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HarperCollins is a publishing
Publishing

Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information – the activity of making information available for public view....
 company owned by News Corporation
News Corporation

News Corporation , , ) is one of the world's largest Media conglomerate conglomerates. The company's Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Founder is Rupert Murdoch and the President and Chief Operating Officer is Peter Chernin....
. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row
Harper & Row

Harper & Row was a publishing company based in New York City. It was formed through the 1962 merger of Harper & Brothers with Row, Peterson & Company....
, an American company. The worldwide CEO of HarperCollins is Brian Murray. The company publishes under many different imprint
Imprint

In the publishing industry, an imprint can refer to two different things:* It can mean a brand name under which a work is published. One single publishing company may have multiple imprints; the different imprints are used by the publisher to marketing the work to different demographic consumer market segment....
s. The Collins dictionary is an example of an abridged dictionary.

ins was a Scottish
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
 printing company founded by a Presbyterian schoolmaster, William Collins
William Collins (publisher)

William Collins was a Scotland schoolmaster and publisher.Collins was born near Glasgow in 1789. In 1819 he set up a publishing business, initially selling Religion books....
, in Glasgow
Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and List of largest United Kingdom settlements by population in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's Scottish Lowlands....
 in 1819, in partnership with Charles Chalmers, the younger brother of Thomas Chalmers
Thomas Chalmers

Thomas Chalmers , Scotland mathematician and a leader of the Free Church of Scotland , was born at Anstruther in Fife....
, minister of Tron Church, Glasgow.






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Encyclopedia


HarperCollins is a publishing
Publishing

Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information – the activity of making information available for public view....
 company owned by News Corporation
News Corporation

News Corporation , , ) is one of the world's largest Media conglomerate conglomerates. The company's Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Founder is Rupert Murdoch and the President and Chief Operating Officer is Peter Chernin....
. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row
Harper & Row

Harper & Row was a publishing company based in New York City. It was formed through the 1962 merger of Harper & Brothers with Row, Peterson & Company....
, an American company. The worldwide CEO of HarperCollins is Brian Murray. The company publishes under many different imprint
Imprint

In the publishing industry, an imprint can refer to two different things:* It can mean a brand name under which a work is published. One single publishing company may have multiple imprints; the different imprints are used by the publisher to marketing the work to different demographic consumer market segment....
s. The Collins dictionary is an example of an abridged dictionary.

History

Collins was a Scottish
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
 printing company founded by a Presbyterian schoolmaster, William Collins
William Collins (publisher)

William Collins was a Scotland schoolmaster and publisher.Collins was born near Glasgow in 1789. In 1819 he set up a publishing business, initially selling Religion books....
, in Glasgow
Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and List of largest United Kingdom settlements by population in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's Scottish Lowlands....
 in 1819, in partnership with Charles Chalmers, the younger brother of Thomas Chalmers
Thomas Chalmers

Thomas Chalmers , Scotland mathematician and a leader of the Free Church of Scotland , was born at Anstruther in Fife....
, minister of Tron Church, Glasgow. The company had to overcome many early obstacles, and Charles Chalmers left the business in 1825. The company eventually found success in 1841 as a printer of Bible
Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
s, and in 1848 Collins's son Sir William Collins
William Collins (Lord Provost)

Sir William Collins was a famous figure in the temperance movement who served as Glasgow's Lord Provost between 1877 and 1880.He joined his father, William Collins , printing company in 1848 and helped expand the business into publishing....
 developed the firm as a publishing venture, specializing in religious
Religion

A religion is an organized approach to human spirituality which usually encompasses a set of myth, symbols, beliefs and practices, often with a supernatural or transcendence quality, that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power or truth....
 and education
Education

File:Inukshuk Monterrey 1.jpgEducation can be seen as a product or a process and considered in a broad sense or a technical sense. According to philosophy of education George F....
al book
Book

A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of paper, parchment, or other material, usually fastened together to hinge at one side....
s. The company was renamed William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd. in 1868.

