Harper (publisher)#Harper & Row

{{short description|American publishing company}}

{{Use American English|date=January 2023}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2023}}

{{Infobox publisher

| name = Harper Books

| image = Harper and Brothers publisher mark 1895.jpg

| caption = Coat of arms of Harper, with quote from Plato's Republic{{efn|{{langx|grc|{{sqc|ΛΑΜΠΑΔΙΑ ἜΧΟΝΤΕΣ ΔΙΑΔΏΣΟΥΣΙΝ ἈΛΛΉΛΟΙΣ}}}} (LAMPADIA ECHONTES DIADOSOUSIN ALLELOIS; roughly, "Bearing torches, they will pass them to another")}}

| parent = HarperCollins

| owner = News Corp

| status =

| founded = {{start date and age|1817|3|6}} (as J. & J. Harper)

| founder = James Harper
John Harper

| successor =

| country =

| headquarters = New York City, U.S.

| distribution =

| keypeople =

| publications =

| topics =

| genre =

| imprints =

| revenue =

| numemployees =

| nasdaq =

| url =

}}

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 it changed its name to Harper & Brothers, reflecting the inclusion of Joseph and Fletcher Harper. Harper began publishing Harper's Magazine, Harper's Weekly, and other periodicals beginning in the 1850s. From 1962 to 1990, the company was known as Harper & Row after its merger with Row, Peterson & Company. Harper & Row was purchased in 1987 by News Corporation and combined with William Collins, Sons, its United Kingdom counterpart, in 1990 to form HarperCollins, although the Harper name has been used in its place since 2007.

History

File:Fletcher, James, John, and Joseph Harper (ca. 1860).jpg, {{Circa|1860}}. Left to right: Fletcher, James, John, and Joseph]]

=J. & J. Harper (1817–1833)=

James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishing business, J. & J. Harper, in New York City in 1817. Their two brothers, Joseph Wesley and Fletcher, joined them in the mid-1820s.

=Harper & Brothers (1833–1962)=

{{details|Category: Harper & Brothers books}}

The company changed its name to "Harper & Brothers" in 1833. The headquarters of the publishing house was located at 331 Pearl Street, facing Franklin Square in Lower Manhattan near the present-day Manhattan approach to the Brooklyn Bridge.

Harper & Brothers began publishing Harper's New Monthly Magazine in New York City, in 1850. The brothers also published Harper's Weekly (starting in New York City in June 1857), Harper's Bazar (starting in New York City on November 2, 1867), and Harper's Young People (starting in New York City in 1879).

George B. M. Harvey became president of Harper's on November 16, 1899.{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1899/11/17/archives/harper-bros-reorganize-gbm-harvey-editor-and-proprietor-of-the.html |title=HARPER & BROS. REORGANIZE.; G.B.M. Harvey, Editor and Proprietor of The North American Review, Elected President of the Firm. |work=The New York Times |date=November 17, 1899 |access-date=August 26, 2016 |archive-date=August 13, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230813132847/https://www.nytimes.com/1899/11/17/archives/harper-bros-reorganize-gbm-harvey-editor-and-proprietor-of-the.html |url-status=live }}

Harper's New Monthly Magazine ultimately became Harper's Magazine, now published by the Harper's Magazine Foundation. Harper's Weekly was absorbed by The Independent (New York; later Boston) in 1916, which merged with The Outlook in 1928. Harper's Bazar was sold to William Randolph Hearst in 1913, became Harper's Bazaar, and is now simply Bazaar, published by the Hearst Corporation.

In 1924, Cass Canfield joined Harper & Brothers and held various executive positions until he died in 1986.{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/03/28/obituaries/cass-canfield-a-titan-of-publishing-is-dead-at-88.html |title=CASS CANFIELD, A TITAN OF PUBLISHING, IS DEAD AT 88 |date=March 28, 1986 |work=The New York Times |access-date=August 26, 2016 |archive-date=May 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230528123940/https://www.nytimes.com/1986/03/28/obituaries/cass-canfield-a-titan-of-publishing-is-dead-at-88.html |url-status=live }} In 1925, Eugene F. Saxton joined the company as an editor, and he was responsible for publishing many well-known authors, including Edna St. Vincent Millay and Thornton Wilder.{{cite web |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1943/06/27/85107789.html?pageNumber=32 |title=The New York Times: Sunday June 27, 1943 |work=The New York Times |access-date=August 26, 2016}} In 1935, Edward Aswell moved to Harper & Brothers as an assistant editor of general books and eventually became editor-in-chief. Aswell persuaded Thomas Wolfe to leave Scribner's, and, after Wolfe's death, edited the posthumous novels, The Web and the Rock, You Can't Go Home Again, and The Hills Beyond.{{cite web |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1958/11/06/83421786.html?pageNumber=37 |title=The New York Times: Thursday November 6, 1958 |work=The New York Times |access-date=August 26, 2016 |archive-date=August 16, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230816140835/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1958/11/06/83421786.html?pageNumber=37 |url-status=live }}

