Bobbs-Merrill Company
This article includes a improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (March 2012) ) |
Macmillan | |
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Country of origin | United States |
Headquarters location | Indianapolis, Indiana |
The Bobbs-Merrill Company was a book
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 (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.[citation needed]
The company was plaintiff in Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus, 210 U.S. 339 (1908), a case regarded[by whom?] as the origin of copyright's first-sale doctrine.[citation needed]
Bobbs-Merrill was known for publishing such authors as Keith Ayling, Erving Goffman, Richard Halliburton, David Markson, Walter Dean Myers, Ayn Rand, James Whitcomb Riley, Mary Roberts Rinehart and Irma S. Rombauer.
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.[1] The firm also published legal and school textbooks, children's books (including The Wizard of Oz and "27 titles in the Raggedy Ann series"),[2][3] and texts in the history of philosophy.
In 1944, Bobbs-Merrill commissioned artist
In 1959, The
Book series
- The American Lake
- American Trails Series[5]
- Bobbs-Merrill Reprint Series in the Social Sciences[6]
- Childhood of Famous Americans Series[7][8][9][10][11][12]
- Library of Liberal Arts[13]
- Live Dolls (implied series)
- Makers of American Tradition
- Notable American Trials
- Raggedy Ann
See also
References
- ^ a b Robert E. Johnson, "The Hoosier House", The Indianapolis Star, 2 February 1947, p. 89.
- The Indianapolis News, 19 April 1985, p. 20.
- ^ Eric B. Schoch, "Venerable Bobb-Merrill firm to close", The Indianapolis Star, 19 April 1985, p. 49.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-01-27.
- ^ se:American trails series (Bobbs-Merrill Company), worldcat.org. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
- ^ se:Bobbs-Merrill reprint series in the social sciences, worldcat.org. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
- ^ Childhood of Famous Americans Series (Bobbs-Merrill) - Book Series List, publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
- ^ Childhood of Famous Americans Series, thecurriculumchoice.com. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
- ^ Childhood of Famous Americans, exodusbooks.com. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
- ^ Alan Singer, Childhood of Some (In)Famous Americans, dailykos.com. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
- ^ Betsy Bird, Historical Kids: What the HECK is Going On With Nonfiction Bios These Days?, slj.com. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
- ^ Childhood of Famous Americans, librarything.com. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
- ^ se:Library of liberal arts, worldcat.org. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
Archives
Bobbs-Merrill mss., 1885-1957. Lilly Library, Indiana University.
Further reading
- Cady, Edwin H. ed. (1967). The Indiana University Bookman. No. 8: Studies in the Bobbs-Merrill Papers. https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/bookman/issue/view/360
- O'Bar, Jack The Origins and History of the Bobbs-Merrill Company, Occasional Papers, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Publications Office, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (1985).
- O’Bar, J. (1985). The Old Merrill Bookstore: Its Indianapolis Background and History and Its Relationship to the Bobbs-Merrill Company. The Journal of Library History. 20(4), 408–426.