Tag: counterculture

Welcome Back!

October 29, 2020 / jim-haynes-living-archive / 0 Comments

After 6 months of furlough I am now back at work on the project – just in time for Jim’s 87th birthday! In fact I have just finished the papers relating to Jim’s publishing business, Handshake Editions. Below is a cover of one of his own books, Everything Is, in its third Handshake Edition.

And, I know this could not be less exciting for everyone else, but I now have shelving in the temporary storage room. No more having to shift a pile of boxes to access something. Just to give you an idea of the progress here are some before and after shots.

Storage room 6 months into the project

Storage room now!

Jim appears in the Counterculture Studies Journal

January 22, 2020 / jim-haynes-living-archive / 0 Comments

At the end of last year I co-ordinated and contributed to an article for the Counterculture Studies Journal titled ‘Thanks for Coming: Four Archival Collections and the Counterculture’. The article came about through my online search for other collections with similar themes to those in the Jim Haynes collection here. I made some good contacts at the University of Manchester and a number of other institutions. I also found this online journal run by the University of Wollongong in Australia and enquired about the possibility of contributing. I asked my fellow counterculture archivists if anyone wanted to collaborate on an article, and archivists Jessica Smith and Bruce Wilkinson and academic Dr Douglas Field from University of Manchester, and archivist Richard Wragg at University of Sussex volunteered. We’re hoping the article will increase the use of our collections as research interest in this area grows.

Our first guest blog

September 19, 2019 / jim-haynes-living-archive / 0 Comments

This is our first guest blog. Archivist Bruce Wilkinson at University of Manchester is working on counterculture collections held there. Dave Cunliffe’s collection (described below) includes many poetry magazines which creates a strong connection with Jim’s collection. Jim also collected a number of literary magazines such as Vagabond and Network Quodlibeta as well as publishing poets through Handshake editions.

Dave Cunliffe as a young man, Dave Cunliffe Collection, The University of Manchester Library. Photographer unknown.

Bruce is working on the literary archive of the poet, publisher and activist Dave Cunliffe recently acquired by the John Rylands Library. The collection includes several hundred poetry magazines and countercultural publications, a huge amount of correspondence and numerous photographs (many of which need identifying).

Cunliffe played an important part in the ‘British Poetry Revival’ (a phrase he coined), using magazines to distribute a literary avant-garde largely ignored by the mainstream media. He connected with an emerging US counterculture, using his BB Books press to promote veganism, animal rights and radical pacifism.

It is wonderful that the University of Manchester Library is preserving this important archive which complements the Dom Sylvester Houédard and Jeff Nuttall collections it already holds.

Thanks for Coming!

May 27, 2019 / jim-haynes-living-archive / 0 Comments

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

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!