Mercier Press is a
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 ...
based in
Cork,
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
. It is the longest established independent publishing house in Ireland.
History
The company was founded in 1944 by
Seán Feehan and initially published religious books. In 1946 they published ''This Tremendous Lover'' by Dom Eugene Boylan, which sold over a million copies. At the
Frankfurt Book Fair Feehan secured the translation rights of German books on philosophy and religion that sold well. In the 1960s they launched a successful range of paperbacks on
Irish literature, culture, religion and history.
In the 1960s and 1970s the Mercier
paperback
A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, also known as wrappers, and often held together with adhesive, glue rather than stitch (textile arts), stitches or Staple (fastener), staples. In contrast, ...
books had a distinctive cover style.
[John M. Feehan (1969). ''An Irish Publisher and His World'' (Cork, Mercier Press)] This usually consisted of an illustration, in both pen and ink and brush and ink, and always in two colour. The format and back cover layout remained the same on each book. The artist John Skelton (1925–2009) was Mercier's main cover designer – he worked as an art director and book illustrator before concentrating full-time on painting in 1975.
Feehan remained chairman until his death in 1991, after which
John Spillane took over until 2003, when Clodagh Feehan was appointed manager director.
The company acquired the Anvil Press holding in 2008.
References
{{Authority control
Publishing companies of the Republic of Ireland
Book publishing companies of Ireland