Harper & Brothers was the New York publisher founded in 1817 by James and John Harper, original publisher of the Little House books, which became Harper & Row in 1962 and HarperCollins in 1990.
Harper & Brothers is a publisher based in New York City, founded in 1817. We track 111 editions it published between 1838 and 1971, 56 of them first editions across 106 books. How Harper & Brothers marked its first editions is set out below, with a checker for the year on your title page.
About Harper & Brothers
Harper & Brothers was a New York publishing house founded in 1817 by the brothers James and John Harper, and it is the direct ancestor of today's HarperCollins.
The firm began as J. & J. Harper. Their brothers Joseph and Fletcher joined in the mid-1820s, and the business took the name Harper & Brothers in 1833. Its authors over the following century included Herman Melville and Mark Twain, and in the 1920s the editor Eugene Saxton brought in Edna St. Vincent Millay and Thornton Wilder.
Harper was the original publisher of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books in the 1930s and 1940s, including Little House on the Prairie (1935), and in 1953 it reissued the series in a uniform edition illustrated by Garth Williams.
In 1962 Harper & Brothers merged with Row, Peterson & Company to form Harper & Row. News Corporation bought Harper & Row in 1987 and in 1990 merged it with the British firm William Collins, Sons to form HarperCollins. Since 2007 the Harper name has been used again as an imprint within HarperCollins. The firm's archive is held at the Harry Ransom Center.
Holding a copy? The first edition checker shows Harper & Brothers's practice for the year on your title page.
Identification
How to identify Harper & Brothers first editions
What to look for
Harper printed a two-letter code on the copyright page from 1912 until 1968. The first letter gives the month of printing and the second the year, so a code such as "D-Y" means April 1949.
The month letters run A (January) to M (December) with J skipped, so I is September and K is October.
The year letters start at M for 1912 and, after running through the alphabet, begin again at M in 1937, so the same code can stand for two different years. Other evidence in the book, such as the title-page date, has to tell you which.
Check the code against the publication date. Dealers selling Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor (1949) describe "D-Y" (April 1949) as the first printing, while a copy coded "F-Y" (June 1949) is offered as an early but not first printing.
¶Spot the first: Illustrations: 32 line drawings by Chesterton, against six inserted plates by W. E. Mears in the New York issue (London issue rather than the American issue)
How do I identify a Harper & Brothers first edition?
Harper printed a two-letter code on the copyright page from 1912 until 1968. The first letter gives the month of printing and the second the year, so a code such as "D-Y" means April 1949. The month letters run A (January) to M (December) with J skipped, so I is September and K is October. The year letters start at M for 1912 and, after running through the alphabet, begin again at M in 1937, so th
How many Harper & Brothers books does MyVolumes track?
We track 111 editions published by Harper & Brothers, 56 of them first editions, across 106 books.
