Charles Melcher
Encyclopedia
Charles Melcher is the founder and president of Melcher Media
, a small independent book packager and publisher in New York.
, where he attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School
. He graduated from Yale University
with a BA
in 1988.
when, as a college student at Yale, he created a photography magazine. After graduating in 1988, he launched Melcher Press, Inc., and spent a few years custom publishing calendars for colleges and universities before taking a job first at Aperture
and then at Callaway Editions, where he was the publisher for Madonna’s Sex (1992). He relaunched his company as Melcher Media, Inc., in 1994, and one of its first jobs was to create an imprint
for MTV
called MTV Books. Melcher produced four New York Times bestsellers for the imprint, including The Real Real World and Beavis and Butt-head
’s This Sucks, Change It! Since then, Melcher Media has collaborated with a wide range of companies, including Harley-Davidson
, Lexus
, HBO, Neiman Marcus
, Gap
, Nike
, and General Electric
. He is a program advisor for the Yale Publishing Course
.
for the process of making waterproof books, called DuraBooks. DuraBooks are waterproof, tear-resistant, and virtually indestructible, and they are also up-cycleable, meaning their materials can be recycled in perpetuity—as opposed to regular paper, which can be recycled only a couple of times before the fibers wear out.
The idea behind DuraBooks came to Melcher when he saw an article about women who enjoy reading in the bathtub. Together with his former production director, Andrea Hirsh, he settled on a synthetic
variant of paper that consists of polypropylene
and inorganic fillers rather than wood fibers, as well as a waterproof binding sewn with special thread and adhered with special non-toxic glue. The first book in the DuraBook format was Aqua Erotica, a racy collection of original fiction published by a division of Random House
in 2000, while Melcher’s patent was still pending. Several titles have followed, including Cradle to Cradle, the bestselling book that uses the DuraBook format because of its positive environmental impact, and The Beach Book, an anthology of contemporary literary fiction set on beaches around the globe.
by William McDonough
and Michael Braungart
(2002) was produced as a DuraBook and is a powerful proclamation of a philosophy of sustainability
, putting forward the idea that products should be designed to provide nourishment for something new once their own life has run its course. Melcher Media produced Al Gore
’s An Inconvenient Truth
in 2006. The book brings together leading-edge research from top scientists around the world; photographs, charts, and other illustrations; and personal anecdotes and observations to document the fast pace and wide scope of global warming
. Green Clean (2005) by Linda Mason Hunter and Mikki Halpin, also produced by Melcher, provides eco-friendly home cleaning advice.
Melcher Media is an FSC-certified company and received the Newcomer of the Year award in 2009 for outstanding achievements in green manufacturing from SustainPrint. Melcher is also a member of the Green Press Initiative, an industry group created to establish green practices in publishing.
, Karl Lagerfeld
, Miles Davis
, Tom Brady
, Scarlett Johansson
, Jeremy Irons
) from the past two decades of their advertising campaign. The book comes with a CD of the songs featured in Gap TV ads, and all proceeds of the book go to (PRODUCT) RED, an initiative founded by Bono
and Bobby Shriver to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa
.
’s Super Bowl
“wardrobe malfunction” to O.J. Simpson’s slow-speed Bronco
chase. The most recent pop-up book, Wicked the Musical: A Pop-Up Compendium of Splendiferous Delight and Thrillifying Intrigue (2009), is based on the smash-hit, record-breaking, Tony Award
–winning musical
.
: Kiss and Tell (2002), which is bound in a faux–pink alligator material and packaged in a shoebox, and The Sopranos: The Book (2007); Comedy Central
’s South Park
: A Stickyforms Adventure (1998); and Bravo’s Top Chef
: The Cookbook (2008). Melcher also produced the book Sex and the City: The Movie (2008), written by Amy Sohn
and with introductions by star and producer Sarah Jessica Parker
and writer and director Michael Patrick King
, which presents a storybook-style telling of the film and includes features such as behind-the-scenes stories from Kim Cattrall
, Kristin Davis
, Cynthia Nixon
, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Michael Patrick King.
magazine’s The Lucky Shopping Manual (2003) by Kim France
and Andrea Linett, an influential piece-by-piece wardrobe guide that became a New York Times bestseller. Other magazine titles include New York magazine’s New York Look Book (2007), taken from the popular column by Amy Larocca and Jake Chessum and featuring nearly 250 photographs and interviews documenting New Yorkers’ personal styles; Domino: The Book of Decorating (2008), a room-by-room guide to creating a happy home by domino magazine editors Deborah Needleman
, Sara Ruffin Costello, and Dara Caponigro; and Secrets of Style: InStyle’s Complete Guide to Dressing Your Best Every Day (2003), by the editors of InStyle magazine, which provides advice and tips on dressing your best through scores of detailed, full-color illustrations and photographs.
