The Bobbs-Merrill Company was a book

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

located in Indianapolis,

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

Company history

The 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, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by state ...

(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 William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

. 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'', 210 U.S. 339 (1908), a case regarded as the origin of copyright's first-sale doctrine. Bobbs-Merrill was known for publishing such authors as Keith Ayling, Erving Goffman, Richard Halliburton, David Markson, Walter Dean Myers,

Ayn Rand Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;, . Most sources transliterate her given name as either ''Alisa'' or ''Alissa''. , 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and p ...

, James Whitcomb Riley, Mary Roberts Rinehart and Irma S. Rombauer. 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, Indiana, United States. It has been the only major daily paper in the city since 1999, when the '' Indiana ...

'', 2 February 1947, p. 89. Of note, Irma S. Rombauer wrote '' The Joy of Cooking'', 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 Rine ...

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

Evelyn Copelman Evelyn may refer to: Places * Evelyn, London * Evelyn Gardens, a garden square in London * Evelyn, Ontario, Canada * Evelyn, Michigan, United States * Evelyn, Texas, United States * Evelyn, Wirt County, West Virginia, United States * Evely ...

to illustrate a new edition of '' The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', 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 '' The Joy of Cooking''. 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

* Bobbs-Merrill Reprint Series in the Social Sciences * Child Classics Readers * Childhood of Famous Americans Series * The Library of Liberal Arts * Live Dolls series * Raggedy Ann series

Company history

Book series

See also

References

Further reading