, 1925 – October 26, 2008) was an American author of detective novels and nonfiction works, best known for his mystery novels featuring Navajo Nation Police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. Several of his w ...
(1970–2006)
* ''
The Silmarillion
''The Silmarillion'' () is a book consisting of a collection of myths and stories in varying styles by the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien. It was edited, partly written, and published posthumously by his son Christopher in 1977, assisted by G ...
'', J. R. R. Tolkien (ed.
Christopher Tolkien
Christopher John Reuel Tolkien (21 November 1924 – 16 January 2020) was an English and naturalised French academic editor and writer. The son of the author and academic J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher edited 24 volumes based on his father's P ...
with Guy Gavriel Kay
Guy Gavriel Kay (born November 7, 1954) is a Canadian writer of fantasy fiction. The majority of his novels take place in fictional settings that resemble real places during real historical periods, such as Constantinople during the reign of Ju ...
) (1977) (originally published by George Allen & Unwin)
* ''
Collins English Dictionary
The ''Collins English Dictionary'' is a printed and online dictionary of English. It is published by HarperCollins in Glasgow. It was first published in 1979.
Corpus
The dictionary uses language research based on the Collins Corpus, which is ...
'' (1979), a major dictionary
*
''Sharpe'' series,
Bernard Cornwell
Bernard Cornwell (born 23 February 1944) is an English author of historical novels and a history of the Waterloo Campaign. He is best known for his long-running series of novels about Napoleonic Wars rifleman Richard Sharpe. He has also writ ...
(1981–2006)
* ''
Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo'', Hayden Herrera (1983), adapted into the 2002 film ''
Frida
Frida, Frieda, or Freida may refer to:
People and fictional characters
*Frida (given name), any of several people or characters
**
*Frieda (surname), any of several people or characters
*Afroditi Frida (born 1964), Greek singer
*Frida (singer) ...
''
* ''
The History of Middle-earth
''The History of Middle-earth'' is a 12-volume series of books published between 1983 and 1996 by George Allen & Unwin in the UK and by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Houghton Mifflin in the US. They collect and analyse much of J. R. R. Tolkien' ...
'' series, J. R. R. Tolkien (ed. Christopher Tolkien) (1983–1996)
* ''
Weaveworld'',
Clive Barker
Clive Barker (born 5 October 1952) is an English writer, filmmaker, and visual artist. He came to prominence in the 1980s with a series of short stories collectively named the ''Books of Blood'', which established him as a leading horror author ...
(1987)
* the
Paladin Poetry Series {{Original research, date=May 2009
Paladin Poetry was a series of paperback books published by Grafton Books (later amalgamated into HarperCollins) under its Paladin imprint, intended to bring modernist and radical poetry before a wider audience. It ...
(1987–1993)
* ''
The Alchemist'',
Paulo Coelho
Paulo Coelho de Souza ( , ; born 24 August 1947) is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist and a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters since 2002. His 1988 novel '' The Alchemist'' became an international best-seller.
Early life
Paulo Coelho ...
, (1988) (first published in Portuguese as ''O Alquimista'', 1988)
* subsequent novels in the ''
Take Back Plenty'' series,
Colin Greenland
Colin Greenland (born 17 May 1954) is a British science fiction writer, whose first story won the second prize in a 1982 Faber & Faber competition. His best-known novel is '' Take Back Plenty'' (1990), winner of both major British science ficti ...
(1990+)
* ''Where There's a Will: Who Inherited What and Why'',
Stephen M. Silverman (1991)
*''
Dorothy Wordsworth's Illustrated Lakeland Journals'' (1991, Diamond Books)
* ''
The Language of the Genes'',
Steve Jones (1993)
* ''
The Gifts of the Body'',
Rebecca Brown (1994)
* ''
Microserfs
''Microserfs'' is an epistolary novel by Douglas Coupland published by HarperCollins in 1995. It first appeared in short story form as the cover article for the January 1994 issue of ''Wired'' magazine and was subsequently expanded to full nove ...
'',
Douglas Coupland
Douglas Coupland (born 30 December 1961) is a Canadian novelist, designer and visual artist. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller '' Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture'', popularized the terms Generation X and McJob. He ...
(1995)
* ''
Thoughts
In their most common sense, the terms thought and thinking refer to cognitive processes that can happen independently of sensory stimulation. Their most paradigmatic forms are judging, reasoning, concept formation, problem solving, and delibe ...
'',
Tionne Watkins (1999)
* ''
Shuka Saptati: Seventy tales of the Parrot'' a new translation from the Sanskrit by
A. N. D. Haksar (2000)
* ''
First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers'',
Loung Ung
Loung Ung (; born 19 November 1970) is a Cambodian-American human-rights activism, activist, lecturer and national spokesperson for the Campaign for a Landmine-Free World from 1997 to 2003. She has served in the same capacity for the Internation ...
