Mercier Press

Last updated

Mercier Press
Founded1944
Founder Seán Feehan
Country of origin Ireland
Headquarters location Cork
Distribution Gill (Ireland) [1]
Dufour Editions (USA) [2]
Nonfiction topicsIrish History, Biography, Sport, Politics, Business and Current Affairs
Fiction genres Literature, Kids
Official website www.mercierpress.ie

Mercier Press is a publisher based in Cork, Ireland. It is the longest established independent Irish publishing house. [3]

History

The company was founded in 1944 by Seán Feehan, and initially published religious books. In 1946 they published This Tremendous Lover by Dom Eugene Boylan which sold over a million copies. At the Frankfurt Book Fair Feehan secured the translation rights of German books on philosophy and religion that sold well. In the 1960s they launched a successful range of paperbacks on Irish literature, culture, religion and history. [4]

Feehan remained chairman until his death in 1991, after which John Spillane took over until 2003, when Clodagh Feehan was appointed manager director. [4]

In the 1960s and 1970s the Mercier paperback books had a distinctive cover style. [5] This usually consisted of an illustration, in both pen & ink and brush & ink, and always in two colour. The format and back cover layout remained the same on each book. The artist John Skelton (1925–2009) was Mercier's main cover designer – he worked as an art director and book illustrator before concentrating full-time on painting in 1975.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Collins (Irish leader)</span> Irish revolutionary and politician (1890–1922)

Michael Collins was an Irish revolutionary, soldier and politician who was a leading figure in the early-20th century struggle for Irish independence. During the War of Independence he was Director of Intelligence of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and a government minister of the self-declared Irish Republic. He was then Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State from January 1922 and commander-in-chief of the National Army from July until his death in an ambush in August 1922, during the Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paperback</span> Book with a paper or paperboard cover

A paperback book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, leather, paper, or plastic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ballantine Books</span> American book publisher (1952–)

Ballantine Books is a major American book publisher that is a subsidiary of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Ballantine was founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. Ballantine was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann in 1998 and remains part of that company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penguin Books</span> British publishing house

Penguin Books Limited is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other stores for sixpence, bringing high-quality fiction and non-fiction to the mass market. Its success showed that large audiences existed for serious books. It also affected modern British popular culture significantly through its books concerning politics, the arts, and science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berkley Books</span> Publishing imprint of Penguin Group (USA)

Berkley Books is an imprint of the Penguin Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon & Schuster</span> American publishing company

Simon & Schuster LLC is an American publishing company owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins and Macmillan Publishers, Simon & Schuster is considered one of the 'Big Five' English language publishers. As of 2017 Simon & Schuster was the third largest publisher in the United States, publishing 2,000 titles annually under 35 different imprints.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New American Library</span> American publisher

The New American Library is an American publisher based in New York, founded in 1948. Its initial focus was affordable paperback reprints of classics and scholarly works as well as popular and pulp fiction, but it now publishes trade and hardcover titles. It is currently an imprint of Penguin Random House; it was announced in 2015 that the imprint would publish only nonfiction titles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hodder & Stoughton</span> British publisher

Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allen Lane</span> Publisher and founder of Penguin Books

Sir Allen Lane was a British publisher who together with his brothers Richard and John Lane founded Penguin Books in 1935, bringing high-quality paperback fiction and non-fiction to the mass market.

Tuttle Publishing, originally the Charles E. Tuttle Company, is a book publishing company that includes Tuttle, Periplus Editions, and Journey Editions. A company profile describes it as an "International publisher of innovative books on design, cooking, martial arts, language, travel and spirituality with a focus on China, Japan and Southeast Asia." Many of its books on Asian martial arts, particularly those on Japanese martial arts, were the first widely read publications on these subjects in the English language.

John M. Feehan was an Irish author and publisher. The eldest son of a schoolmaster, Feehan was born in Dualla, County Tipperary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dell Publishing</span> American publisher

Dell Publishing Company, Inc. is an American publisher of books, magazines and comic books, that was founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte Jr. with $10,000, two employees and one magazine title, I Confess, and soon began turning out dozens of pulp magazines, which included penny-a-word detective stories, articles about films, and romance books.

