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I ‘A great and enthralling adventure’. C.H. van Schooneveld, Peter de Ridder and Mouton & Co. 1. Introduction South of Geneva, in Vozérier-Amancy in the department of Haute-Savoie, France, is a farmhouse with an imposingly high tiled roof on Route St. Pierre. At the front of the house right next to the door that once was the entrance to the cowshed, hangs a cast iron sign sporting the phrase ‘A la Fraternité’ (see 111. 28). This was the name of the local pub that once existed in this farmhouse. In the former taproom of the pub, with a little step up to the back room, where the band played, is now the study of professor emeri tus C.H. van Schooneveld, the owner of the farmhouse and its adjoining meadow. On the wall of this oblong room, in which great quantities of paper are arranged in file boxes, hang the pictures of the Dutchman Nicolaas van Wijk (1880-1941), and the Russian Roman Osipovic Jakobson (1898-1982), two famous authors from the world of Slavic and general linguistics. Both scholars played a great part in Van Schooneveld’s life and scholarly career (see 111. 6). The result of that influence can be seen in one of his pro fessional activities which has determined everything he has done for decades: the editorship of three series and a journal of Mouton & Co., the scholarly press formerly in The Hague. This farmhouse in Haute-Savoie, seemingly so far removed from the commotion of the world, has for that reason been for several years a vital link in a professional endeavor which has been described as ‘perhaps the most extensive editing career ever in the fields of linguistics and Slavistics.’ 1

2. Mouton gets started Cornelis Hendrik van Schooneveld was born on January 19, 1921 in The Hague as the only child of Antje Steenstra and Daniel van Schooneveld, a well-known tutor of criminal law to generations of law students in Leiden.