The Bobbs-Merrill Company was an American book

publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

active from 1850 until 1985, and located in

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

Company history

The Bobbs-Merrill Company began in 1850 October 3 when Samuel Merrill bought an Indianapolis bookstore and entered the publishing business. After his death in 1855, his son, Samuel Merrill, Jr. continued the business. Soon after the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

(1861–1865) the business became Merrill, Meigs, and Company, and in 1883 the name changed again to the Bowen-Merrill Company. In 1903 the name became the Bobbs-Merrill Company, after long-time director, William Conrad Bobbs. From 1899 through 1909, the company published 16 novels whose sales placed each of them among the nation's top ten best-selling books of the year for one or more years. The company was plaintiff in ''

Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus ''Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus'', 210 U.S. 339 (1908), was a United States Supreme Court decision concerning the scope of rights accorded owners of a copyright versus owners of a particular copy of a copyrighted work. This was a case of first imp ...

'', 210 U.S. 339 (1908), a case regarded as the origin of copyright's

first-sale doctrine The first-sale doctrine (also sometimes referred to as the "right of first sale" or the "first sale rule") is a legal concept that limits the rights of an intellectual property owner to control resale of products embodying its intellectual prope ...

. Bobbs-Merrill was known for publishing such authors as Keith Ayling,

Erving Goffman Erving Goffman (11 June 1922 – 19 November 1982) was a Canadian-born American sociologist, social psychologist, and writer, considered by some "the most influential American sociologist of the twentieth century". In 2007, '' The Time ...

Richard Halliburton Richard Halliburton (January 9, 1900Declared death in absentia, presumed dead after March 24, 1939) was an American travel writing, travel writer and adventurer who, among numerous journeys, swam the length of the Panama Canal and paid the lowes ...

David Markson David Merrill Markson (December 20, 1927 – June 4, 2010)'The Egyptian Book of the Dead'' (p. 147) * "A kind of verbal fugue" (p. 170) * "A classic tragedy n many ways (p. 171) * "A volume entitled 'Writer's Block'" (p.&nb ...

Walter Dean Myers Walter Dean Myers (born Walter Milton Myers; August 12, 1937 – July 1, 2014) was an American writer of children's books best known for young adult literature. He was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia, but was raised in Harlem, New York City ...

Ayn Rand Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum; , 1905March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and philosopher. She is known for her fiction and for developing a philosophical system which s ...

James Whitcomb Riley James Whitcomb Riley (October 7, 1849 – July 22, 1916) was an American writer, poet, and best-selling author. During his lifetime he was known as the "Hoosier Poet" and "Children's Poet" for his dialect works and his children's poetry. His ...

Mary Roberts Rinehart Mary Roberts Rinehart (August 12, 1876September 22, 1958) was an American writer, often called the American Agatha Christie.Keating, H.R.F., ''The Bedside Companion to Crime''. New York: Mysterious Press, 1989, p. 170. Rinehart published her fi ...

and

Irma S. Rombauer Irma Rombauer (, October 30, 1877 – October 14, 1962) was an American cookbook author, best known for '' The Joy of Cooking'' (1931), one of the world's most widely read cookbooks. Following Irma Rombauer's death, periodic revisions of the boo ...

. Robert E. Johnson, "The Hoosier House", ''

The Indianapolis Star } ''The Indianapolis Star'' (also known as ''IndyStar'') is a morning daily newspaper that began publishing on June 6, 1903, in Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It has been the only major daily paper in the city since 1999, whe ...

'', 2 February 1947, p. 89. Of note, Irma S. Rombauer wrote ''

The Joy of Cooking ''Joy of Cooking'', often known as "''The Joy of Cooking''", is one of the United States' most-published cookbooks. It has been in print continuously since 1936 and has sold more than 20 million copies. It was published privately during 1931 b ...

'', Mary Roberts Rinehart wrote ''

The Circular Staircase ''The Circular Staircase'' is a mystery novel by American writer Mary Roberts Rinehart. The story follows dowager Rachel Innes as she thwarts a series of strange crimes at a summer house she has rented with her niece and nephew. The novel was Ri ...

'' (1908) and Keith Ayling wrote ''The Story of Old Leatherneck of the Flying Tigers'' (1945). Bobbs-Merrill also published the early works of fantasy writer

L. Frank Baum Lyman Frank Baum (; May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) was an American author best known for his children's fantasy books, particularly '' The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', part of a series. In addition to the 14 ''Oz'' books, Baum penned 41 other novels ...

. Bobbs-Merrill was responsible for a long period in its history for publishing the codified state laws of the State of Indiana and of other U.S. states. The firm also published legal and school textbooks, children's books (including ''The Wizard of Oz'' and "27 titles in the

Raggedy Ann Raggedy Ann is a character created by American writer Johnny Gruelle (1880–1938) that appeared in a series of books he wrote and illustrated for young children. Raggedy Ann is a rag doll with red yarn for hair and a triangle nose. The cha ...

series"), and texts in the history of philosophy. In 1944, Bobbs-Merrill commissioned artist

Evelyn Copelman Evelyn may refer to: Places Australia * Evelyn County, New South Wales, a cadastral division * Electoral district of Evelyn, an electoral district in Victoria * Evelyn, Queensland, a locality in the Tablelands Region Canada * Evelyn, On ...

to illustrate a new edition of ''

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' is a 1900 children's novel written by author L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. It is the first novel in the Oz series of books. A Kansas farm girl named Dorothy ends up in the ma ...

'', reprinted as ''The Wizard of Oz'' and ''The New Wizard of Oz''. Copelman's illustrations were more influenced by the 1939 Judy Garland MGM film version of the book than by W. W. Denslow's original 1900 illustrations, although the credits on the book stated otherwise. The year that Copelman's illustrations first appeared, 1949, was also the year of the film's first re-release. In 1959, The Howard W. Sams Company purchased Bobbs-Merrill. When Sams was acquired by Macmillan in 1985, the Bobbs-Merrill name ceased being used, with the exception of continued sales of the Fifth Revision of ''

''. This book continued to be a steady seller for Macmillan. There were also selected College Division titles, such as the Library of Liberal Arts.

Book series

* The American Lake * American Trails Series * Bobbs-Merrill Reprint Series in the Social Sciences * Childhood of Famous Americans Series * Library of Liberal Artsse:Library of liberal arts
worldcat.org. Retrieved 12 April 2023. * Live Dolls (implied series) * Makers of American Tradition * Notable American Trials *

Company history

Book series

See also

References

Archives

Further reading