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John van Melle
Born	Johannes van Melle (1887-02-11)11 February 1887 Goes
Died	8 November 1953(1953-11-08) (aged 66)

Jan van Melle (11 February 1887 – 8 November 1953) was the pen name of a Dutch-born South African writer. His real name was Johannes van Melle.

Van Melle was born in Goes. He arrived in South Africa in 1906, and after a short sojourn in the Netherlands East Indies, settled in South Africa permanently in 1913. He worked as a teacher in many rural schools and soon started to publish in both Dutch and the newly emerging Afrikaans language.

Van Melle's best known work is the novel Bart Nel, a classic of Afrikaans literature. It tells the tale of a farmer whose indomitable spirit allows him to survive the destruction and loss of his farm in wartime and being abandoned by his wife and family.

References

1. DBNL. "J. van Melle, Kritisch lexicon van de moderne Nederlandstalige literatuur, Sander Bax, Hugo Brems, Tom van Deel, Ad Zuiderent". DBNL (in Dutch). Retrieved 2 November 2024.

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