Although the early emphasis of the company had been on religion and education, Collins also published more widely. In 1917, with Sir Godfrey Collins in charge, the firm started publishing fiction. William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd. published all but the first six of Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie

Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan, Order of the British Empire , commonly known as Agatha Christie, was an English people crime writer of novels, short stories and Play ....
's novels. Upon purchasing the rights to the works of C.S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis

Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as Jack, was an academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist....
, Fount was established as Collins's religion imprint.

Collins ultimately became a diverse and prolific publisher, publishing a wide range of titles, including many aimed at a juvenile audience. By the late 1970s, Wm Collins & Sons was also responsible for publishing the long-running American Children's Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew

Nancy Drew is an eighteen year-old girl and a fictional character, the heroine of the popular Nancy Drew Mystery Stories book series aimed at the Children's literature-Young-adult fiction audience, and written under the collective pseudonym "Carolyn Keene"....
 series in the United Kingdom. These were firstly published in a series of digest size
Digest size

Digest size is a magazine size, smaller than a conventional size magazine but larger than a standard paperback book, approximately 5? x 8? inches, but can also be 5? x 8? inches and 5? x 7? inches....
 hardbacks akin to their American style. Paperbacks (of a 'normal' rather than 'digest' size) soon followed from Collins' Armada Books imprint, although the series as published in England follow a different numbering system to the accepted American one. Collins's Armada Books imprint also published similar series, such as the Three Investigators
Three Investigators

The Three Investigators was an American adolescence detective book series first published as "Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators." It was created by Robert Arthur, Jr., who believed using a famous figure like movie director Hitchcock would attract attention....
, alongside such British stalwarts as Biggles
Biggles

James Bigglesworth, better known in flying circles as "Biggles", is a fictional character Aviator and adventure novel created by W. E. Johns....
, Billy Bunter
Billy Bunter

William George Bunter , is a fictional character created by Charles Hamilton using the pen name Frank Richards. He featured originally in stories set at Greyfriars School in the boys' weekly magazine The Magnet first published in 1908, and has since appeared in hardback books, TV, stage plays and comic strips....
 and Paddington Bear
Paddington Bear

Paddington Bear is a fictional character in children's literature. He first appeared on 13 October 1958 and was subsequently featured in several books, most recently in 2008, written by Michael Bond and first illustrated by Peggy Fortnum....
, and such well-loved authors as Enid Blyton
Enid Blyton

Enid Mary Blyton was a United Kingdom List of children's literature authors known as both Enid Blyton and Mary Pollock. She was one of the most successful children's storytellers of the twentieth century....
, Malcolm Saville
Malcolm Saville

Leonard Malcolm Saville was an England author born in Hastings, Sussex. He is best known for the Lone Pine series of children's books, many of which are set in Shropshire....
, Diana Pullein-Thompson.

HarperCollins Children's Books has a long tradition in the industry, and has one of the best backlist
Backlist

A backlist is a list of older books available from a publishing, as opposed to titles newly published .Building a strong backlist has traditionally been seen as the way to produce a profitable publishing house, as the most expensive aspects of the publishing process have already been paid for and the only remaining expenses are reproduction...
s in the business. This is largely due to legendary children's book editor Ursula Nordstrom
Ursula Nordstrom

Ursula Nordstrom was publisher and editor in chief of juvenile books at HarperCollins from 1940 to 1973. She also authored the 1972 children's book The Secret Language....
, who was the director of Harper's Department of Books for Boys and Girls from 1940 to 1973. She personally brought out such classics of children's literature as Goodnight Moon
Goodnight Moon

Goodnight Moon is an American Children's literature written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd. It was first published in , and is a highly acclaimed example of a bedtime story....
, Where the Wild Things Are
Where The Wild Things Are

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak is a children's picture book originally published by Harper & Row. The book is about the imaginary adventures of a young boy named Max, who is punished for "making mischief" by being sent to his room without supper....
, The Giving Tree
The Giving Tree

The Giving Tree, first published in 1964, is a children's book written and illustrated by Shel Silverstein. This book has become one of Silverstein's best known titles and has been translated into more than 30 languages....
, Charlotte's Web
Charlotte's Web

