James Harper (publisher)

James Harper
Engraving of James Harper by Frederick Halpin. The photograph from which this portrait was drawn was taken just 2 days before Harper's death in 1869.
65th Mayor of New York City
In office 1844–1845
Preceded by	Robert Morris
Succeeded by	William F. Havemeyer
Personal details
Born	(1795-04-13)April 13, 1795 Elmhurst, Queens
Died	March 27, 1869(1869-03-27) (aged 73) New York City, New York
Profession	publisher

James Harper (April 13, 1795 – March 27, 1869), was an American publisher and politician in the early-to-mid 19th century. James was the eldest of four sons born to Joseph Henry Harper, (1750-1838), a farmer, carpenter, and storekeeper, and Elizabeth Kolyer, daughter of Jacobus Kolyer (1749-1819) and Jane Miller.

Harper was born in Newtown, New York. As a boy, he read The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, and decided that he would like to pursue a career as a printer because of Franklin's success in the field. An apprenticeship was subsequently arranged with a family friend, Abraham Paul, who was a partner in the New York printshop of Paul & Thomas. James' younger brother John (22 January 1797 – 22 April 1875) began his printing apprenticeship at another printer in the city within two years. In 1817 the two brothers had learned what they could of the profession and felt that they were ready to try their hand at running their own printing business. In 1817 the brothers founded J. & J. Harper in New York at the corner of Dover and Front streets; James was nearly 22 years old and John was 20. The business was supported by a loan from their father to purchase two Rampage printing presses, some typesetting stock, and simple binding equipment.

In 1817 Paul received an order from the prominent New York bookseller Evert Duyckinck for 2,000 copies of an English translation of Seneca's Morals ("Seneca's morals by way of abstract", translated by Roger L'Estrange and first published in England in 1678.) Paul gave the order to his young apprentices, James and John, who did the printing, working with their younger brothers Joseph Wesley (25 December 1801 – 14 February 1870) and Fletcher (31 January 1806 – 29 May 1877) who aided in setting type, and issued it under the imprint J. & J. Harper. This book was followed in 1818 with an edition of John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1818), which they issued under the J. & J. Harper imprint as publisher rather than merely printer.