’s biggest musicals. It has published books for Avenue Q
(2006),Jersey Boys
(2007), Rent
(1997), Spring Awakening
, and Wicked
. More than just companion volumes, these books create an opportunity to experience these hit Broadway shows in a new way.
Melcher Media
Melcher Media is a book packager and publisher in New York City, New York, founded in 1994 by Charles Melcher. The company’s focuses include magazine-, movie-, and TV-related books; environmental titles; pop-up books; and DuraBooks....
, a small independent book packager and publisher in New York.
Biography
Charles Melcher was born on January 19, 1965, and raised in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where he attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School
Ethical Culture Fieldston School
The Ethical Culture Fieldston School, known as "Fieldston", is a private "independent" school in New York City and a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League. It has about 1600 students and a staff of 400 people , led by Dr. Damian J...
. He graduated from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
with a BA
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in 1988.
Melcher Media
Charles Melcher initially became interested in publishingPublishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
when, as a college student at Yale, he created a photography magazine. After graduating in 1988, he launched Melcher Press, Inc., and spent a few years custom publishing calendars for colleges and universities before taking a job first at Aperture
Aperture
In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture of an optical system is the opening that determines the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. The aperture determines how collimated the admitted rays are,...
and then at Callaway Editions, where he was the publisher for Madonna’s Sex (1992). He relaunched his company as Melcher Media, Inc., in 1994, and one of its first jobs was to create an imprint
Imprint
In the publishing industry, an imprint can mean several different things:* As a piece of bibliographic information about a book, it refers to the name and address of the book's publisher and its date of publication as given at the foot or on the verso of its title page.* It can mean a trade name...
for MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
called MTV Books. Melcher produced four New York Times bestsellers for the imprint, including The Real Real World and Beavis and Butt-head
Beavis and Butt-Head
Beavis and Butt-head is an American animated television series created by Mike Judge. The series originated from Frog Baseball, a 1992 short film by Judge. After seeing the short, MTV signed Judge to develop the concept. Beavis and Butt-head originally aired from March 8, 1993 to November 28, 1997...
’s This Sucks, Change It! Since then, Melcher Media has collaborated with a wide range of companies, including Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson , often abbreviated H-D or Harley, is an American motorcycle manufacturer. Founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the first decade of the 20th century, it was one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression...
, Lexus
Lexus
is the luxury vehicle division of Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corporation. First introduced in 1989 in the United States, Lexus is now sold globally and has become Japan's largest-selling make of premium cars. The Lexus marque is marketed in over 70 countries and territories worldwide, and has...
, HBO, Neiman Marcus
Neiman Marcus
Neiman Marcus, formerly Neiman-Marcus, is a luxury specialty retail department store operated by the Neiman Marcus Group in the United States. The company is headquartered in the One Marcus Square building in Downtown Dallas, Texas, and competes with other department stores such as Saks Fifth...
, Gap
Gap (clothing retailer)
The Gap, Inc. is an American clothing and accessories retailer based in San Francisco, California, and founded in 1969 by Donald G. Fisher and Doris F. Fisher. The company has five primary brands: the namesake Gap banner, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime and Athleta. As of September 2008,...
, Nike
Nike, Inc.
Nike, Inc. is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, which is part of the Portland metropolitan area...
, and General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
. He is a program advisor for the Yale Publishing Course
Yale Publishing Course
Yale Publishing Course , located on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, is an intensive program for magazine, book and online publishing professionals. The course focuses on teaching leadership skills for today's increasingly global, increasingly digital environment. YPC's...
.
DuraBooks
In August 2004, Melcher received a United States patentPatent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
for the process of making waterproof books, called DuraBooks. DuraBooks are waterproof, tear-resistant, and virtually indestructible, and they are also up-cycleable, meaning their materials can be recycled in perpetuity—as opposed to regular paper, which can be recycled only a couple of times before the fibers wear out.
The idea behind DuraBooks came to Melcher when he saw an article about women who enjoy reading in the bathtub. Together with his former production director, Andrea Hirsh, he settled on a synthetic
Chemical synthesis
In chemistry, chemical synthesis is purposeful execution of chemical reactions to get a product, or several products. This happens by physical and chemical manipulations usually involving one or more reactions...
variant of paper that consists of polypropylene
Polypropylene
Polypropylene , also known as polypropene, is a thermoplastic polymer used in a wide variety of applications including packaging, textiles , stationery, plastic parts and reusable containers of various types, laboratory equipment, loudspeakers, automotive components, and polymer banknotes...
and inorganic fillers rather than wood fibers, as well as a waterproof binding sewn with special thread and adhered with special non-toxic glue. The first book in the DuraBook format was Aqua Erotica, a racy collection of original fiction published by a division of Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
in 2000, while Melcher’s patent was still pending. Several titles have followed, including Cradle to Cradle, the bestselling book that uses the DuraBook format because of its positive environmental impact, and The Beach Book, an anthology of contemporary literary fiction set on beaches around the globe.
