Timothy Shay Arthur

Mershon Company, New York, Rahway, New Jersey

W. L. Mershon & Co was established in 1877. In the early years it published two well known periodicals: Leisure Hours and the Rahway Advocate as well as a few books. It appears that Mershon however was mainly a printing firm in the 1880’s.

In 1890 the company was renamed and incorporated as The Mershon Company.

In 1893 the Cassell Publishing Company suspended operations because of financial difficulties. The Mershon Printing and Binding Company was one of its major creditors. Because of that, Mershon became one of the purchasers and subsequent incorporators of the new Cassell Publishing Company.

In 1897 The Mershon Company printed its first publisher’s series. These multivolume, multi authored series contain mainly only reprints of classics, essays, fiction, etc.

It can be hard to date Mershon books. Note the imprint change:

The Mershon Company , New York - prior to 1902
The Mershon Company, Rahway, NJ, New York -1902 and later

Mershon only published one T. S. Arthur title, a reprint of Ten Nights in a Bar-Room. It was part of a number of different publisher’s series. The Mershon “Ten Nights” have E. Foote Upham illustrations.

As of this time series that are known to include Ten Nights in a Bar-Room:

Golden Gem Series
Premium Library
Red Library
Regal Series
Standard Series
Sterling Series
Winona Series
(If it is known that “Ten Nights” was part of a series but the actual book has not been seen, a representative cover may be shown.)