Image credit: The Hypatia Trust
melissa hardie
Cultural historian, bibliophile, antiquarian
1939–2022
Suggested by Mary Fletcher:
“Melissa Hardie founded The Hypatia Trust in Penzance. She was a champion for women.”
From the Hypatia Trust’s website:
“Speak louder. Be brave. To be too quiet is evidence of disinterest”, Melissa Hardie.
“Melissa Hardie founded The Hypatia Trust in 1996 to support and promote women's achievements through research, documentation, exhibition, publication and training in Cornwall and beyond. The Trust has grown to have women’s literature and non-fiction archives placed in the University of Exeter libraries at Exeter and Falmouth, the University of Bonn, Germany, the Autonoma University, Barcelona and a small collection in Leeds University. Locally, her Elizabeth Treffry collection of books relating to Cornish women is housed in Morrab Library, Penzance in a room of our own, fitted out with the hardwood shelving from Melissa's original library project; The Jamieson Library in Newmill.
Melissa was a book publisher before coming to Cornwall in 1984. Her Patten Press morphed into Hypatia Publications, the publishing arm of the Trust. Together they have published over 50 titles.
In 2022, The Hypatia Trust opened a ‘women focused’ bookshop, Women in Word, at its premises in Penzance with the same objectives as Melissa’s original Deborah Books shop, in London in the late 70s/early 80s. It sells fiction and non-fiction by women authors, including Hypatia Publications' releases, titles by local and regional women authors, and stocks a range of pre-loved books written by women and donated by the public.”
The Hypatia Trust and their Women in Cornwall Archive are partners in the Women of Cornwall project. Without Melissa we would not have their great knowledge and resource behind us.
Please visit the Hypatia Trust website and the Women in Cornwall Archive to find out more.