A GREAT PUBLISHING HOUSE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15002, 25 May 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

A GREAT PUBLISHING HOUSE.

According .to "The House of Harper: A Century of Publishing in Franklin Square," by J. H. Harper, published by Harper Brothers, it was in March, 1817, that the firm of Harper was founded. The first book which bore the imprint of the brothers was " Seneca's Morals," but they soon turned their attention to other works, and we read that:—

"When the Waverley Novels made their appearance, the Harpers were amongst the earliest to bring • them out in the United States. A messenger would board the incoming packet before she was made fast to the wharf, to secure, as soon as possible, the early sheets. Every compositor was then put on the work, and every press stood ready for the printing. In this way " Peveril of the Peak" was published in the incredibly short space of twenty-one hours." That surely was a record for nearly a hundred years ao;o, and we question if tc-day, with all the modern improvements that have taken place, it could be far surpassed. Later we find the firm bringing out one of G. P. P. James's stories, and in the early forties they issued Bulwer's novels at twenty-five cents each, so that the origin of cheap editions is not quite so recent as many .suppose. In 1644 they published "Martin Chuzzlewit" in seventeen numbers, and the sales were chiefly made through newsboys, then a new institution. This was the beginning of a loner connection with Dickens. In 1850 "Harper's Magazine" was started, and before very long it could boast a circulation of 130.000 copies per month. Serial novels by such writers as Lever, Bulwer, Dickens, and Thackeray appeared in its pages. The first number of Harper's Weekly was issued in January, 1857, and it, too, was a success from the start, steadily climbing up to one hundred and twenty thousand circulation.