(2000)
* ''
Bel Canto
, )—with several similar constructions (, , , pronounced in English as )—is a term with several meanings that relate to Italian singing, and whose definitions have often been misunderstood. ''Bel canto'' was not only seen as a vocal technique ...
'',
Ann Patchett
Ann Patchett (born December 2, 1963) is an American author. She received the 2002 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction in the same year, for her novel ''Bel Canto (novel), Bel Canto''. Patchett's othe ...
(2001)
* ''
A Theory of Relativity'',
Jacquelyn Mitchard
Jacquelyn Mitchard is an American journalist and author. She is the author of the best-selling novel ''The Deep End of the Ocean'', which was the first selection for Oprah's Book Club, on September 17, 1996.Kirkpatrick, David D. - "Oprah Will Cur ...
(2001)
* recent volumes in the ''
Discworld
''Discworld'' is a comic fantasy"Humorous Fantasy" in David Pringle, ed., ''The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy'' (pp.31-33). London, Carlton,2006. book series written by the English author Sir Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a fl ...
'' series by
Terry Pratchett
Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English author, humorist, and Satire, satirist, best known for the ''Discworld'' series of 41 comic fantasy novels published between 1983 and 2015, and for the Apocalyp ...
(books from 2001 to present)
* ''
American Gods
''American Gods'' (2001) is a fantasy novel by British author Neil Gaiman. The novel is a blend of Americana (culture), Americana, fantasy, and various strands of ancient and modern mythology, all centering on the mysterious and taciturn Shad ...
'',
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (; born Neil Richard Gaiman; 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, audio theatre, and screenplays. His works include the comic series ''The Sandman (comic book), The Sandma ...
(2001)
* ''
Boonville'',
Robert Mailer Anderson (2003 reprint)
* ''
Quicksilver'',
Neal Stephenson
Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction. His novels have been categorized as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, and baroque.
Stephenson's work explores mathemati ...
(2003)
* ''
Don Quixote
, the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...
'', a new translation by
Edith Grossman
Edith Marion Grossman (née Dorph; March 22, 1936 – September 4, 2023) was an American literary translator. Known for her work translating Latin American literature, Latin American and Spanish literature to English, she translated the works o ...
(2003,
Ecco)
* ''
Acquainted with the Night'',
Christopher Dewdney
Christopher Dewdney (born May 9, 1951) is a prize-winning Canadian poet and essayist. His poetry reflects his interest in natural history. His book '' Acquainted with the Night, an investigation into darkness'' was nominated for both the Charles T ...
(2004)
* ''
State of fear
''State of Fear'' is a 2004 techno-thriller novel by Michael Crichton, his fourteenth under his own name and twenty-fourth overall, in which eco-terrorism, eco-terrorists plot mass murder to publicize the danger of global warming.
Despite being ...
'', by
Michael Crichton
John Michael Crichton (; October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008) was an American author, screenwriter and filmmaker. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and over a dozen have been adapted into films. His literary works heavil ...
(2004)
* ''
Darkhouse'',
Alex Barclay (2005)
* ''
Anansi Boys
''Anansi Boys'' is a fantasy novel by English writer Neil Gaiman. In the novel, "Mr. Nancy"—an incarnation of the West African trickster god Anansi—dies, leaving twin sons, who in turn discover one another's existence after being separated ...
'', Neil Gaiman (2005)
* ''
The Hot Kid'',
Elmore Leonard
Elmore John Leonard Jr. (October 11, 1925August 20, 2013) was an American novelist, short story author and screenwriter. He was, according to British journalist Anthony Lane, "hailed as one of the best crime writers in the land". His earliest no ...
(2005)
* ''
Freaky Green Eyes
''Freaky Green Eyes'' (2003) is the third young adult fiction novel written by Joyce Carol Oates. The story follows the life of 15-year-old Francesca "Franky" Pierson as she reflects on the events leading to her mother's mysterious disappearance ...
'', by
Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Her novels ''Black ...
(2006)
* ''
Next
NeXT, Inc. (later NeXT Computer, Inc. and NeXT Software, Inc.) was an American technology company headquartered in Redwood City, California that specialized in computer workstations for higher education and business markets, and later develope ...
'',
Michael Crichton
John Michael Crichton (; October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008) was an American author, screenwriter and filmmaker. His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and over a dozen have been adapted into films. His literary works heavil ...
(2006)
* ''
Domicilium Decoratus'',
Kelly Wearstler
Kelly Wearstler (; born November 21, 1967) is an American designer. She founded her own design firm Kelly Wearstler Interior Design (or KWID) in the mid-1990s, serving mainly the hotel industry, and now designs across high-end residential, comme ...
