author
Rufus Merrill
1803–1891
Best remembered as a 19th-century New Hampshire publisher of tiny, affordable books for children, he helped bring animal stories, nursery rhymes, and picture books to young readers. His name appears on a lively range of chapbooks and juvenile titles that made reading feel small, handy, and inviting.
1 Audiobook
Stories About Indians
by Rufus Merrill
About the author
Born in Conway, New Hampshire, Rufus Merrill later made his career in Concord, where he became known as a publisher and bookseller in the mid-1800s. Records of his work show him connected with publishing partnerships in Concord and with a long run of inexpensive books aimed at children and families.
Merrill is especially associated with chapbooks and juvenile series—small, illustrated books on subjects like birds, animals, America, and nursery rhymes. Listings of his surviving works show how strongly he focused on practical, readable material for young audiences, and many of those little books have been preserved in library and digital collections.
Although he is sometimes listed as an author, his importance seems to lie just as much in making books available as in writing them. That mix of publishing energy and child-friendly subject matter gives his work a lasting place in the history of early American children's books.