1972 founder herbert richardson country of origin united states headquarters location lewiston new york publication types books official website www.mellenpress.com the edwin mellen press is a scholarly publishing house with offices in lewiston ny and lampeter wales . it was founded in 1972 by religious scholar herbert richardson . 1 it describes itself as a non subsidy academic publisher of books in the humanities and social sciences and publishes monographs critical editions collections translations revisionist studies constructive essays bibliographies dictionaries reference guides and dissertations . 2 contents 1 history 2 scholarly publishing 3 legal controversies 4 selected published works 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit herbert richardson founded the edwin mellen press in 1972 with the goal of publishing dissertations by graduate students from his department at the university of st. michael s college a roman catholic institution that is part of the university of toronto . richardson originally ran the press from the basement of his home which he shared with his wife and four children . the business was named after edwin mellen richardson s grandfather who was a lover of books and died of a heart attack at 58 . 3 richardson s great grandfather was isaac adams a massachusetts state senator and the inventor of the adams power press . 4 the press soon expanded and began to publish dissertations by scholars outside the university of toronto . by 1977 the press had grown large enough to warrant its own space . the edwin mellen press briefly established an office in fredericksburg va before ultimately relocating to lewiston ny a village just across the canada us border near niagara falls in 1979 . 5 the press continued to grow and was soon publishing as many as 150 titles a year . in 1987 the edwin mellen press founded an office in lampeter wales . scholarly publishing edit the edwin mellen press publishes books written at the doctoral reading level and founder herbert richardson has written that the press values scholar for scholar research more than anything . while university presses often look for works that will appeal to thousands of readers the press is primarily interested in whether a work will contribute to the scholarship surrounding a wide range of subjects . in fact the press states that the sole criterion for publication is that the manuscript must make a contribution to scholarship . 6 this has led to the press often publishing very detailed research that would otherwise be rejected by larger university presses . the press has published books on topics as varied as the health problems of migrants living on the border of thailand and burma to the role of parrots in fiction . edwin mellen books are included in research library collections all over the world including the university of london which has 4 926 of its books and harvard which has 4 731 . 3 legal controversies edit since 1993 the press has attracted publicity for taking legal action against critics which has generated significant controversy particularly in the academic world . 7 in 1993 the press brought a libel suit against the magazine lingua franca which it lost . 7 in 2012 it brought a similar suit for 3.5 million in damages against mcmaster university and one of its librarians dale askey over a blog posting made in 2010 before the man started working for the university . 8 the canadian association of university teachers and others criticized the suit as an attempt to use legal action to silence criticism ; they believe that publication of criticism is a legitimate exercise of academic freedom . 9 10 martha reineke a professor of religion at the university of northern iowa initiated a petition demanding the press drop its lawsuits ; it garnered more than 3 100 names as of march 4 2013 . on that date the press announced that it had discontinued the court case against mcmaster and askey 11 but it continued a lawsuit against askey personally . 12 on february 5 2015 askey stated that the press had settled its second lawsuit against him . 13 on march 21 2013 the press threatened legal action against the society for scholarly publishing for hosting allegedly libelous blog posts and comments on the scholarly kitchen . 14 the scholarly kitchen removed the content in question from its website on march 29 2013 . it restored the blog post though not the specific comment alleged to be libellous a few days later and published a blog post explaining its actions . 15 16 in april 2013 the press threatened to take legal action against the interim library dean of the university of utah over blog posts he wrote criticizing the press for its legal action against askey . 17 the matter was settled without payment in february 2015 . 18 sociologist kenneth westhues studied aspects of this litigation in his book the envy of excellence administrative mobbing of high achieving professors 2006 a work published by the edwin mellen press . 