=Harper & Row (1962–1990) {{Anchor|Harper and Row}}=

{{details|Category: Harper & Row books}}

File:Harper Brother's Illuminated Bible.jpg

In 1962, Harper & Brothers merged with Row, Peterson & Company to become Harper & Row. Harper's religion publishing moved to San Francisco and became Harper San Francisco, which is now HarperOne, in 1977. Harper & Row acquired Thomas Y. Crowell Co. and J. B. Lippincott & Co. in the 1970s; Crowell and the trade operations of Lippincott were merged into Harper & Row in 1980.{{cite web |last=Mitgang |first=Herbert |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1980/03/27/archives/harper-absorbs-lippincott-crowell-some-will-join-harper-three-new.html |title=Harper Absorbs Lippincott & Crowell |publisher=Select.nytimes.com |date=March 27, 1980 |access-date=April 28, 2013 |archive-date=May 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230528084439/https://www.nytimes.com/1980/03/27/archives/harper-absorbs-lippincott-crowell-some-will-join-harper-three-new.html |url-status=live }} In 1988, Harper & Row purchased the religious publisher Zondervan, including subsidiary Marshall Pickering.{{cite news |last=McDowell |first=Edwin |title=Harper & Row to Acquire Religious Books Publisher |work=The New York Times |access-date=January 20, 2018 |date=July 14, 1988 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/14/business/the-media-business-harper-row-to-acquire-religious-books-publisher.html |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=May 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230528083233/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/14/business/the-media-business-harper-row-to-acquire-religious-books-publisher.html |url-status=live }}

=HarperCollins (1990–present)=

{{main|HarperCollins}}

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, now News Corp, acquired Harper & Row in 1987, and William Collins, Sons in 1990. The names of these two national publishing houses, Harper & Row in the United States and Collins in the United Kingdom, were combined along with the Harper's torch icon and Collins' fountain icon to create HarperCollins.{{cite news |last=Cohen |first=Roger |title=Birth of a Global Book Giant |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/06/11/business/the-media-business-birth-of-a-global-book-giant.html |work=The New York Times |date=June 11, 1990 |access-date=November 26, 2019 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=July 9, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180709162556/https://www.nytimes.com/1990/06/11/business/the-media-business-birth-of-a-global-book-giant.html |url-status=live }} The company has since expanded its international reach with further acquisitions of formerly independent publishers. The Harper imprint began being used in place of HarperCollins in 2007.

Paperbacks

After the purchase of Harper & Row by News Corporation, HarperCollins launched a new mass-market paperback line to complement its existing trade paperback Perennial imprint. It was known as Harper Paperbacks from 1990 to 2000, HarperTorch from 2000 to 2006, and Harper from 2007 to the present.

Authors and illustrators (selected)

{{div col|colwidth=22em}}

{{div col end}}

See also

Notes

{{notelist}}

References

{{Reflist}}

Further reading

  • {{citation |author=Jacob Abbott |author-link=Jacob Abbott |title=The Harper Establishment |publisher=Harper & Brothers |location=New York |date=1855 |oclc=6798043 |ol=14010983M}}
  • Barnes, James J. "Edward Lytton Bulwer and the Publishing Firm of Harper & Brothers". American Literature (1966): 35–48. {{jstor|2923628}}.
  • D'Amato, Martina. [http://visualizingnyc.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Harper_DAmato.pdf {{"'}}The Harper Establishment'; or, How a New York Publishing Giant Was Made"], Visualizing 19th Century New York.
  • Eugene Exman. The brothers Harper: a unique publishing partnership and its impact upon the cultural life of America from 1817 to 1853 (Harper & Row, 1965)
  • {{citation |title=The House of Harper |author=Eugene Exman |publisher=Harper & Row |location=New York |date=1967 |oclc=586430 |ol=25416327M}}
  • {{citation |author=J. Henry Harper |title=The House of Harper: a century of publishing in Franklin Square |publisher=Harper |location=New York |date=1912 |ol=7136715M}}{{self-published inline|certain=yes|date=November 2017}}
  • Mellman, John A. (2017), [http://www.publishinghistory.com/harper-torchbooks-history-and-assessment.html "The Harper Torchbooks Series: A History and Personal Assessment"], publishinghistory.com.

=Primary sources=

  • {{citation |publisher=Harper & Brothers |title=Harper & Brothers' List of Publications |date=1859 |location=New York |ol=7104166M}}