author
Rufus Merrill
1803–1891
A 19th-century New Hampshire publisher who helped put small, affordable books into young readers’ hands. His lively chapbooks on animals, birds, geography, Bible stories, and everyday knowledge reflect an early effort to make learning feel inviting.
1 Audiobook
Stories About Indians
by Rufus Merrill
About the author
Born in Conway, New Hampshire, in 1803 and later based in Concord, Rufus Merrill worked as both a publisher and bookseller. By the mid-1830s he was part of the Concord firm Roby, Kimball and Merrill, which published Bibles, testaments, and school books, and after that venture ended he continued publishing under his own name.
Merrill is now best remembered for his many inexpensive illustrated books for children. Surviving titles linked to him include A History of Birds, For the Use of Children, Book about America, and Stories about Indians, along with toy-book and picture-book series issued from Concord in the 1840s and 1850s. His books were short, practical, and heavily illustrated, aimed at making reading and basic knowledge easy to approach for young audiences.
He died in Concord in 1891. Although he is not a household name today, library and museum records show how widely his little books circulated, and they give a clear picture of a publisher who helped shape early American children’s reading.