Christine Feehan is an American author of paranormal romance, paranormal military thrillers, and fantasy. She is a #1 New York Times, #1 Publishers Weekly, and International bestselling author of seven series; Carpathian, GhostWalker Series, Drake Sisters, Sister of the HeartSeries, Shadow Riders Series, Leopard Series and Torpedo Ink Series. Six of the seven series have made #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. As of January 2020 she has 80 published novels. The first in her Torpedo Ink Series, Judgment Road, debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestsellers list.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gay pulp fiction</span> Genre of pulp fiction literature

Gay pulp fiction, or gay pulps, refers to printed works, primarily fiction, that include references to male homosexuality, specifically male gay sex, and that are cheaply produced, typically in paperback books made of wood pulp paper; lesbian pulp fiction is similar work about women. Michael Bronski, the editor of an anthology of gay pulp writing, notes in his introduction, "Gay pulp is not an exact term, and it is used somewhat loosely to refer to a variety of books that had very different origins and markets". People often use the term to refer to the "classic" gay pulps that were produced before about 1970, but it may also be used to refer to the gay erotica or pornography in paperback book or digest magazine form produced since that date.

Cork University Press (CUP) is a publisher located in Cork, Ireland. It was founded in 1925 and is associated with University College Cork. The Press publishes under its own imprint and two others: Attic and Atrium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panther Books</span>

Panther Books Ltd was a British publishing house especially active in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, specialising in paperback fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penguin Random House</span> American multinational conglomerate publishing company

Penguin Random House LLC is an American multinational conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, with the merger of Penguin Group and Random House. Penguin Books was originally founded in 1935 and Random House was founded in 1927. It has more than 300 publishing imprints. Along with Simon & Schuster, Hachette, HarperCollins and Macmillan Publishers, Penguin Random House is considered one of the 'Big Five' English language publishers.

John Anthony Feehan M.A., MSc, PhD, M.I.L.I. is an Irish geologist, botanist, author and broadcaster. He was born in Birr, County Offaly, Ireland. Feehan received his early education with the Presentation Brothers in Birr and the Salesian Fathers at Heywood. Following a number of years as a member of the Salesian Congregation including working as a teacher in England and Ireland, he studied Natural Sciences at Trinity College Dublin. After a year of voluntary teaching service in South Africa, he returned to Trinity College to study geology under Charles Hepworth Holland, receiving his PhD on the geology of the Slieve Bloom and Devilsbit Mountains in 1980. He was a Senior Lecturer in the School of Agriculture and Food Science at University College Dublin, where he taught for twenty years up to his retirement in 2012. In May 2021, he was made a member of the Royal Irish Academy. Feehan married Róisín Gilmore in 1975 and they have two children: Jane and Christiaan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atria Publishing Group</span> General interest publisher and a division of Simon & Schuster

Atria Publishing Group is a general interest publisher and a division of Simon & Schuster. The publishing group launched as Atria Books in 2002. The Atria Publishing Group was later created internally at Simon & Schuster to house a number of imprints including Atria Books, Atria Trade Paperbacks, Atria Books Espanol, Atria Unbound, Washington Square Press, Emily Bestler Books, Atria/Beyond Words, Cash Money Content, Howard Books, Marble Arch Press, Strebor Books, 37 Ink, Keywords Press and Enliven Books. Atria is also known for creating innovative imprints and co-publishing deals with African-American writers as well as known for experimenting with digital or non-traditional print formats and authors.

This bibliography contains is a list of works from American author Christine Feehan.

References

  1. "Our Clients". Gill Distribution. Archived from the original on 20 October 2017. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  2. "Publishers – Dufour Editions". Archived from the original on 8 October 2017. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  3. "Mercier Press web-site". Mercier Press. Archived from the original on 24 November 2012. Retrieved 27 November 2012.
  4. 1 2 "Irish publisher whose printed pages keep turning in pace with history". Under the Radar. Dublin. The Irish Times. 26 February 2010.
  5. John M. Feehan. An Irish Publisher and His World. Mercier Press, Cork, 1969