- Before about 1936 Bobbs-Merrill had no consistent method. Some first printings carry the firm's bow-and-arrow device on the copyright page and some a first-edition statement, but many have neither.
- From about 1936 a first printing should state "First Edition" or "First Printing" on the copyright page. One guide places the start of these statements around 1920 but stresses they were not used consistently.
- The imprint helps date older books: the firm traded as the Bowen-Merrill Company from 1883 and took the Bobbs-Merrill name in 1903.
- Book club copies (a general tell for US trade houses; no mark specific to this house was found): a jacket flap with no printed price is the commonest sign, though a printed price does not on its own rule out a club copy. Also look for a small blind stamp, such as a dot or square, pressed into the rear board, and for a book that is smaller and more cheaply made than the trade edition.
Publisher · founded 1850 · Indianapolis
Bobbs-Merrill
Bobbs-Merrill was an Indianapolis publisher active from 1850 to 1985, first publisher of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead and long the home of The Joy of Cooking.
- Editions tracked
- 41
- First editions
- 34
- Books
- 41
- Years
- 1899 to 1984
Bobbs-Merrill is a publisher based in Indianapolis, founded in 1850. We track 41 editions it published between 1899 and 1984, 34 of them first editions across 41 books. How Bobbs-Merrill marked its first editions is set out below, with a checker for the year on your title page.
About Bobbs-Merrill
The Bobbs-Merrill Company was an Indianapolis publisher whose history runs from 1850 to 1985.
It began on 3 October 1850 when Samuel Merrill bought an Indianapolis bookstore and went into publishing. After the Civil War it traded as Merrill, Meigs and Company, became the Bowen-Merrill Company in 1883, and took the name Bobbs-Merrill in 1903 after its long-serving director William Conrad Bobbs. Between 1899 and 1909 it had 16 novels among the year's ten best sellers, and it gave its name to Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus (1908), the Supreme Court case seen as the origin of the first-sale doctrine.
Its authors included James Whitcomb Riley, Mary Roberts Rinehart (The Circular Staircase, 1908), L. Frank Baum, Richard Halliburton and Irma S. Rombauer, whose The Joy of Cooking became a perennial seller. Its best-known American first is Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead (1943), championed by the newly hired editor Archibald Ogden after twelve other publishers had rejected it. The firm also published state law codes, textbooks and the Raggedy Ann books.
The Howard W. Sams Company bought Bobbs-Merrill in 1959. When Macmillan acquired Sams in 1985 the Bobbs-Merrill name was retired, apart from a few continuing titles.
Holding a copy? The first edition checker shows Bobbs-Merrill's practice for the year on your title page.
Identification
How to identify Bobbs-Merrill first editions
Authors
Books
Published by Bobbs-Merrill
Frequently asked questions
How do I identify a Bobbs-Merrill first edition?
- Before about 1936 Bobbs-Merrill had no consistent method. Some first printings carry the firm's bow-and-arrow device on the copyright page and some a first-edition statement, but many have neither. - From about 1936 a first printing should state "First Edition" or "First Printing" on the copyright page. One guide places the start of these statements around 1920 but stresses they were not used co
How many Bobbs-Merrill books does MyVolumes track?
We track 41 editions published by Bobbs-Merrill, 34 of them first editions, across 41 books.
Where these facts come from
- First-Edition - Identification by Publisher (Allen and Patricia Ahearn), ILAB, 2010 (ilab.org)
- First Edition Information by Publisher, Evening Land Books (eveninglandbooks.com)
- Identifying First Editions, A Primer: The Publishers, IOBA (ioba.org)
- Bobbs-Merrill Company, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- The Fountainhead, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- Identifying Book Club Editions, IOBA (ioba.org)
- Identifying Book Club Editions, bookfever.com (bookfever.com)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 17 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.