Call Number:

C0103

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 34 boxes
• 2 folders
• 5.95 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Selected Records of Harper & Brothers, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1909-1960 (inclusive) and 1939-1955 (bulk)

Creator:

Harper & Brothers Publishers

Abstract:

The Selected Papers of Harper & Brothers consist primarily of the editorial and business correspondence of Harper & Brothers, a distinguished publishing firm, between 1909 and 1960.

Harper & Brothers was a distinguished publishing firm in the nineteenth century. The firm was established in 1817 by James and John Harper, and its first venture into publishing was with John Locke's Essay on Human Understanding. Brothers Joseph and Fletcher Harper later joined the business, and the company took on the name Harper & Brothers in 1833. The firm launched Harper's New Monthly Magazine in 1850, Harper's Weekly in 1857, and Harper's Bazar (later Bazaar) in 1867. Harper & Brothers passed out of family hands in 1900.

The Selected Papers of Harper & Brothers consist primarily of editorial and business correspondence, 1909-1960, with the bulk of the material dating from ca. 1939-1955. In addition, there are several folders of correspondence of Cass Canfield in connection with the 1956 Presidential campaign of Adlai E. Stevenson. Among the broad spectrum of American and European writers included are Gwendolyn Brooks, Virginia Cowles, Max Eastman, Andre Maurois, Adlai Stevenson, and Richard Wright. Within each author's correspondence there may be letters to and from other well known literary figures such as Dorothy Canfield Fisher, H.L. Mancken, Van Wyck Brooks, Louis Auchincloss, or Upton Sinclair. Among the few manuscripts in the collection is a holograph manuscripts of a Gwendolyn Brooks poem and proposals for books by various authors.

For a history of Harper & Brothers see The House of Harper (New York: Harper & Bros., 1967) by Eugene Exman.

The collection is arranged alphabetically by author and then chronologically.