(2006)
* ''
Pretty Little Liars
''Pretty Little Liars'' is an American Mystery fiction, mystery teen drama television series created by I. Marlene King, which aired on Freeform (TV channel), Freeform from June 8, 2010 to June 27, 2017, based on the novel series Pretty Little L ...
'',
Sara Shepard (2006)
* ''
Mister B. Gone'',
Clive Barker
Clive Barker (born 5 October 1952) is an English writer, filmmaker, and visual artist. He came to prominence in the 1980s with a series of short stories collectively named the ''Books of Blood'', which established him as a leading horror author ...
(Harper) (2007)
* ''
Loving Natalee: A Mother's Testament of Hope and Faith'',
Beth Holloway (2007) (about
Natalee Holloway Natalee is a female given name
A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other me ...
)
* ''
The Raw Shark Texts
''The Raw Shark Texts'' is the debut novel by British author Steven Hall (author), Steven Hall, released in 2007. The book was released by Canongate Books in the US and the UK and published by HarperCollins in Canada. The title is a play on "R ...
'',
Steven Hall (2007)
* ''
The Children of Húrin
''The Children of Húrin'' is an epic fantasy novel which forms the completion of a tale by J. R. R. Tolkien. He wrote The Lay of the Children of Húrin, the original version of the story in the late 1910s, revising it several times later, but ...
'', J. R. R. Tolkien (ed. Christopher Tolkien) (2007)
* ''
The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power'',
Jeff Sharlet (2008)
* ''
Going Rogue: An American Life'',
Sarah Palin
Sarah Louise Palin (; Heath; born February 11, 1964) is an American politician, commentator, and author who served as the ninth governor of Alaska from 2006 until her resignation in 2009. She was the 2008 Republican vice presidential nomi ...
(2009)
* ''
Pirate Latitudes'', Michael Crichton (2009) (posthumous publication)
* ''
Wolf Hall
''Wolf Hall'' is a 2009 historical novel by English author Hilary Mantel, published by Fourth Estate, named after the Seymour family's seat of Wolfhall, or Wulfhall, in Wiltshire. Set in the period from 1500 to 1535, ''Wolf Hall'' is a sym ...
'',
Hilary Mantel
Dame Hilary Mary Mantel ( ; born Thompson; 6 July 1952 – 22 September 2022) was a British writer whose work includes historical fiction, personal memoirs and short stories. Her first published novel, ''Every Day Is Mother's Day'', was releas ...
(2009)
* ''
Shattered: The True Story of a Mother's Love, a Husband's Betrayal, and a Cold-Blooded Texas Murder'',
Kathryn Casey
Kathryn Casey is an American writer of mystery novels and non-fiction books. She is best known for writing ''She Wanted It All'', which recounts the case of Celeste Beard, who married an Austin multimillionaire only to convince her lesbian lover ...
(2010)
* ''
Micro'', Michael Crichton (2011) (posthumous publication)
* ''
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana'',
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon (2011)
* ''
A Shot at History: My Obsessive Journey to Olympic Gold'' by
Abhinav Bindra (2011)
* ''
Go Set a Watchman
''Go Set a Watchman'' is a novel by Harper Lee that was published in 2015 by HarperCollins (US) and Heinemann (publisher), Heinemann (UK). Written before her only other published novel, ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' (1960), ''Go Set a Watchman'' was ...
'',
Harper Lee
Nelle Harper Lee (April 28, 1926 – February 19, 2016) was an American novelist whose 1960 novel ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and became a classic of modern American literature. She assisted her close friend Truman ...
(2015)
* ''
The Poppy War'',
R. F. Kuang (2018)
* ''
Inside the Tablighi Jamaat'',
Ziya Us Salam (2020)
Harper children's books
Children's book editor
Ursula Nordstrom was the director of Harper's Department of Books for Boys and Girls from 1940 to 1973, overseeing the publication of classics such as ''
Goodnight Moon
''Goodnight Moon'' is an American Children's literature, children's book written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd. It was published on September 3, 1947, and is a highly acclaimed bedtime story.
This book is the second in ...
'', ''
Where the Wild Things Are'', ''
The Giving Tree'', ''
Charlotte's Web
''Charlotte's Web'' is a book of children's literature by American author E. B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams. It was published on October 15, 1952, by Harper & Brothers. It tells the story of a livestock pig named Wilbur and his frie ...
'',
Beverly Cleary Beverly or Beverley may refer to:
Places Australia
* Beverley, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide
* Beverley, Western Australia, a town
* Shire of Beverley, Western Australia
Canada
* Beverly, Alberta, a town that amalgamated with the City ...
