John van Melle (11 February 1887 – 8 November 1953) was the pen name of a Dutch-born South African author. 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 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.
Famous quotes containing the words john and/or van:
“Despite everybody who has been born and has died, the world has just gone on. I mean, look at Napoleon—but we went right on. Look at Harpo Marx—the world went around, it didn’t stop for a second. It’s sad but true. John Kennedy, right?”
—Bob Dylan [Robert Allen Zimmerman] (b. 1941)
“Don’t you hear his cannons roar?
We’ll be Orangemen no more
Says the Shan Van Vocht.”
—Unknown. The Shan Van Vocht (l. 10–12)