Background
Fletcher Harper was born on January 31, 1806, at Newtown, Long Island, New York, United States, the youngest son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Kolyer) Harper and the brother of James, John, and Joseph Wesley Harper.
(Five selected facsimile issues of Harper’s Weekly from th...)
Five selected facsimile issues of Harper’s Weekly from the Civil War. Each sampler may have different issues. Each issue is packed with: • News and Illustrations from the Battlefield • Editorials on Events of the Week • Profiles and Portraits of Military Commanders • Domestic Intelligence • Foreign News • Stories, Poems, and Culture • Political Cartoons • Advertisements
https://www.amazon.com/Civil-War-Sampler-Selected-Facsimile/dp/1557093601?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1557093601
Fletcher Harper was born on January 31, 1806, at Newtown, Long Island, New York, United States, the youngest son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Kolyer) Harper and the brother of James, John, and Joseph Wesley Harper.
When Fletcher was about ten, the family moved to New York City where he attended a school on Roosevelt Street taught by Alexander T- Stewart.
After an apprenticeship with bis brothers Fletcher Harper joined the firm in 1825, completing the quartet later to be known as the house of Harper & Brothers. When in 1839 books were to be selected or the school district libraries of New York state, Fletcher, glimpsing an opportunity for a good stroke of business, went in person to get the order and secured it. His brother James originated Harper’s New Monthly Magazine (1850), but Fletcher managed it as he did also his own creations. He inspected everything that went into those periodicals. In this material "there might be questions of taste, but there must be none of morals".
Although shunning political office, Fletcher exerted through the Weekly a strong political influence. When Nast with his cartoons was castigating unmercifully the “Tweed ring” and the Harper school-book business was in peril, it took a great deal of courage for Fletcher to permit Nast to continue with a free hand. Arrangements for serial stories were made by him in person and, as these at the time were mostly available in England, he made many trips abroad. He most creditably represented the house in its personal relations and gained a wide acquaintance with the principal literary men at home and in Europe. Side by side in death, as they were in life, he now lies with James, John, and Joseph Wesley, in the tomb erected by their descendants at Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn.
(Five selected facsimile issues of Harper’s Weekly from th...)
In Fletcher Harper was concentrated more of the vigor, dash, enterprise and speculative spirit of the house than in any of the others, or perhaps all combined. Unusual administrative abilities are accredited to him, an immense energy, quick and true judgment, and efficient mastery of men.
Quotes from others about the person
" Fletcher Harper was the finest young man be ever met. " - John C. Spencer
In 1825 Harper took as his bride the seventeen-year-old Jane Freelove Lyon, by whom he had two sons.