John Harris

John Harris (1756–1846) published children's books in England from the end of the 18th century to the mid-19th century, creating innovative and popular new styles. Apprenticed to Thomas Evans he found employment for a short time with John Murray before joining John Newbery's publishing firm.

Harris took over Newbery's firm which had passed first to his son Francis Newbery, then to his nephew and nephew's wife. Harris had managed the firm for Elizabeth Newbery and in 1801 bought it from her, renaming in his own name. Not all of his work was well-received and appreciated. His book of tongue twisters, published in 1820, was denigrated as "degrading trash" and the colourful illustrations he included in his publications were called by one reviewer "gaudy glare". The books, however, continued to sell well and be popular.

Children's literature scholar Jack Zipes explains that because of traditional Puritan laws against fairy tales, English publishers had to import fairy stories of French and German origin. Harris published a volume of fairy tales in 1802, Mother Bunch's Fairy Tales, and in 1820 the firm published The Court of Oberon; or, The Temple of Fairie which children's literature and folklore scholar Iona Opie calls "an important volume" . Containing stories from Charles Perrault, Madame d'Aulnoy and The Arabian Nights, it was published the same year Taylor translated the Brothers Grimm's compilation of tales, Kinder- und Hausmärchen (illustrated by George Cruikshank).

The firm published instructional book as well, although titles such as Pug's Tour Through Europe; or, The Travell'd Monkey "written by Himself" (1824), with verse on the lower part of page and hand-coloured illustrations, though educational, was equally a satiric vision of "the typical gentleman's 'grand tour' of the Continent, a narrative that packages … British imperialism and cultural superiority together with satirical observations…"

In the 1820s the firm turned to hand-coloured woodcuts which achieved a more colourful look than the previously produced monochromatic copperplate illustrations. In 1824, Harris turned the firm over to his son and in 1843 it was bought by Griffith and Farran. John Harris died three years later.