Jim, c1970

Welcome to the first blog post for the Jim Haynes Living Archive Project! Jim is all about connecting with people so hopefully this blog will make some new connections.

 So who was Jim Haynes? Below is a very short biography. If you want more then have a look at his website: https://www.jim-haynes.com/life/

1933 – Jim is born in Louisiana, USA

1955 – enlists in the US Air Force and is posted to the base at Kirknewton outside Edinburgh

1959 – leaves the air force and opens The Paperback Bookshop in Edinburgh which becomes a theatre venue and gallery space

1962 – helps organise the International Writers Conference attended by Muriel Spark, Norman Mailer and others

1963 – co-founds the Traverse Theatre Club

1966 – moves to London and opens the London Traverse and is on the editorial board of the underground newspaper International Times (IT)

1967 – founds the Arts Lab on Drury Lane

1969 – launches the sexual freedom paper Suck and moves to Paris. Teaches media studies and sexual politics at the University of Paris 8 in the Bois de Vincennes for the next 29 years

1971 – becomes a representative of the World Government movement

1974 – publishes Hello I Love You – a celebration of sexual liberation

1978 – starts his Sunday salon dinners which are open to the world

1980 – launches Handshake editions

1984 – Faber and Faber publish his participatory autobiography ‘Thanks for Coming!’

1988 – starts publishing the People to People travel directories

1988 – starts publishing the People to People travel directories

2002 – starts to use his Paris atelier as a gallery

2016 – appears as a live exhibit in a V&A exhibition about the 1960s

2019 – still lives in his Paris atelier and still hosts his Sunday dinners

Jim at a Sunday dinner, c2000

Future blogs will look at particular eras of Jim’s life  and some of his interests. We might also feature guest blogs from archives with other counterculture collections. So watch this space!