Charlotte's Web is an award-winning children's literature by acclaimed American author E. B. White. First published in 1952, it tells the story of a pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte, in which Charlotte writes messages praising Wilbur in her web in order to persuade the farmer not to slaughter him....
, Beverly Cleary
Beverly Cleary

Beverly Cleary is an United States author from Oregon. Educated at colleges in California and Washington, she worked as a librarian before writing children's books....
's series starring Ramona Quimby, Harold and the Purple Crayon
Harold and the Purple Crayon

Harold and the Purple Crayon is a 1955 Children's literature by Crockett Johnson. Johnson's most popular book, it led to a series of books, and inspired many adaptations....
, and scores more. In 1998, Nordtrom's personal correspondence was brought out in Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom (illustrated by Maurice Sendak
Maurice Sendak

Maurice Bernard Sendak is an American writer and illustrator of children's literature who is best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963....
). The writer Charlotte Zolotow
Charlotte Zolotow

Charlotte Zolotow is an United States author, poet, editor, and publisher of many books for children.She has been published by more than 20 different houses ....
, who began her career as a stenographer to Nordstrom, became her protege, and went on to write more than 80 books of her own as well as to edit hundreds of others, including Nordstrom's own book, The Secret Language, and those of Paul Fleischman
Paul Fleischman

Paul Fleischman is an American children's author, and is the son of Newbery Medal winner Sid Fleischman. Fleischman won the 1989 Newbery Medal for his book Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices....
. Zolotow was later made the children's book department head, then went on to become the company's first female vice president. Finally, she had her own imprint, CZ Books.

Today, the HarperCollins children's division publishes bestsellers from Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket

Lemony Snicket is a pseudonym used by author Daniel Handler in his book series A Series of Unfortunate Events, as well as a character in that series....
, Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman

Neil Richard Gaiman is an England author of science fiction and fantasy short stories and novels, graphic novels, comics, and films. His notable works include The Sandman comic series, Stardust , American Gods and Coraline....
, and Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis

Jamie Lee Curtis is an American film actress and author of children's literature. Although she was initially known as a "scream queen" because of her starring roles in many horror films early in her career such as Halloween , The Fog, Prom Night and Terror Train, Curtis has since compiled a body of work that covers many genr...
.

In 1989, Collins was bought by Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch

Keith Rupert Murdoch, Order of Australia, Order of St. Gregory the Great , usually known as Rupert Murdoch, is an Australian-born International Mass media business magnate....
's News Corporation
News Corporation

News Corporation , , ) is one of the world's largest Media conglomerate conglomerates. The company's Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Founder is Rupert Murdoch and the President and Chief Operating Officer is Peter Chernin....
. Joined together with the New York-based publisher Harper & Row
Harper & Row

Harper & Row was a publishing company based in New York City. It was formed through the 1962 merger of Harper & Brothers with Row, Peterson & Company....
 in 1987, they now trade under the name HarperCollins.

In 2003, Ecco, an imprint
Imprint

In the publishing industry, an imprint can refer to two different things:* It can mean a brand name under which a work is published. One single publishing company may have multiple imprints; the different imprints are used by the publisher to marketing the work to different demographic consumer market segment....
 of HarperCollins, published Edith Grossman
Edith Grossman

Edith Grossman is an award-winning United States translator specializing in English versions of Spanish language language books. She is one of the most important translators of Latin American fiction in the past century, translating the works of Mario Vargas Llosa, Nobel laureate Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez, Mayra Montero, Augusto Monterroso, J...
's new translation
Translation

Translation is the hermeneutics of the Meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an Dynamic and formal equivalence text, likewise called a "translation," that communicates the same message in another language....
 of Cervantes
Cervantes

Cervantes refers to:...
's Don Quixote
Don Quixote

, fully titled is an early novel written by Spain author Miguel de Cervantes. Cervantes created a fictional origin for the story based upon a manuscript by the invented Moors historian, Cide Hamete Benengeli....
, to great acclaim.

