The LUCILE Project - Mershon Co.

[This] bindery firm opened a New York office at 156 Fifth Avenue in March 1897... by 1905 stock sold to Stitt Publishing Company. (DLB 49). Oscar M. Dunham... [hired 1876 to manage the American branch of the English firm of Cassell] served it well until January 1890, when he organized a stock company and bought the branch, calling it the Cassell Publishing Company ... with headquarters as 104-106 Fourth Avenue.... It was hard to understand, except in light of the hard times of the nineties, why Dunham failed in June 1893, with liabilities of $400,000. But then it turned out that Dunham had converted $180,000 of the company's funds to his own use, and disappeared after leaving his office on June 15.... creditors filed articles of incorporation.... announced that a New Jersey branch of the firm would be established at Rahway, where the Mershon Printing and Bookbinding Company would do most of the company's work. In December, however, the company was sold at auction to Mershon." (Tebbel). ... The imprint of this firm is to be found on many "cheap and nasty" volumes of fiction issued during the latter 1880s and in the 1890s. A considerable percentage of the Meshon output was of the kind called "railroad fiction." (Shove). 1902 United States Catalog. Lucile. 50c, 75c.

1899 PTLA: Catalog of Standard Books. 156 Fifth Ave., New York; Printing House, Rahway, N.J. Lucile is offered in the:

Standard Series. 16mos. Cloth. These well made books are a marvel of cheapness at the price we are selling them. Handsomely bound in cloth, assorted colors, with a new artistic design. Price 50 cents. [cut]

Sterling Series. 16mo. Cloth. This most complete series of little classics appears in an entirely new dress and far exceeds any other line made. There are 150 titles bound in various colored cloth, beautifully stamped in ink and gold. Price 75 cents. [Cut].

Golden Gem. 16mo. Cloth. A marvel of excellence in paper, printing, and artistic binding. Colored title page; frontispiece; elaborate embossing in gold and ink on cover. [Cut].

----, nd. 100x155mm, 379p. Frontispiece based on a photograph of Meredith. Running head is gothic "Lucile". Tan cloth stamped orange and gold. Plain endsheets. S&EH.

----, nd. 100x152mm, 379p. Light green cloth stamped black: "mantlepiece" motif (for this stamping, see also the Chatterton-Peck Company). Plain endsheets. Cheap paper. Running head "Lucile" in a gothic face. BAP M1; S&EH; this binding has also been reported in tan cloth with black stamping..

----, nd. 113x162mm, 379p. Frontispiece is color lithograph of floral arrangement. White cloth printed in several colors to suggest quarter binding stamped gold and finished with printed paper. The finishing design includes an image of a young woman with a surrounding oval in gold, the frame of which is embossed. Printed endsheets incorporate a Mershon monogram. Running head "Lucile" in a gothic face. BAP M2.

----, nd. 100x153mm, 379p. Turquoise linen cloth stamped silver, an elaborate oval frame surrounding title. Plain endsheets. Running head "Lucile" in a gothic face. S&EH.

----, nd. 100x154mm, 379p. Tan, slightly green, cloth, stamped terra cotta. Running head gothic. Awful paper with plain endsheets of better quality. BAP: 1898 inscription on flyleaf.

----, nd.100x154mm, 379p. Blue cloth stamped maroon. Reading head gothic. Moderate quality paper, plain paper endsheets. E&SH: gift of Frances Curry, Livres Chelsea Books <www.chelseabooks.ca>