's series starring
Ramona Quimby, and ''
Harold and the Purple Crayon
''Harold and the Purple Crayon'' is a 1955 Children's literature, children's picture book written and illustrated by Crockett Johnson. Published by HarperCollins Publishers, it is Johnson's most popular book, and has led to a series of other rel ...
''. They were the publishing home of
Maurice Sendak
Maurice Bernard Sendak (; June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012) was an American author and illustrator of children's books. Born to Polish-Jewish parents, his childhood was impacted by the death of many of his family members during the Holocaust. Send ...
,
Shel Silverstein
Sheldon Allan Silverstein (; September 25, 1930 – May 10, 1999) was an American writer, cartoonist, songwriter, and musician. Born and raised in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, Silverstein briefly attended university before being drafted into ...
, and
Margaret Wise Brown
Margaret Wise Brown (May 23, 1910 – November 13, 1952) was an American writer of children's books, including ''Goodnight Moon'' (1947) and ''The Runaway Bunny'' (1942), both illustrated by Clement Hurd. She has been called "the laureate of the ...
. In 1998, Nordstrom's personal correspondence was published as ''Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom'' (illustrated by
Maurice Sendak
Maurice Bernard Sendak (; June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012) was an American author and illustrator of children's books. Born to Polish-Jewish parents, his childhood was impacted by the death of many of his family members during the Holocaust. Send ...
), edited by
Charlotte Zolotow. Zolotow began her career as a
stenographer to Nordstrom, became her ''protégé'', and went on to write more than 80 books and edit hundreds of others, including Nordstrom's ''The Secret Language'' and the works of
Paul Fleischman
Paul Fleischman (born 1952) is an American writer of children's books. He and his father Sid Fleischman have both won the Newbery Medal from the American Library Association recognizing the year's "most distinguished contribution to American lit ...
. Zolotow later became head of the children's books department, and went on to become the company's first female vice president.
''
The Chronicles of Narnia
''The Chronicles of Narnia'' is a series of seven portal fantasy novels by British author C. S. Lewis. Illustrated by Pauline Baynes and originally published between 1950 and 1956, the series is set in the fictional realm of Narnia (wor ...
'' series by
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer, literary scholar and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Magdalen College, Oxford (1925–1954), and Magdalen ...
, while not originally published by a merged imprint of HarperCollins, was acquired by the publisher.
HarperCollins has published these notable children's books:
* the
I Can Read!
I Can Read! is a line of beginning Basal reader, reading books published by HarperCollins. The series is rated by level and is widely used to teach children to read English. The first book in the series was Else Holmelund Minarik's ''Little Bear (b ...
series for beginning readers, including the ''
Amelia Bedelia'' (
Peggy Parish), ''
Frog and Toad
''Frog and Toad'' is a series of easy-reader Children's literature, children's books, written and illustrated by American author Arnold Lobel.
Each book contains five simple, often humorous, sometimes poignant, short stories chronicling the ex ...
'' (
Arnold Lobel) and ''
Little Bear'' (
Else Holmelund Minarik
Else Holmelund Minarik (née Holmelund; September 13, 1920 – July 12, 2012) was a Danish-born American author of more than 40 children's books. She was most commonly associated with her ''Little Bear (book), Little Bear'' series of children's b ...
and
Maurice Sendak
Maurice Bernard Sendak (; June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012) was an American author and illustrator of children's books. Born to Polish-Jewish parents, his childhood was impacted by the death of many of his family members during the Holocaust. Send ...
) books
* the
''Warriors'' series (2003–present)
* the ''
Pretty Little Liars
''Pretty Little Liars'' is an American Mystery fiction, mystery teen drama television series created by I. Marlene King, which aired on Freeform (TV channel), Freeform from June 8, 2010 to June 27, 2017, based on the novel series Pretty Little L ...
'' series, by
Sara Shepard (2007–present)
* ''
A Series of Unfortunate Events
''A Series of Unfortunate Events'' is a series of thirteen Children's literature, children's novels written by American author Daniel Handler under the pen name Lemony Snicket. The books follow the turbulent lives of orphaned siblings List of A ...
'',
Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American author Daniel Handler and a fictional character of his creation. Handler has published various children's books under the name, including ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'', which has sold over 60 millio ...
* ''
A Taste of Blackberries'',
Doris Buchanan Smith (1973)
*
''Skulduggery Pleasant'' series,
Derek Landy
Derek Landy (born 23 October 1974) is an Irish author and screenwriter, known for the ''Skulduggery Pleasant'' and ''Demon Road'' book series. Since 2018, he has also written numerous comic book series at Marvel Comics.
Career
Landy has written ...
