Distributed Proofreaders is a tight-knit community, and when beloved members pass away, we all grieve together. In February 2017, we lost Emmy. But her legacy lives on in the memory of her beautiful nature and in the many lovely e-books she left us.
Emmy was much loved for her warmth, her keen sense of humor, and her unfailing kindness. She never missed an opportunity to be friendly and helpful to anyone who needed a hand or a boost or a smile, and as a result she had many close friends among the DP volunteers.
And Emmy was a powerhouse. She joined DP in 2004 and performed many roles — proofer, formatter, Project Manager, Post-Processor, Post-Processor Verifier, and Mentor. She even contributed several pieces to this blog, though she preferred to do so anonymously. As Project Manager, she was responsible for 321 books posted to Project Gutenberg, all of which she also post-processed herself, including the lovely A Flower Wedding, which was DP’s 33,000th Unique Title. On top of that, she post-processed over 700 books for other Project Managers — making her responsible for contributing over 1,000 e-books to Project Gutenberg.
Although Emmy had a special love for children’s literature, her projects ranged from agriculture to Westerns and just about everything in between. To celebrate Emmy’s amazing legacy, DP’s General Manager, Linda Hamilton, put together a Project Gutenberg Bookshelf, Emmy’s Picks. It’s a library of extraordinary range and beauty.
And today, May 1, 2017, begins Children’s Book Week, a celebration of books for young readers, and a time that was always dear to Emmy’s heart. DP volunteers are making an extra effort for the celebration to produce children’s books in Emmy’s honor.
Browse, read, enjoy, remember.
This post was contributed by Linda Cantoni, a Distributed Proofreaders volunteer.
Hot off the Press 
Emmy will always be with us in our hearts and thoughts.
I recorded ‘Our little German Cousin’ for librivox, unaware of the fact that Emmy was the post processor. So you see, her legacy doesn’t only live on in writing, but in speech, too, because I’m convinced that many more of the books she worked on have been recorded for librivox . 🙂
I smooth-read “A Flower Wedding” and many other books for Emmy. I love the idea of a bookshelf to remember her by. And, Bel, it’s marvelous that you recorded one of her books for Librivox, too.
I am a Project Manager that never did the post processing myself. Emmy took many of my children’s books that had difficult text and illustrations. The output was flawless and as beautiful as the original book. One project had a few paragraphs that had the text swirl like going down a funnel. I instructed the yet to be assigned post process to use a graphic of the page and so the reader would know how the book was done but just do the text as normal. Emmy took that book. She reproduced the text almost perfectly as in the book. We miss you Emmy, thanks for spending some of you life with us and bless us with you artistic love.
This was an enjoyable piece.
[…] Miller, known to her friends as Emmy, performed numerous roles at DP. As a project manager, she contributed 321 books, which she also post-processed, and she post-processed over 700 books contributed by others. Her legacy is celebrated here. […]