HarperCollins Publishers L.L.C was founded in 1989 with its headquarters located in New York City, like most of its competitors. William Collins, Sons (referred to as Collins) was founded in 1819 by William Collins in Glasgow, Scotland. They found their success lied with printing Bibles and in 1848, they began specializing in religious and educational books. Although by the early 20th century they began publishing a variety of genres such as mystery, crime and children's books for example. In the 1950s, they went on to publish famous authors such as Dr.Seuss and Racey Helps. Their imprint in America published alongside their British office that went on to print staples such as Paddington Bear, Billy Bunter and Three Investigators. As their company began to grow, Collins launched more imprints such as Fontana Lions and Fontana Young Lions and New Naturalist.
The multinational mass media corporation News Corporation acquired a 40% stake of the company in 1981 and in 1983, Collins acquired the publishing operations of Granada, a media conglomerate. Six years later, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporations became he sole owner and merged with US publisher Harper & Row to form HarperCollins. Collins went on to become an imprint of the company. Over the next decade, the company sold many of its imprints and divisions to other publishers and purchased new ones in their place.
In 2012, the United Stated Department of Justice filed the case U.S. v. Apple Inc., naming Apple, HarperCollins and four other major publishers as defendants. The case was filed due to a suspicion of violation of the antitrust law. Allegedly, these companies conspired to fix prices for e-books, weakening Amazon's position in the market. Over a year later, a federal judge approved a settlement of the 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 fixed price system.
Their revenue as of 2017 is valued at about $1.57 billion.
Bestselling Books published by HarperCollins
1. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Hobbit is set within Tolkien's fictional universe and follows the quest of home-loving Bilbo Baggins, the titular hobbit, to win a share of the treasure guarded by Smaug the dragon. Bilbo's journey takes him from light-hearted, rural surroundings into more sinister territory.
2. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Alchemist follows the journey of an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago. Believing a recurring dream to be prophetic, he asks a Gypsy fortune teller in the nearby town about its meaning. The woman interprets the dream as a prophecy telling the boy that he will discover a treasure at the Egyptian pyramids.
3. Dox Quixote by Edith Grossman
The plot revolves around the adventures of a noble (hidalgo) from La Mancha named Alonso Quixano, who reads so many chivalric romances that he loses his mind and decides to become a knight-errant (caballero andante) to revive chivalry and serve his nation, under the name Don Quixote de la Mancha
4. Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard
It tells the story of four girls - Hanna, Aria, Emily and Spencer - after the disappearance of their clique leader, Alison who mysteriously disappears during a sleepover with the girls at the end of their seventh grade school year after a fight with Spencer.
5. A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
After the three young Baudelaire siblings are left orphaned by a fire in their mansion, they are carted off to live with their distant relative, Count Olaf. Unfortunately, Olaf is a cruel, scheming man only after the inheritance that the eldest Baudelaire, Violet, is set to receive. The children escape and find shelter with their quirky Uncle Monty and, subsequently, their phobic Aunt Josephine, but Olaf is never far behind.
6. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
The children's story starts with a tree that loves a boy. The boy visits the treeevery day to play. He gathers the tree's leaves, climbs up and swings from her branches, and eats her apples. The boy and the tree play hide-and-seek together, and when the boy is tired, he falls asleep against her trunk.
7. Divergent by Veronica Roth
Tris Prior lives in a futuristic world in which society is divided into five factions. As each person enters adulthood, he or she must choose a faction and commit to it for life. Tris chooses Dauntless -- those who pursue bravery above all else. However, her initiation leads to the discovery that she is a Divergent and will never be able to fit into just one faction. Warned that she must conceal her status, Tris uncovers a looming war which threatens everyone she loves.
8. Beastly by Alex Flinn
A modern retelling of "Beauty and the Beast" from the point of view of the Beast, a vain Manhattan private school student who is turned into a monster and must find true love before he can return to his human form.
9. If You Give A Mouse A Cookie by Laura Numeroff
A boy gives a cookie to a mouse. The mouse asks for a glass of milk. He then requests a straw (to drink the milk), a mirror (to avoid a milk mustache), nail scissors (to trim his hair in the mirror), and a broom (to sweep up his hair trimmings). ... The circle is complete when he wants a cookie to go with it.
10. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Based in Maycomb, a small town in Alabama in the 1930s where Scout lives with her elder brother Jem, and her father, Atticus, who is widowed. ... Scout and her brother get to learn some crucial lessons about judging others through the character of Boo, the cryptic and solitary neighbor.
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