* ''
Bart Simpson's Guide to Life'' (1993)
* international rights to
Dr. Seuss (inherited from Collins; 1950s–present)
* ''
Love That Dog'',
Sharon Creech
Sharon Creech (born July 29, 1945) is an American writer of children's novels. She was the first American winner of the Carnegie Medal (literary award), Carnegie Medal for British children's books and the first person to win both the American ...
(2001)
* ''
The Giving Tree'',
Shel Silverstein
Sheldon Allan Silverstein (; September 25, 1930 – May 10, 1999) was an American writer, cartoonist, songwriter, and musician. Born and raised in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, Silverstein briefly attended university before being drafted into ...
(1964)
* ''
Where the Sidewalk Ends (book)
''Where the Sidewalk Ends'' is a 1974 children's poetry collection written and illustrated by Shel Silverstein. It was published by Harper and Row Publishers. The book's poems address common childhood concerns and also present fanciful stories ...
'', Shel Silverstein (1974)
* ''
The Saga of Darren Shan
''The Saga of Darren Shan'' (known as ''Cirque Du Freak: The Saga of Darren Shan'' in the United States) is a young adult 12-part book series written by Darren O'Shaughnessy about the struggle of Darren Shan, a boy who has become involved in ...
'',
Darren Shan
Darren O'Shaughnessy (; born 2 July 1972) is an Irish writer and novelist. He is best known for his young adult fiction series '' The Saga of Darren Shan'', '' The Demonata'', and '' Zom-B'', published under the pseudonym Darren Shan. The forme ...
(2000–2004)
** ''
Cirque du Freak
''Cirque du Freak'' (also known as ''Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare'') is the first of twelve novels in '' The Saga of Darren Shan'' by Darren Shan (real name Darren O'Shaugnessy), published in January 2000.
A feature film adaptation o ...
''
manga
are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...
series, Darren Shan and
Takahiro Arai (2006–2009)
* ''
The Dangerous Book for Boys'',
Conn and Hal Iggulden (2006)
* ''
Sabriel
''Sabriel'' is a fantasy novel by Garth Nix, first published in 1995. It is the first in his Old Kingdom (book series), Old Kingdom series, followed by ''Lirael'', ''Abhorsen'', ''Clariel'', ''Old Kingdom (book series)#Goldenhand, Goldenhand,'' ...
'',
Garth Nix
Garth Richard Nix (born 19 July 1963) is an Australian writer who specialises in children's and young adult fantasy novels, notably the ''The Old Kingdom, Old Kingdom'', ''The Seventh Tower, Seventh Tower'' and ''The Keys to the Kingdom, Keys t ...
(1995)
* ''
A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears'',
Jules Feiffer
Jules Ralph Feiffer ( ; January 26, 1929 – January 17, 2025) was an American cartoonist and author, who at one time was considered the most widely read satirist in the country. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for Pulitzer Prize for Editori ...
(1995)
* ''
Mister God, This Is Anna'', Fynn (pseudonym of
Sydney Hopkins) (1974)
* the ''
Little House on the Prairie
The ''Little House on the Prairie'' books comprise a series of American children's novels written by Laura Ingalls Wilder (b. Laura Elizabeth Ingalls). The stories are based on her childhood and adulthood in the Midwestern United States, Americ ...
'' series,
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder (February 7, 1867 – February 10, 1957) was an American writer, teacher, and journalist. She is best known as the author of the children's book series ''Little House on the Prairie'', published between 1932 and 1 ...
(1932–2006)
* ''
The Wolves in the Walls'',
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (; born Neil Richard Gaiman; 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, audio theatre, and screenplays. His works include the comic series ''The Sandman (comic book), The Sandma ...
and
Dave McKean
David McKean (born 29 December 1963) is an England, English artist. His work incorporates drawing, painting, photography, collage, found objects, digital art, and sculpture. McKean has illustrated works by authors such as S. F. Said, S.F. Said, ...
(2003)
* ''
Monster
A monster is a type of imaginary or fictional creature found in literature, folklore, mythology, fiction and religion. They are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive, with a strange or grotesque appearance that causes Anxiety, terror ...
'',
Walter Dean Myers
Walter Dean Myers (born Walter Milton Myers; August 12, 1937 – July 1, 2014) was an American writer of children's books best known for young adult literature. He was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia, but was raised in Harlem, New York City ...
(1999)
* ''
Coraline
''Coraline'' () is a 2002 British dark fantasy horror children's novella by author Neil Gaiman. Gaiman started writing ''Coraline'' in 1990, and it was published in 2002 by Bloomsbury and HarperCollins. It was awarded the 2003 Hugo Award for ...
