Back in 1983, Australian-born Lindy Melman had finished her master’s degree in English language and literature at Leiden University and joined the prestigious Martinus Nijhoff Publishers which was then located at the Lange Voorhout in The Hague. She could have chosen to become a translator or editor, but it so happened that she began her career in publishing as an assistant to the publisher in the field of human rights and international law. She could not have foreseen that she would stay in publishing for 40 years. I had the great pleasure of working with Lindy and sharing an office with her for close to 20 of those years.
Company-wise, times were tumultuous. Without applying for a single job, Lindy first worked at Martinus Nijhoff Publishers in The Hague, then joined Kluwer Academic Publishers (KAP) in Dordrecht, which itself became part of Wolters Kluwer. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers was an imprint of KAP and worked closely with Graham & Trotman in London. Early in the 1990s, Kluwer Law & Taxation, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and Graham & Trotman merged into Kluwer Law International (KLI; KIL was not an option). For several years KLI was based in The Hague, close to the Peace Palace. Another upheaval occurred when the decision was made that KLI should no longer concentrate its publications on human rights and international law, thus that part of the programme was sold to Brill and Nijhoff continued its imprint for these publications at Brill. One of the conditions for this sale was the inclusion of the publishers for these programmes. And so, Lindy worked in The Hague, Dordrecht, The Hague again and Leiden as a publisher in human rights and humanitarian law for 40 years.
Authors come and go, but mostly they stayed, because they enjoyed working with Lindy. They knew her and it is easy to establish a relationship with a publisher long term to publish your book series, multiple books, or journal issues for decades. Accolades for Lindy in the acknowledgments include:
- –“Finally, Lindy Melman from the publishers was a pleasure to deal with and we appreciate her constant support.”
- –“We are grateful to Lindy Melman at Brill Publishers who has not bemoaned once the delays in presenting the final text of the book.”
- –“Our particular gratitude goes to Lindy Melman, acquisitions editor in Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at Brill, for her enthusiasm since the very inception of this project.”
The relationship between authors and publishers goes both ways and one of the most interesting and appealing part of the job of a publisher is the back and forth between them, from discussing a first proposal to receiving the final
Of course, there is life beyond and after being a publisher and if Lindy had not joined Martinus Nijhoff so many years ago, she might easily have become a professional actor or singer. Acting and singing is what she has done throughout her publishing career. From acting in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf?” to singing in Christmas Carol Concerts in the centre of The Hague. She would even take care of the production. Lindy is a woman of many talents and an accomplished editor and translator. She had to travel a lot to meet authors and editors, and to attend conferences and board meetings, and I am sure there will be plenty of travel in the forthcoming years.
Many colleagues were crucial in the production, assisting, editing, promoting, selling, marketing, attending conferences and project managing of the thousands of books that were published in the many years that Lindy worked in publishing. Competitors and colleagues alike became friends and with many of them Lindy stayed in touch. One person who happened to join Nijhoff around the time Lindy did and with whom Lindy worked longest, even following his retirement, is Alan Stephens, publishing director at Nijhoff. With a lot of wit and creativity he inspired his team to do its utmost to put the best publications out there and he gave a lot of room to manoeuvre which gave us plenty of opportunity to learn the trade. And, of course, Lindy is still in touch with him.
There is life beyond publishing, and I am sure Lindy will remain in touch with many of her authors and editors and dear friends in the business. This is to wish her all the very best in her future endeavours and accomplishments and enjoy more time for acting and singing than if constrained to do this outside regular working hours.
Annebeth Rosenboom