No name is more closely identified with the American publishing industry than that of Harper. From the early days of the Republic to the late twentieth century, that name has attached itself--in one form or another--to one of the nation's major publishing houses. There is scarcely an American who has not read a Harper-produced book or bought a Harper-edited magazine, or who has not been influenced by one of its many publications.

The single person most responsible for the widespread influence of the name Harper was Fletcher Harper, the youngest of the four Harper brothers. It was Fletcher Harper who was the guiding light in the expansion of the company's book business, who took the idea of a monthly and a weekly magazine and made them the dominant publications of the day, who opened and exploited the market for women's magazines, who encouraged editorial diversity within the ranks...