William Collins, Sons & Co. (often referred to as Collins) was a Scottish printing and publishing company founded by a Presbyterian schoolmaster, William Collins, in Glasgow in 1819, in partnership with Charles Chalmers, the younger brother of Thomas Chalmers, minister of Tron Church, Glasgow. Collins merged with Harper & Row in 1990, forming a new publisher named HarperCollins. The firm published its first dictionary, Greek and English Lexicon, in 1824. The company had to overcome many early obstacles, and Charles Chalmers left the business in 1825. The first series of Collins Illustrated Dictionaries appeared in 1840, including the Sixpenny Pocket Pronouncing Dictionary, which sold approximately 1 million copies. By 1841 Collins was established as a printer of Bibles. In 1846, Collins retired and his son Sir William Collins took over. In 1848, the firm developed as a publishing venture, specialising in religious and educational books. In 1856, the first Collins atlas was published. The company was renamed William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd. in 1868. (The Library of Congress reports W. Collins & Co., or William Collins & Company, Collins & Co., etc., before "sometime in the 1860s", then "William Collins Sons and Co.") More information...
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