19 selected published works edit cameron averil ; puttick elizabeth ; clarke bernard 1993 desert mothers women ascetics in early christian egypt edwin mellen press current issues on theology and religion in latin america and africa . lewiston n.y. and lampeter u.k. edwin mellen press 280 xv pp. 2002 . a social history of the catholic church in chile vol . i the first period of the pinochet government 1973 1980 . lewinston new york queenston ontario and lampeter wales edwin mellen press 2004 302 pp . winner of the adele mellen prize 2004 a social history of the catholic church in chile vol . ii the archbishop cardinal ra l silva henr quez . lewinston new york queenston ontario and lampeter wales edwin mellen press 364 pp. 2006 . a social history of the catholic church in chile vol . iii the second period of the pinochet government 1980 1990 . lewinston new york queenston ontario and lampeter wales edwin mellen press 2006 . morley ian 2008 . british provincial civic design and the building of late victorian and edwardian cities 1880 1914 . edwin mellen press . a social history of the catholic church in chile vol . iv torture and forced disappearance 1973 1974 . lewinston new york queenston ontario and lampeter wales edwin mellen press 2011 . a social history of the catholic church in chile vol . v torture and forced disappearance 1974 1976 . lewinston new york queenston ontario and lampeter wales edwin mellen press 2011 . a social history of the catholic church in chile vol . vi the allende government 1970 1973 . lewinston new york queenston ontario and lampeter wales edwin mellen press 2011 . a social history of the catholic church in chile vol . vii christians for socialism and the mir . lewinston new york queenston ontario and lampeter wales edwin mellen press 2011 . a social history of the catholic church in chile vol . viii the visit of john paul ii 1987 . lewinston new york queenston ontario and lampeter wales edwin mellen press 2012 . a history of the lamas in tibet 1391 2006 . lewinston new york queenston ontario and lampeter wales edwin mellen press 2012 . church liberation and world religions . london t & t clark 2012 . a social history of the catholic church in chile vol . ix st. alberto hurtado and st. teresa de los andes . lewinston new york queenston ontario and lampeter wales edwin mellen press 2013 . see also edit herbert richardson references edit the edwin mellen press contact details . edwin mellen press . 2008 . retrieved 2008 11 11 . the edwin mellen press . edwin mellen press . 2008 . retrieved 2008 11 11 . a b new jake april 15 2013 . herbert richardson v. the world . the chronicle of higher education . retrieved 9 february 2016 . explaining s4s publishing . herbertwarrenrichardson.com . retrieved 9 february 2016 . the edwin mellen press . the edwin mellen press academic publishers . retrieved 2016 06 04 . the edwin mellen press . the edwin mellen press academic publishers . retrieved 2016 06 04 . a b reid paul h. jr. 2006 . the edwin mellen press versus lingua franca a case study in the law of libel . lewiston n.y.t edwin mellen press . isbn 0773454462 . the edwin mellen press vs. dale askey and mcmaster university ontario superior court 2012 . text flaherty colleen 8 february 2013 . price of a bad review . inside higher ed . new jake 8 february 2013 . edwin mellen press sues university librarian for libel . the chronicle of higher education . ruf cory 4 march 2013 . book publisher to drop lawsuit against mcmaster librarian . cbc news . retrieved 4 march 2013 . price gary 4 march 2013 . edwin mellen press drops lawsuit against mcmaster librarian dale askey . infodocket . retrieved 4 march 2013 . casey fabris librarian says academic press has settled lingering lawsuit against him chronicle of higher education feb. 5 2015 . 1 accessed feb 5 2015 anderson kent . posts removed because we ve received letters from edwin mellen press attorney . the scholarly kitchen . retrieved 29 march 2013 . price gary . the scholarly kitchen removes posts re edwin mellen publishers following letter from lawyer . infodocket . library journal . retrieved 29 march 2013 . meyer carol anne . ssp board decides to reinstate removed posts . the scholarly kitchen . retrieved 4 april 2013 . ry rivard call in the lawyers inside higher ed 1 april 2013 librarian says academic press has settled lingering lawsuit against him the ticker blogs . chronicle.com . retrieved 2015 12 16 . westhues kenneth 2006 . the envy of excellence administrative mobbing of high achieving professors . edwin mellen press . isbn 978 077345979 3 . external links edit official website murray miles the responsibility of professors academic freedom peer review and the scholarly conscience today 1995 note this article has been removed but is still available in the wayback machine publishing ethics and platform neutrality peer to peer review library journal 12 march 2013 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title edwin mellen press & oldid 739151793 categories book publishing companies based in new yorkpublishing companies established in 1972 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutschfran aisbahasa melayu edit links this page was last modified on 13 september 2016 at 02 15 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view