Collins is still used as an imprint
Imprint

In the publishing industry, an imprint can refer to two different things:* It can mean a brand name under which a work is published. One single publishing company may have multiple imprints; the different imprints are used by the publisher to marketing the work to different demographic consumer market segment....
, chiefly for wildlife
Wildlife

Wildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals, and other organisms. Domesticating wild plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a major impact on the environment, both positive and negative....
 and natural history
Natural history

Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards the observational than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research that is published in magazines than in academic journals....
 books (including the on-going New Naturalist series) and field guide
Field guide

A field guide is a book designed to help the reader identify wildlife or other objects of natural occurrence . It is generally designed to be brought into the 'field' or local area where such objects exist to help distinguish between similar objects....
s, as well as English and bilingual dictionaries based on the Bank of English
Bank of English

The Bank of English is the name of the COBUILD text corpus, a collection of English texts. These are mainly British, but American and Australian data are also included....
, a large corpus
Text corpus

In linguistics, a corpus or text corpus is a large and structured set of texts . They are used to do statistical analysis and hypothesis testing, checking occurrences or validating linguistic rules on a specific universe....
 of contemporary English texts.

In 1999, News Corporation purchased the Hearst Book Group consisting of William Morrow & Company and Avon Books.

Its web site home page describes it as "Home of William Morrow, Avon, Perennial, Rayo, Amistad, Caedmon Audio
Caedmon Audio

Caedmon Audio is a recording label specializing in audio books and other literary content. Formerly Caedmon Records, the name was changed when the label switched to compact disc-only production....
, Regan Books".

In 2007, the company published a new series of books entitled Stranger Than...
Stranger Than...

Stranger Than... is a series of thought-provoking books which fall into the non-fiction and autobiography genres. It was published by HarperCollins in 2007....
, which includes thought-provoking works of non-fiction.

On January 16, 2008, George Michael
George Michael

Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou , best known as George Michael, is a two-time Grammy Award winning, England singer-songwriter, who has had a career as frontman of the duo Wham! as well as a soul music-influenced, solo Pop music musician....
, 44, inked a "no-holds-barred" multimillion-pound autobiography
Autobiography

An autobiography is a biography written by its subject . The term was first used by the poet Robert Southey in 1809 in the English language Periodical publication Quarterly Review, but the form goes back to antiquity....
 contract with HarperCollins, to be sold in book stores in autumn, 2008. Michael's manager Andy Stephens announced that: "George has promised HarperCollins a no-holds-barred biography, and it's certain to be just that. People aren't stupid, they're beginning to notice that the truth is more interesting than the stories the press come up with." The agreement is "one of the biggest ever concluded in UK publishing."

In August 2008, the company has won an auction to publish the autobiography
Autobiography

An autobiography is a biography written by its subject . The term was first used by the poet Robert Southey in 1809 in the English language Periodical publication Quarterly Review, but the form goes back to antiquity....
 of Aerosmith
Aerosmith

Aerosmith is an United States hard rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston, Massachusetts" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band"....
 frontman Steven Tyler
Steven Tyler

Steven Victor Tallarico , better known as Steven Tyler, is an American musician and songwriter. He is best known for his work as the lead singer and primary lyricist of Boston, Massachusetts-based rock band Aerosmith....
.

HarperStudio

HarperCollins seeks to revolutionize the publishing industry with a new, experimental unit "HarperStudio" 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. Robert S. Miller
Robert S. Miller

Robert S. "Steve" Miller was hired as Delphi chairman by General Motors and Delphi to file bankruptcy. Miller was hired to slash costs and close unprofitable operations....
, previously the founding publisher of Hyperion
Hyperion

Hyperion is a Titan in Greek mythology.Hyperion may also refer to:In science:* Hyperion , a moon of SaturnIn technology:...
, the adult books division of the Walt Disney Company, will head the new entity with hopes to update the revenue system. HarperStudio plans on publishing 25 hardcover books in 2009.

Web Approach

In order to both boost book sales and effectively reach the interactive community, HarperCollins offers books for free online. The entire book is not available to view, but potential buyers are able to browse books before they purchase (much like a traditional bookstore) There are some concerns among publishers with this approach because they feel that the online books could be exploited in a "Napster-type" way. In addition, excerpts of books are also available to mobile phone users.

