Harper Collins Publishers

HarperCollins Publishers is one of the world's leading English-language publishers with headquarters in New York. The company is part of News America Publishing Group, a division of News Corporation. The house of Mark Twain, The Bront sisters, Thackeray, Dickens, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Maurice Sendak, HarperCollins was founded in New York City in 1817 by the brothers James and John Harper. The worldwide book group, which was formed following News Corporation's acquisition of the British publisher William Collins in January 1990, has significant publishing interests in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australia.

Today, HarperCollins is a broad-based publisher with strengths in literary and commercial fiction, business books, children's books, cookbooks, general interest, religious and spiritual books. In 1999 the company had 43 books on The New York Times bestseller list. Recent bestsellers include Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible; Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende; The Rock Says... by The Rock with Joe Layden; Moment of Truth by Lisa Scottoline; The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger; Body For Life by Bill Phillips; Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution by Robert C. Atkins and Joining by Johanna Lindsey.

The ongoing trend of rising profits in the last few years positioned HarperCollins for further growth in 1999, leading to the acquisition of The Ecco Press, one of the world's most prestigious literary publishers, in February 1999. In July 1999 the company purchased the Hearst Book Group, consisting of William Morrow & Company and Avon Books, making HarperCollins the second largest English-language publisher in the U.S. In addition, in October 1999 HarperCollins purchased Amistad Press, one of the country's preeminent publishers of works by and about African Americans.