Harper & Brothers was an American publishing house. James Harper (1795–1869) and his brother John (1797–1875), printers by training, started their book publishing business J. & J. Harper in New York City in 1817. When their two younger brothers, Joseph Wesley (1801–1870) and Fletcher (1806–1877), joined them in 1833, the company changed its name to Harper & Brothers. It shaped American mass culture with the creation and widespread distribution of Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Harper's Weekly, Harper's Bazar, and Harper's Young People. In 1962, the firm merged with Row, Peterson & Company to become Harper & Row. Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (now News Corp) acquired Harper & Row in 1987 and William Collins, Sons in 1990. The names of these two national publishing houses (Harper & Row in the U.S. and Collins in the U.K.) were combined to create HarperCollins.