'',
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (; born Neil Richard Gaiman; 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, audio theatre, and screenplays. His works include the comic series ''The Sandman (comic book), The Sandma ...
and
Dave McKean
David McKean (born 29 December 1963) is an England, English artist. His work incorporates drawing, painting, photography, collage, found objects, digital art, and sculpture. McKean has illustrated works by authors such as S. F. Said, S.F. Said, ...
(2002)
* ''
Surviving the Applewhites'',
Stephanie S. Tolan (2002)
* ''
The Gollywhopper Games'' (2008)
* ''
Ruby Redfort
Lauren Margot Peachy Child (born Helen Child; 29 November 1965) is an English children's author and illustrator. She is best known for the Charlie and Lola picture book series. Her influences include E. H. Shepard, Quentin Blake, Carl Larsson ...
'' (series),
Lauren Child
Lauren Margot Peachy Child (born Helen Child; 29 November 1965) is an English children's author and illustrator. She is best known for the Charlie and Lola picture book series. Her influences include E. H. Shepard, Quentin Blake, Carl Lar ...
(2011)
* ''
Divergent'',
Veronica Roth (2011)
* ''
Survivors'' series (2012–2019)
* ''
The School for Good and Evil
''The School for Good and Evil'' is a series of books by Soman Chainani based on fairy tales. The first novel in the series was published on May 14, 2013. The series is set in a fictional widespread location known as the Endless Woods.
The ...
'',
Soman Chainani (2013–present)
* ''
Splat the Cat'', Rob Scotton (2007–present)
* ''
The Secret Zoo'', Bryan Chick (2010–2023)
* ''
Charlotte's Web
''Charlotte's Web'' is a book of children's literature by American author E. B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams. It was published on October 15, 1952, by Harper & Brothers. It tells the story of a livestock pig named Wilbur and his frie ...
'',
E. B. White (2015)
* ''Little Penguin'', Tadgh Bentley (2015–present)
* ''
Elinor Wonders Why
''Elinor Wonders Why'' is an animated television series created by Jorge Cham and Daniel Whiteson. The series premiered on September 7, 2020 from PBS Kids. The series is animated using Toon Boom Harmony.
Overview
The exploration-themed show en ...
'' adapted books (2021–present)
Imprints
HarperCollins has more than 120 book
imprints, most of which are based in the United States. Collins still exists as an imprint, chiefly for wildlife and natural history books, field guides, as well as for English and bilingual dictionaries based on the
Bank of English, a large
corpus
Corpus (plural ''corpora'') is Latin for "body". It may refer to:
Linguistics
* Text corpus, in linguistics, a large and structured set of texts
* Speech corpus, in linguistics, a large set of speech audio files
* Corpus linguistics, a branch of ...
of contemporary English texts.
HarperCollins' imprints, including current and defunct imprints prior to various mergers, include:
Current
Adult
Children
* HarperCollins Children's Books
** Harper Festival, a publisher of novelty books founded in 1992
** HarperTeen
** HarperTeen Impulse (digital imprint)
** HarperTrophy
** Harper Fire
** Amistad
** Balzer + Bray
** Collins
** Clarion Books
** Greenwillow Books
**
Heartdrum
Heartdrum is a publishing Imprint (trade name), imprint of the English-language publishing house HarperCollins that specializes in children's books by North American Indigenous authors.
Audience
Heartdrum was launched in 2019 and is an imprint ...
** HMH Books for Young Readers
** Katherine Tegen Books
**
Walden Pond Press
** Blink Young Adult
*Farshore (formerly
Egmont UK)
**Electric Monkey
Christian
*
Thomas Nelson
** Grupo Nelson
** Nelson Books
** Tommy Nelson
** W Publishing Group
*
Zondervan
Zondervan is an international Christian media and publishing company located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States. Zondervan is a founding member of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA). It is a part of HarperCollins, Ha ...
** Editorial Vida
** Zonderkidz
**Zondervan Academic
**Zondervan Reflective
Audio
* HarperAudio
*
Caedmon, audiobooks
* HarperCollins Children's Audio
Bureau
*
HarperCollins Speakers Bureau
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the " Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster. HarperCollins ...
Digital
* HarperCollins e-Books
* HarperCollins Productions
Digital first
* One More Chapter
Film and television
* 3000 Pictures (joint venture with
Sony Pictures
Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio conglomerate that produces, acquires, and distributes filmed entertainment (theatrical motion pictures, television programs, and rec ...
)
Defunct
Business strategy
Web approach
In 2008, HarperCollins launched a browsing feature on its website where customers can read selected excerpts from books before purchasing, on both desktop and mobile browsers.
This functionality gave the publisher's website the ability to compete with physical bookstores, in which customers can typically look at the book itself, and
Amazon's use of excerpts ("teasers") for online book purchasers.