Environment
Melcher is committed to environmental initiatives and has produced a range of books either within this subject matter or by using green-powered energy. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make ThingsCradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things is a 2002 non-fiction book by German chemist Michael Braungart and U.S. architect William McDonough. It is a manifesto detailing how to achieve their Cradle to Cradle Design model. It calls for a radical change in industry: a switch from a...
by William McDonough
William McDonough
William Andrews McDonough is an American architect, founding principal of , co-founder of with German chemist Michael Braungart as well as co-author of also with Braungart...
and Michael Braungart
Michael Braungart
Michael Braungart is a German chemist who advocates that humans can reduce our negative environmental impact by redesigning industrial production processes...
(2002) was produced as a DuraBook and is a powerful proclamation of a philosophy of sustainability
Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
, putting forward the idea that products should be designed to provide nourishment for something new once their own life has run its course. Melcher Media produced Al Gore
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
’s An Inconvenient Truth
An Inconvenient Truth
An Inconvenient Truth is a 2006 documentary film directed by Davis Guggenheim about former United States Vice President Al Gore's campaign to educate citizens about global warming via a comprehensive slide show that, by his own estimate, he has given more than a thousand times.Premiering at the...
in 2006. The book brings together leading-edge research from top scientists around the world; photographs, charts, and other illustrations; and personal anecdotes and observations to document the fast pace and wide scope of global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
. Green Clean (2005) by Linda Mason Hunter and Mikki Halpin, also produced by Melcher, provides eco-friendly home cleaning advice.
Melcher Media is an FSC-certified company and received the Newcomer of the Year award in 2009 for outstanding achievements in green manufacturing from SustainPrint. Melcher is also a member of the Green Press Initiative, an industry group created to establish green practices in publishing.
Corporate
Melcher has collaborated with a number of corporate clients, such as Harley-Davidson, Neiman Marcus, GE, Nike, and Gap to make books that help tell their companies’ stories. Individuals: Portraits from the Gap Collection (2006) is a collection of portraits taken of culturally significant icons (William S. BurroughsWilliam S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
, Karl Lagerfeld
Karl Lagerfeld
Karl Lagerfeld is a German fashion designer, artist and photographer based in Paris. He has collaborated on a variety of fashion and art related projects, most notably as head designer and creative director for the fashion house Chanel...
, Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
, Tom Brady
Tom Brady
Thomas Edward Patrick "Tom" Brady, Jr. is an American football quarterback for the New England Patriots of the National Football League . After playing college football at Michigan, Brady was drafted by the Patriots in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft.He has played in four Super Bowls,...
, Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson
Scarlett Johansson is an American actress, model and singer.Johansson made her film debut in North and was later nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for her performance in Manny & Lo . She rose to further prominence with her roles in The Horse Whisperer and Ghost World...
, Jeremy Irons
Jeremy Irons
Jeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...
) from the past two decades of their advertising campaign. The book comes with a CD of the songs featured in Gap TV ads, and all proceeds of the book go to (PRODUCT) RED, an initiative founded by Bono
Bono
Paul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...
and Bobby Shriver to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
.
Pop-up books
Melcher has produced a number of pop-up books, including The Pop-Up Book of Phobias (1999), The Pop-Up Book of Nightmares (1999), and The Pop-Up Book of Celebrity Meltdowns (2006), which shows the humorous side of public meltdowns, from Janet JacksonJanet Jackson
Janet Damita Jo Jackson is an American recording artist and actress. Known for a series of sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows, television and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over 25 years...
’s Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
“wardrobe malfunction” to O.J. Simpson’s slow-speed Bronco
Bronco
Bronco, or bronc is a term used in the United States, northern Mexico and Canada to refer to an untrained horse or one that habitually bucks. It may refer to a feral horse that has lived in the wild its entire life, but is also used to refer to domestic horses not yet fully trained to saddle, and...
chase. The most recent pop-up book, Wicked the Musical: A Pop-Up Compendium of Splendiferous Delight and Thrillifying Intrigue (2009), is based on the smash-hit, record-breaking, Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
–winning musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
.
Television
Melcher has produced a number of books for hit TV series, including HBO’s Sex and the CitySex and the City
Sex and the City is an American television comedy-drama series created by Darren Star and produced by HBO. Broadcast from 1998 until 2004, the original run of the show had a total of ninety-four episodes...
: Kiss and Tell (2002), which is bound in a faux–pink alligator material and packaged in a shoebox, and The Sopranos: The Book (2007); Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
’s South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
: A Stickyforms Adventure (1998); and Bravo’s Top Chef
Top Chef
Top Chef is an American reality competition show that airs on the cable television network Bravo, in which chefs compete against each other in culinary challenges. They are judged by a panel of professional chefs and other notables from the food and wine industry with one or more contestants...
