HarperCollins UK
| HarperCollins UK Ltd. | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Limited |
| Seat | London , UK |
| Branch | media |
| Website | www.harpercollins.co.uk |
The British publishing house HarperCollins UK Ltd. is a subsidiary of the US publishing house HarperCollins based in Hammersmith , a borough of London .
The company was founded in Glasgow in 1819 by the Scottish mill workers William Collins and Charles Chalmers. The first publication was The Christian and Civic Economy of Large Towns by theologian Thomas Chalmers . Charles Chalmers left the company in 1826. The first Greek - English - dictionary was published by Collins.
In the 1840s, William Collins obtained a license to print the Bible . Towards the end of the decade, William Collins withdrew from the company and passed the business on to his son William Collins II. The son expanded the program to include works by Shakespeare and religious books; A new process now also made it possible to print inexpensive editions. Atlases were added to the program in the mid-1850s . At that time, the company held the monopoly on scriptures . From 1868 the company traded as William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd. , The Collins family subsequently became sole owners of the company. Branch offices were set up in many overseas countries.
In the first half of the 20th century , Collins acquired the publishing rights for Great Britain from the Walt Disney Company . At this time, the novella The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie was first published.
In 1989, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation acquired the publishing house from the Collins family. In 1990 Collins merged with the American publisher Harper & Row . Since then, the company's UK branch has been known as HarperCollins UK Ltd.
Authors
Over the past two centuries, HarperCollins UK became the first publisher to publish works by now renowned authors.