At the beginning of October 2013, the company announced a partnership with online digital library
Scribd
Scribd Inc. (pronounced ) operates three primary platforms: Scribd, Everand, and SlideShare. Scribd is a digital document library that hosts over 195 million documents. Everand is a digital content subscription service offering a wide selectio ...
. The official statement revealed that the "majority" of the HarperCollins US and HarperCollins Christian catalogs will be available in Scribd's subscription service. Chantal Restivo-Alessi, chief digital officer at HarperCollins, explained to the media that the deal represents the first time that the publisher has released such a large portion of its catalog.
HarperCollins formerly operated ''authonomy'', an online community of authors, from 2008 to 2015. The website offered an alternative to the traditional "
slush pile" approach for handling unsolicited manuscripts sent to a publisher with little chance of being reviewed. Using authonomy, authors could submit their work for
peer review
Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (:wiktionary:peer#Etymology 2, peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the ...
and ranking by other members; the five highest-ranked manuscripts each month would be read by HarperCollins editors for potential publication. The site was closed after authors "learned to game the system" to earn top-five rankings, and fewer authonomy titles were selected to be published.
From 2009 to 2010, HarperCollins operated
BookArmy, a social networking site.
Speakers Bureau
The HarperCollins Speakers Bureau (also known as HCSB) is the first lecture agency to be created by a major publishing house.
It was launched in May 2005
[McGee, Celia]
"A Way to Give Authors a Lucrative Second Platform."
''The New York Times'', 4 June 2007. Retrieved 23 February 2009. as a division of HarperCollins to book paid speaking engagements for the authors HarperCollins, and its sister companies, publish. Andrea Rosen is the director.
Some of the notable authors the HCSB represents include
Carol Alt,
Dennis Lehane,
Gregory Maguire
Gregory Maguire (born June 9, 1954) is an American novelist. He is the author of ''Wicked (Maguire novel), Wicked'', ''Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister'', and several dozen other novels for adults and children. Many of Maguire's adult novels are ...
,
Danny Meyer,
Mehmet Oz
Mehmet Cengiz Oz ( ; ; born June 11, 1960), also known as Dr. Oz (), is an American television presenter, physician, author, educator and government official serving as the 17th administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services sinc ...
,
Sidney Poitier,
Ted Sorensen
Theodore Chaikin Sorensen (May 8, 1928 – October 31, 2010) was an American lawyer, writer, and presidential adviser. He was a speechwriter for President John F. Kennedy, as well as one of his closest advisers. President Kennedy once called hi ...
, and
Kate White
Kate White is an American author, former magazine editor, and speaker. From 1998 to 2012, she served as the editor-in-chief of ''Cosmopolitan (magazine), Cosmopolitan'' and left to concentrate full time on writing suspense fiction. She is the ...
.
HarperAcademic
HarperAcademicis the academic marketing department of HarperCollins. HarperAcademic provides instructors with the latest in adult titles for course adoption at the high school and college level, as well as titles for first-year and other common read programs at academic institutions. They also attend several major academic conferences to showcase new titles for academic professionals.
HarperAcademic Calling a podcast produced by the department, provides interviews with authors of noteworthy titles.
HarperStudio
HarperCollins announced HarperStudio in 2008 as a "new, experimental unit... that will eliminate the traditional profit distributions to authors. The long-established author advances and bookseller returns has not proved to be very profitable to either the author or the publisher. The approach HarperStudio is now taking is to offer little or no advance, but instead to split the profit 50% (rather than the industry standard 15%), with the author." The division was headed by Bob Miller, previously the founding publisher of
Hyperion, the adult books division of the
Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...
. HarperStudio folded in March 2010 after Miller left for
Workman Publishing.
HarperCollins India
HarperCollins Publishers India Pvt Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of HarperCollins Worldwide. It came into being in 1992.
Controversies
''If I Did It''
''If I Did It'' was a book written by
O. J. Simpson
Orenthal James Simpson (July 9, 1947 – April 10, 2024), also known by his nickname "the Juice", was an American professional American football, football player, actor, and media personality who played in the National Football League (NFL) ...
about his alleged murder of
Nicole Simpson
Nicole Brown Simpson (née Brown; May 19, 1959 – June 12, 1994) was the second wife of American professional American football, football player, actor, and media personality O. J. Simpson. She Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman ...
, which was planned as a HarperCollins title, and which attracted considerable controversy and a legal battle over publication.
Ben Collins
In August 2010, the company became embroiled in a legal battle with the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
after a book it was due to publish, later identified as the forthcoming autobiography of racing driver
Ben Collins, revealed the identity of
The Stig
The Stig is a character from the British motoring television show '' Top Gear''. Created by former ''Top Gear'' presenter Jeremy Clarkson and producer Andy Wilman, the character is a play on the anonymity of racing drivers' full-face helmets, w ...
from ''
Top Gear''. In his blog, ''Top Gear'' executive producer
Andy Wilman accused HarperCollins of "hoping to cash in" on the BBC's
intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...
