The Brothers Harper & Their Authors

Pictures from an Exhibition

KENNETH A. LOHF
 

T
 

j/" If ^HE nineteenth century was a time of adventurous pub¬
lishers. George Palmer Putnam came to New York from
Maine and established the firm of G. P. Putnam & Son in
1866. Daniel Appleton, born in Massachusetts, opened a general
store in New York with a book department, and in 18 31 in part¬
nership with his son, A\'illiam, founded the publishing firm of
D. Appleton & Company. In Philadelphia it was Mathew Carey,
and in Boston, James T. Fields, who established important firms.
However, in some respects Harper & Brothers of New York set
the pace for the others by their imaginative publishing schemes.

From the family farmhouse in Newtown, Long Island, the first
brother, James, migrated to New York in 1810. John joined him
two years later, and they both worked in the city as apprentices
and journeymen printers. In 1817 they printed their first work,
an edition of Seneca's Morals, on two old Ramage presses, set up
in rented quarters at 68 Water Street. Their fortunes quickly pros¬
pered, due in no small measure to the combined energies and busi¬
ness acumen of the four brothers. AA'esley had become a partner
in 1822, and Fletcher in 1825.

The brothers vied, most successfully, with their competitors in
selecting for their lists the writings of the best-known English and
American authors. Through their popular series of inexpensive vol¬
umes, such as the Harper's Family Library and the Franklin Square
Library, they increased the reading public. Harper's Weekly and
Harper's Monthly were magazines that helped to form opinion
and to enlighten the reading public. Harper & Brothers soon
became the largest and most influential publishing house of the