The John Harvard Library is a series of books published since 1959 by the

Belknap Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...

. The series consists of reprints of historically significant American writings, including historic documents, fiction, poetry, memoirs, and criticism.

History

Founded in 1959, the series bears the name of the first major benefactor of

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. John Harvard (1607-1638) bequeathed half of his estate and his personal library of about 400 books to "New College," which was later named Harvard College in his honor. During the 1960s and 1970s, the John Harvard Library consisted mainly of authoritative reprints of documents from the colonial era of American history. Among the most noted of these are Bernard Bailyn's edition of ''Pamphlets of the American Revolution, 1750-1776''; Anne Bradstreet's collected works; and the ''Life of

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

'' by Mason L. Weems. Editorial contributors to the series included historians John Hope Franklin and C. Vann Woodward, and poet Adrienne Rich. The John Harvard Library series was dormant during the 1980s. Beginning in the late 1990s, the series began publishing works from the late 19th century as well as earlier eras. With the fiftieth anniversary of the series in 2009, Harvard University Press released new paperback editions of four 19th-century works: '' The Red Badge of Courage'', by Stephen Crane; '' Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass''; '' The Common Law,'' by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.; and ''

Uncle Tom's Cabin ''Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly'' is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two Volume (bibliography), volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans ...

'', by

Harriet Beecher Stowe Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe (; June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American author and Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist. She came from the religious Beecher family and wrote the popular novel ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' (185 ...

. The new editions had a uniform paperback design.Harvard University Press Publicity Blog
"The John Harvard Library, back from the grave"
21 January 2009.

References

{{Publishing-stub Book series Harvard University publications