, describing the publishers as "a bunch of chancers". On 1 September, the BBC's request for an injunction preventing the book from being published was turned down, effectively confirming the book's revelation that "The Stig" was indeed Collins.
''East and West''
The company became embroiled in controversy in 1998 after it was revealed it blocked
Chris Patten
Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes (; born 12 May 1944), is a British politician who was the Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1992, and the 28th and last Governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997. He was made a lif ...
's (the last British governor of Hong Kong) book ''
East and West'' after a direct intervention by the then-CEO of
News International
News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a List of newspapers in the United Kingdom, British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media Conglomerate (c ...
,
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian - American retired business magnate, investor, and media mogul. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of List of assets owned by News Corp, local, national, a ...
. It was later revealed by Stuart Proffitt, the editor who had worked on the book for HarperCollins, that this intervention was designed to appease the Chinese authorities—of whom the book was critical—as Murdoch intended to extend his business empire into China and did not wish to cause problems there by allowing the book to be published.
Murdoch's intervention caused both Proffitt's resignation from the company and outrage from the international media apart from affiliated companies. Chris Patten later published with
Macmillan Publishing
Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd in the United Kingdom and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC in the United States) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be on ...
, initially in America, where it carried the logo "The book that Rupert Murdoch refused to publish". After a successful legal campaign against HarperCollins, Patten went on to publish the book in the UK in September 1998 after accepting a sum of £500,000 and receiving an apology from Rupert Murdoch.
Ebooks
In March 2011, HarperCollins announced it would distribute
ebooks
An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. A ...
to libraries with
DRM enabled to delete the item after being lent 26 times. HarperCollins has drawn criticism of this plan, in particular its likening of ebooks, which are purely digital, to traditional paperback trade books, which wear over time.
Omission of Israel from an atlas
In December 2014, ''
The Tablet
''The Tablet'' is a Catholic Church, Catholic international weekly review published in London. Brendan Walsh, previously literary editor and then acting editor, was appointed editor in July 2017.
History
''The Tablet'' was launched in 1840 by ...
'' reported that an atlas published for Middle East schools did not label Israel on a map of the Middle East. A representative for
Collins Bartholomew, a subsidiary of HarperCollins that specializes in maps, explained that including Israel would have been "unacceptable" to their customers in the
Arab states of the Persian Gulf
The Arab states of the Persian Gulf, also known as the Gulf Arab states (), refers to a group of Arab states bordering the Persian Gulf. There are seven member states of the Arab League in the region: Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Saudi ...
and the omission was in line with "local preferences". The company later apologized and destroyed all the books.
''What the (Bleep) Just Happened?''
HarperCollins announced in January 2017 that they would discontinue selling copies of
Monica Crowley
Monica Elizabeth Crowley (born September 19, 1968) is the Chief of Protocol of the United States since May 2025 in the Second presidency of Donald Trump, Second Trump administration. Crowley formerly served as the United States Department of the ...
's book ''
What the (Bleep) Just Happened?'', due to allegations of plagiarism.
The 2012 book had lifted passages from a number of sources including columns, news articles and think tank reports.
HarperCollins said in a statement to
CNN
Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...
's ''
KFile'', "The book which has reached the end of its natural sales cycle, will no longer be offered for purchase until such time as the author has the opportunity to source and revise the material."
See also
*
Books in the United States
As of 2018, several firms in the United States rank among the world's biggest publishers of books in terms of revenue: Cengage Learning, HarperCollins, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw Hill Education, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, and Wiley.
...
*
Books in the United Kingdom
*
COBUILD – a research facility set up by Collins in conjunction with the
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...
* ''
Harper's Magazine
''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the United States. ''Harper's Magazine'' has ...
'' – a separately owned magazine, although begun by the original Harper & Brothers
*
List of largest UK book publishers
This is a list of largest UK trade book publishers, with some of their principal imprint (trade name), imprints, ranked by sales value.
List
According to Nielsen BookScan as of 2010 the largest book publishers of the United Kingdom were:
# P ...
References
External links
*
Greenwillow Books records, 1974–2014*
{{Authority control
Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom
Book publishing companies of the United States
American subsidiaries of foreign companies
British subsidiaries of foreign companies
1989 establishments in New York City
Book publishing companies based in New York (state)
1989 establishments in England
Book publishing companies based in London
News Corporation subsidiaries
Publishing companies based in New York City
Publishing companies based in London
Publishing companies established in 1989