: The Cookbook (2008). Melcher also produced the book Sex and the City: The Movie (2008), written by Amy Sohn
Amy Sohn
Amy Sohn is a Brooklyn-based author, columnist and screenwriter. She wrote the novels Run Catch Kiss and My Old Man , both published by Simon & Schuster, and a companion guide to television’s Sex and the City, Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell .She is a contributing editor at New York magazine,...
and with introductions by star and producer Sarah Jessica Parker
Sarah Jessica Parker
Sarah Jessica Parker is an American film, television, and theater actress and producer.She is best known for her leading role as Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO television series Sex and the City , for which she won four Golden Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Emmy Awards...
and writer and director Michael Patrick King
Michael Patrick King
Michael Patrick King is an American director, writer and producer for television shows.-Life and career:King was born to an Irish American family in Scranton, Pennsylvania and was raised as a Roman Catholic...
, which presents a storybook-style telling of the film and includes features such as behind-the-scenes stories from Kim Cattrall
Kim Cattrall
Kim Victoria Cattrall is an English actress. She is known for her role as Samantha Jones in the HBO comedy/romance series Sex and the City, and for her leading roles in the 1980s films Police Academy, Big Trouble in Little China, Mannequin, and Porky's...
, Kristin Davis
Kristin Davis
Kristin Landen Davis is an American actress.She first rose to prominence and achieved fame for playing the role of Charlotte York Goldenblatt on HBO's Sex and the City. She has achieved success appearing in roles in film and television.-Early life and education:Davis was born in Boulder, Colorado...
, Cynthia Nixon
Cynthia Nixon
Cynthia Ellen Nixon is an American actress, known for her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series Sex and the City . She has received two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and a Grammy Award....
, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Michael Patrick King.
Magazines
Melcher has collaborated with various magazines on book projects, such as LuckyLucky (magazine)
Lucky is a shopping and style magazine which calls itself the " Ultimate Shopping Guide " and " The Magazine About Shopping ." Lucky "showcases what to wear and how to wear it, making fashion and beauty fun and accessible." Available by subscription, issues are published once a month and offer...
magazine’s The Lucky Shopping Manual (2003) by Kim France
Kim France
Kim France is an American editor, journalist, and author. She was the founding editor of Lucky, an award-winning national magazine with an initial circulation of 800,000, and is the author of The Lucky Shopping Manual , which has 150,000 copies in print, according to its publisher, Dutton.France...
and Andrea Linett, an influential piece-by-piece wardrobe guide that became a New York Times bestseller. Other magazine titles include New York magazine’s New York Look Book (2007), taken from the popular column by Amy Larocca and Jake Chessum and featuring nearly 250 photographs and interviews documenting New Yorkers’ personal styles; Domino: The Book of Decorating (2008), a room-by-room guide to creating a happy home by domino magazine editors Deborah Needleman
Deborah Needleman
Deborah Needleman was the founding editor in chief of domino magazine. Launched by Condé Nast Publications in Spring 2005, domino is a style magazine centered on the home...
, Sara Ruffin Costello, and Dara Caponigro; and Secrets of Style: InStyle’s Complete Guide to Dressing Your Best Every Day (2003), by the editors of InStyle magazine, which provides advice and tips on dressing your best through scores of detailed, full-color illustrations and photographs.
Broadway
Melcher has been responsible for creating a niche in the media industry as a producer of high-quality companion books to some of BroadwayBroadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
’s biggest musicals. It has published books for Avenue Q
Avenue Q
Avenue Q is a musical in two acts, conceived by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, who wrote the music and lyrics. The book was written by Jeff Whitty and the show was directed by Jason Moore and produced by Kevin McCollum, Robyn Goodman, and Jeffrey Seller...
(2006),Jersey Boys
Jersey Boys
Jersey Boys is a jukebox musical with music by Bob Gaudio, lyrics by Bob Crewe and book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. It is a documentary-style musical, based on one of the most successful 1960s rock 'n roll groups, the Four Seasons...
(2007), Rent
Rent (musical)
Rent is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème...
(1997), Spring Awakening
Spring Awakening
Spring Awakening is a rock musical adaptation of the controversial 1892 German play of the same title by Frank Wedekind. It features music by Duncan Sheik and a book and lyrics by Steven Sater. Set in late-19th century Germany, it concerns teenagers who are discovering the inner and outer tumult of...
, and Wicked
Wicked (musical)
Wicked is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. It is based on the Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West , a parallel novel of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and L. Frank Baum's classic story The Wonderful Wizard...
. More than just companion volumes, these books create an opportunity to experience these hit Broadway shows in a new way.