Bobbs-Merrill Company

The Bobbs-Merrill Company

Company type	Private
Industry	Book publishing
Predecessor	Merrill, Meigs, and Company; Bowen-Merrill Company
Founded	October 3, 1850 (1850-10-03) in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
Founder	Samuel Merrill
Defunct	1985 (1985)
Fate	Acquired by The Howard W. Sams Company in 1959; imprint discontinued after acquisition by Macmillan Publishers in 1985
Successor	Imprint discontinued; select titles continued under Macmillan Publishers
Headquarters	Indianapolis , United States
Area served	United States
Key people	Samuel Merrill Jr., William Conrad Bobbs
Products	Books (legal and educational textbooks, children's literature, philosophical works, state statutes)
Owner	The Howard W. Sams Company (from 1959), later Macmillan Publishers (from 1985)
Parent	The Howard W. Sams Company (1959–1985), Macmillan Publishers (1985–)

The Bobbs-Merrill Company was a book publishing firm headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, that operated from 1850 until its closure in 1985.

Company history

Established on October 3, 1850, by Samuel Merrill, an enterprising founder, Bobbs-Merrill initially operated as a bookstore before branching into the publishing industry. Following Merrill’s death in 1855, his son, Samuel Merrill Jr., assumed control of the enterprise. The company experienced multiple rebrandings: after the Civil War, it was known as Merrill, Meigs, and Company; in 1883, it became Bowen-Merrill Company; and in 1903 adopted the name Bobbs-Merrill Company, honoring director William Conrad Bobbs. From 1899 through 1909, the publisher released sixteen novels that each year ranked among the top ten bestsellers nationwide.

Significantly, Bobbs-Merrill was involved in shaping copyright law as the plaintiff in the landmark case Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus (1908), which established the precedent of the first-sale doctrine.

The firm’s portfolio encompassed a broad array of offerings including legal and educational textbooks, children’s literature such as The Wizard of Oz and twenty-seven titles within the Raggedy Ann collection, as well as philosophical works and officially codified state statutes for Indiana and other jurisdictions. Prominent authors published by Bobbs-Merrill included Keith Ayling, Erving Goffman, Richard Halliburton, David Markson, Walter Dean Myers, Ayn Rand, James Whitcomb Riley, Mary Roberts Rinehart, and Irma S. Rombauer. Among these, Rinehart authored The Circular Staircase (1908), while Rombauer produced the enduring culinary classic The Joy of Cooking. The company also issued early publications by fantasy writer L. Frank Baum.

In 1944, Bobbs-Merrill commissioned illustrator Evelyn Copelman to create artwork for a new edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, aligning its imagery with the popular 1939 MGM film adaptation to enhance commercial appeal.

The corporate ownership shifted when The Howard W. Sams Company acquired Bobbs-Merrill in 1959. Subsequently, after Macmillan Publishers purchased Sams in 1985, the Bobbs-Merrill imprint was discontinued except for continued distribution of the Fifth Revision of The Joy of Cooking and select titles from its College Division such as the Library of Liberal Arts series. This transition marked the conclusion of Bobbs-Merrill’s independent operations while retaining key revenue-generating publications within Macmillan’s international portfolio.

Book series

• The American Lake
• American Trails Series
• Bobbs-Merrill Reprint Series in the Social Sciences
• Childhood of Famous Americans Series
• Library of Liberal Arts
• Live Dolls (implied series)
• Makers of American Tradition
• Notable American Trials
• Raggedy Ann

See also

• Angus Cameron (publisher)

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.
• O'Bar, Jack. The Origins and History of the Bobbs-Merrill Company, Occasional Papers, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois (1985).
• O’Bar, J. (1985). The Old Merrill Bookstore: Its Indianapolis Background and Relationship to Bobbs-Merrill Company. The Journal of Library History. 20(4), 408–426.