Imprints

HarperCollins has over 30 book imprint
Imprint

In the publishing industry, an imprint can refer to two different things:* It can mean a brand name under which a work is published. One single publishing company may have multiple imprints; the different imprints are used by the publisher to marketing the work to different demographic consumer market segment....
s, most of which are based in the United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
.
  • Angus & Robertson
    Angus & Robertson

    Angus & Robertson is a bookstore chain in Australia. Its first bookstore was opened in 110? Market Street, Sydney by Scotsman David Angus and Arnold Robertson in 1884 in Australia; it sold second-hand books....
  • Amistad
  • Angry Robot
  • Avon
  • Avon Red
  • Avon A
  • Caedmon
  • Collins
  • Collins Education
  • Collins Design
  • Ecco
    Ecco Press

    Ecco Press is a publishing imprint of HarperCollins. It was originally founded by Daniel Halpern as an independent publishing company. Until 1994 the press was the publisher of the literary magazine Antaeus ....
  • Eos
  • Fourth Estate
  • Greenwillow Books
  • HarperBuisness Essentials
  • HarperCollins Children's Audio
  • HarperCollins Children's Books
  • HarperCollins Speakers Bureau
    HarperCollins Speakers Bureau

    The HarperCollins Speakers Bureau is the first lecture agency to be created by a major publishing house. It was launched in May 2005 as a division of HarperCollins Publishers to book paid speaking engagements for the authors HarperCollins, and its sister companies, publish....
  • HarperFestival
  • Harper Paperbacks
  • Harper Perennial
    Harper Perennial

    Harper Perennial is a paperback imprint of the publishing house HarperCollins. Harper Perennial has divisions located in New York, London, Toronto, and Sydney....
  • Harper Perennial Modern Classics
  • HarperPress
  • HarperAudio
  • HarperCollins
  • HarperCollins e-Books
  • HarperElement
  • HarperEntertainment
  • HarperLuxe
  • HarperOne
  • HarperTeen
  • HarperTorch
  • HarperTrophy
  • HarperTrue
  • HarperSport
  • HarperVoyager
  • Joanna Cotler Books
  • Julie Andrews
    Julie Andrews

    Dame Julie Elizabeth Andrews, Order of the British Empire is an award-winning English actress, singer, author and Cultural icon. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Awards honours....
     Collection
  • Katherine Tegen Books
  • Laura Geringer Books
  • Morrow Cookbooks
  • Rayo
  • Voyager
  • Walden Pond Press
  • William Morrow
    William Morrow and Company

    William Morrow and Company is an American publishing company founded by William Morrow in 1926. The company was acquired by Pearson Scott Foresman in 1967, and sold to Hearst Corporation in 1981....
  • Zondervan
    Zondervan

    Zondervan is an international Christian media and publishing company, one of the four businesses founded by Dutch-Americans that have made Grand Rapids, Michigan into the United States "Christian Publishing Capital," alongside Wm....


See also

  • List of largest UK book publishers
    List of largest UK book publishers

    A list of the ten largest book publishers in the UK with some of their principal imprints, ranked by sales value in 2007 according to Nielsen BookScan:...
  • COBUILD
    COBUILD

    COBUILD, an acronym for Collins Birmingham University International Language Database, is a British research facility set up at the University of Birmingham in 1980 and funded by HarperCollins publishers....
     - a research facility set up by Collins in conjunction with the University of Birmingham
    University of Birmingham

    The University of Birmingham is a United Kingdom 'Red brick universities' university located in the city of Birmingham, England. Founded in Edgbaston in 1900 as a successor to Mason Science College, and with origins dating back to the 1825 Birmingham Medical School, it was the first of the so-called Red brick universities to receive a Royal...
    .
  • John Bartholomew and Son Ltd
    John Bartholomew and Son

    John Bartholomew and Son Limited was a long-established map publishing company originally based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Around 1888, the firm also became known as The Edinburgh Geographical Institute....
     - Collins Bartholomew, cartographic division of HarperCollins.
  • Bilingual dictionary
    Bilingual dictionary

    A bilingual dictionary or translation dictionary is a specialized dictionary used to Translation Word or phrases from one language to another....


External links

  • English dictionary and thesaurus (free online lookup)