James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishing business, J.

In 1924, Cass Canfield joined Harper & Brothers and held various executive positions until he died in 1986.

[2] In 1925, Eugene F. Saxton joined the company as an editor, and he was responsible for publishing many well-known authors, including Edna St. Vincent Millay and Thornton Wilder.

[3] In 1935, Edward Aswell moved to Harper & Brothers as an assistant editor of general books and eventually became editor-in-chief.

[5] In 1988, Harper & Row purchased the religious publisher Zondervan, including subsidiary Marshall Pickering.

The names of these two national publishing houses, Harper & Row in the United States and Collins in the United Kingdom, were combined along with the Harper's torch icon and Collins' fountain icon to create HarperCollins.