Dear Librarians,
This year marks the 200th anniversary of HarperCollins Publishers. J. and J. Harper, Printers was a start-up founded in 1817 by two tenacious twenty-something brothers from Long Island. At that time, New York City had a population of 120,000, the average city employee made about 75 cents per day, and James Monroe had just been inaugurated as the fifth American President.
Even in its nascency, the firm knew how important libraries were to the community. In 1825, the Harper brothers rented part of their office space to the newly formed Mercantile Library, a forerunner of the amazing public library system that we Americans are so blessed to enjoy today. This was just the start of the outstanding relationship HarperCollins has enjoyed with libraries, now entering its third century.
As we celebrate this milestone anniversary, we wanted to take the opportunity to recognize and thank you – the nation's librarians – who have been, and continue to be, our critical partners in bringing together our authors and their readers.
I invite you to learn more about the history of HarperCollins by visiting our anniversary website, www.hc.com/200, and following HarperCollins on social media. We have many exciting initiatives planned throughout the remainder of our anniversary year, starting with the launch of our website today. We also have a few special things planned just for librarians, including collateral, contests and more. If you haven’t already heard from us about our anniversary initiatives, I encourage you to reach out. Click here to help us celebrate and learn more about getting involved.
Here's to the next hundred years and beyond!
Josh Marwell
President of Sales