Skip to Content

Lost and Found Times Collection

 Collection
Identifier: PCMS-0048

Scope and Content Note

The Lost and Found Times Collection, 1975-2010, contains production material documenting the life of the magazine, material documenting John M. Bennett's personal poetry career, and a large series of mail art.

The material documenting all 54 issues of Lost and Found Times includes correspondence, submissions, dummies, magazine issues, and production material including paste-ups and small pieces of paper for arrangement as well as original artworks organized by issue. Al Ackerman's original Ack's Wacks and John Adam's Dr. D comics are among each issue's submission files. Grant applications and financial records are found at the end of the series.

Mail art makes up the bulk of the collection and includes mail artists such as Anna Banana, Cornpuff, Ficus Strangulensis, the Baron, Sticker Dude, Vittore Baroni, Tom Cassidy, Malok, Kimberly @ Varykino, Crackerjack Kid, FaGaGaGa, and Bob Grumman. A large portion of the mail art is unidentified and organized by size.

John M. Bennett's personal records include acceptance and rejection letters, manuscripts, submissions, notebooks, calls for work, electronic mail printouts, reviews, advertisements, conference material, and first appearances.

Dates

  • 1975-2010

Creator

Language of Materials

Majority in English, some in Spanish.

Terms of Access and Use

The Lost and Found Times Collection is open for research.

Copyright

Copyright of papers in the collection may be held by their authors, or the authors' heirs or assigns. Researchers must obtain the written permission of the holder(s) of copyright and the Poetry Collection before requesting photocopies and/or publishing quotations from materials in the collection. Once permission is obtained, most papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures unless otherwise specified.

Historical Note

John M. Bennett, born in Chicago, IL, 1942, is an experimental text, sound, visual and performance poet and mail artist. Bennett founded the small press Luna Bisonte Prods in 1974, and has published thousands of limited edition items of his own work and others, including the international literary journal Lost and Found Times, 1975-2005. Bennett worked in the Ohio State University Libraries since 1976, first in the Latin American Studies Library, then in the Rare Books and Manuscript Library, where he started the Avant Writing Collection. Bennett holds a PhD from the University of California Los Angeles in Latin American Literature.

Extent

68.0 Linear Feet (136 manuscript boxes, 1 large manuscript box, 1 oversize box, 9 cartons)

Abstract

Collection contains editorial and business records for Lost and Found Times magazine, 1975-2005, including manuscript submissions, correspondence, mail art, and production material for all 54 issues. The collection also contains personal poetry business records for John M. Bennett, including correspondence, manuscripts, electronic mail, and journals. The bulk of the collection is mail art.

Arrangement

Collection is organized into three series: I. Lost and Found Times, 1975-2005; II. Mail Art, 1979 - 2010; III. Personal Records, 1978-2010.

Acquisition Information

The Lost and Found Times Collection was purchased from John M. Bennett in 2010.

Accruals and Additions

No further accruals are expected to this collection.

Separated Materials

The following material has been integrated into the poetry collection. Items bearing notes and inscriptions have been photocopied and facsimiles have been placed in the manuscript collection.

  1. "Vasocongestion* Blues--*Blue Ball" by Jack Saunders
  2. "Art Brew: The Spent Effluent Collection" by Jack Saunders
  3. "Taint" by Jack Saunders
  4. "Potter's Ashes" by Jack Saunders
  5. "Off the Scale: Art Brew in American Celebrity Culture" by Jack Saunders
  6. "The Bicycle Cycle, Booklet 1" by Jack Saunders
  7. "The Bicycle Cycle, Booklet 2" by Jack Saunders
  8. "The Bicycle Cycle, Booklet 4" by Jack Saunders
  9. "Exhibit B" no. 4, edited by C.F. Kennedy, art director: Fido Dogstoevski
  10. fingermail: "2 slides of Damian Lopes", by Damian Lopes
  11. fingermail: "Double You" by JonArno Lawson
  12. fingermail: "Thin)gs" by LeRoy Gorman
  13. fingermail: "Poem for RK" by Bob Grumman
  14. fingermail: "Spin a Bible" by M.A.C. Farrant
  15. "The Subtle Journal of Raw Coinage", no. 45, by Michael Helsem and Geof Huth
  16. "Spunaway Roon" No. 4, "Touch and 2 Other Poems" by John Byrum
  17. "10 second grphcus anymotion" by Mike Miskowski

Processing Information

Processed by Elliot McNally, Rebecca Chapin, Kamaria Busby, October 2014.

Source

Title
Finding Aid for the Lost and Found Times Collection PCMS-0048
Status
Completed
Author
Finding aid prepared by Elliot McNally, Rebecca Chapin, and Kamaria Busby.
Date
2014
Description rules
Finding Aid Prepared Using Local Best Practices
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.
Sponsor
The processing of this collection was made possible through generous funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' "Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives" Project.

Repository Details

Part of the The Poetry Collection Repository

Contact:
420 Capen Hall
Buffalo New York 14260-1674 US
716-645-2917
716-645-3714 (Fax)