Item 3.16: Tanka* for the Memories
(Originally published in the May 2007 issue of "UFO Magazine.") By Larry W. Bryant UFO secrecy,
official or private,
cheats society;
but preserving UFOlit
benefits all of us Perhaps you've heard a horror story like one of the following: Some years ago, a UFOlogist in Nebraska fell under the influence of a religious group convinced that his UFO research conflicted with their tenets. He thus opted to destroy his entire collection of UFO literature - in hopes of self-reforming his errant ways of viewing the universe. Later, he recanted that precipitous move; but the damage turned out to be irreparable. Next, the UFO files of another UFOlogist, then a Californian, suffered a similar fate - but not at his own hands. Instead, the culprit was his estranged wife, who, in a fit of unholy acrimony, decided to let a storage company dispose of his collection for failure to keep the storage fee paid up. (Now, please spare me any other such cases; they're just too painful to my aging eyes and ears!) Yes, just as my own 50-year-old collection of UFOana continues to ripen with age here in my 800-square-foot condo unit (which I call the world's largest filing cabinet), so do I, its dutiful custodian, attract the years like a magnet. Long ago, I gave up trying to read all this stuff - which ranges from books (domestic and foreign) to journals, magazines, newsletters, pamphlets, audio/video tapes, litigation papers, historical/bibliographic studies, monographs, novels, newsclippings, cartoons/comic strips/comic books, and reams of UFO-research correspondence. Nowadays, I look upon these treasured items as my unwittingly dependent children - whereby I remain somewhat burdened by their presence but nevertheless steadfast in my determination to subject them to no more abuse than some occasional benign neglect. In a paean to the fate of my collection, published on June 5, 1982, under the title "Propose Set up UFO Reference Center" (in the now-defunct NYC newspaper News World), I discussed, in solemn tone, the choices one might face in arriving at a decent disposition for one's UFOlogical assets: "If UFOlit - as [UFO bookseller] Bob Girard calls the genre - merits any preservation and perpetuation whatsoever, then how can the average collector escape the civic duty implicit in that realization? After . . . decades of growth in the UFO-oriented publishing industry, isn't it time that the resultant cumulative testimonial to the greatest untold story of all time be placed in the hands of library science and library security?" Luckily, since my posing that question, more and more researchers have joined the chorus of commitment. For example: George Fawcett of North Carolina donated a truckload of his UFOana to the International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell, N. M. More recently, former Virginia resident John Anderson donated more than a box load of duplicate, vintage UFO books to the Fund for UFO Research, Inc., so that the proceeds from selling them can be applied to acceptable research projects. Steve Zalewski of Syracuse, N. Y., took it upon himself to build a UFOlit collection at the library of Onondaga Community College. In doing so, he insisted on including only the more serious, scholarly material - no frivolous or spurious items need apply. In Columbus, Ohio, at the library of Ohio State University, you'll find what may well be the premier publicly accessible UFO archive. Alas, the severity of its security makes it unavailable via the Interlibrary Loan Service. As the brainchild of MUFON state director for Ohio William Jones, the OSU archive remains a work-in-progress for him and his colleagues. In an e-message to me of Sept. 14, 1999, Jones wrote: "We need a lot of older material to fill in blanks in the collection. Can anyone help?" That "anyone" certainly could be one Jan Aldrich, director of http://www.project1947.com/shg/ . His web site's "Sign Historical Group" subpage contains an inventory of the OSU collection, to which Aldrich has donated some blank-filling material of his own. Aldrich, in New England, remains among the top-tier collectors of UFOana, whose other members include Barry Greenwood of Stoneham, Mass.; Richard W. Heiden of Milwaukee; Lucius Farish of Plumerville, Ark. (retired publisher of the monthly UFO Newsclipping Service); and me, here in Alexandria, Va. (overtci@cavtel.net). But I'm aware of some other collectors' grappling their way up the ladder of UFOlit enrichment, some of whom are - guess what! - WOMEN. In fact, one of them, Dr. Brenda Denzler of North Carolina (author of The Lure of the Edge: Scientific Passion, Religious Beliefs, and the Pursuit of UFOs), recently tried to help me find an academic home for my material (once I've decided to part with it). Try as she might, though, she failed to convince the library at Duke University to become interested in my offer. Later, I, too, struck out when I queried the accessions librarians at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., and the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg. I was seeking an institution close enough to me and/or to my daughter's home so that my estate could more readily monitor terms of the collection's placement and management. That was Plan A. Plan B calls for me to entrust to my daughter the public sale of the collection - possibly via an Internet auction service. That way, everyone gains: serious collectors/preservers of some near-priceless UFOlit; and my daughter in her quest for supplementing a meager retirement income. I shall let her decide whether there'll be a Plan C - i.e., auctioning off part of the stuff and donating the other part to help fill in some more blanks in the OSU archive. In the meantime, I plan to continue avoiding contact with religious fanatics and vindictive ex-wives.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
* Though he fancies himself far from being a poet, Larry W. Bryant has tried his hand, once or twice, at composing a tanka - an ancient form of Japanese poetry consisting of five lines totaling 31 or fewer syllables (in a 5,7,5,7,7 syllabic pattern). His next book, which he occasionally refers to as "the world's longest book review," will bear the title Conjuring Gretchen: The Saga of Virginia's Preacher-Hypnotist (to be published this spring by Galde Press, Inc. - http://www.galdepress.com ).
official or private,
cheats society;
but preserving UFOlit
benefits all of us Perhaps you've heard a horror story like one of the following: Some years ago, a UFOlogist in Nebraska fell under the influence of a religious group convinced that his UFO research conflicted with their tenets. He thus opted to destroy his entire collection of UFO literature - in hopes of self-reforming his errant ways of viewing the universe. Later, he recanted that precipitous move; but the damage turned out to be irreparable. Next, the UFO files of another UFOlogist, then a Californian, suffered a similar fate - but not at his own hands. Instead, the culprit was his estranged wife, who, in a fit of unholy acrimony, decided to let a storage company dispose of his collection for failure to keep the storage fee paid up. (Now, please spare me any other such cases; they're just too painful to my aging eyes and ears!) Yes, just as my own 50-year-old collection of UFOana continues to ripen with age here in my 800-square-foot condo unit (which I call the world's largest filing cabinet), so do I, its dutiful custodian, attract the years like a magnet. Long ago, I gave up trying to read all this stuff - which ranges from books (domestic and foreign) to journals, magazines, newsletters, pamphlets, audio/video tapes, litigation papers, historical/bibliographic studies, monographs, novels, newsclippings, cartoons/comic strips/comic books, and reams of UFO-research correspondence. Nowadays, I look upon these treasured items as my unwittingly dependent children - whereby I remain somewhat burdened by their presence but nevertheless steadfast in my determination to subject them to no more abuse than some occasional benign neglect. In a paean to the fate of my collection, published on June 5, 1982, under the title "Propose Set up UFO Reference Center" (in the now-defunct NYC newspaper News World), I discussed, in solemn tone, the choices one might face in arriving at a decent disposition for one's UFOlogical assets: "If UFOlit - as [UFO bookseller] Bob Girard calls the genre - merits any preservation and perpetuation whatsoever, then how can the average collector escape the civic duty implicit in that realization? After . . . decades of growth in the UFO-oriented publishing industry, isn't it time that the resultant cumulative testimonial to the greatest untold story of all time be placed in the hands of library science and library security?" Luckily, since my posing that question, more and more researchers have joined the chorus of commitment. For example: George Fawcett of North Carolina donated a truckload of his UFOana to the International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell, N. M. More recently, former Virginia resident John Anderson donated more than a box load of duplicate, vintage UFO books to the Fund for UFO Research, Inc., so that the proceeds from selling them can be applied to acceptable research projects. Steve Zalewski of Syracuse, N. Y., took it upon himself to build a UFOlit collection at the library of Onondaga Community College. In doing so, he insisted on including only the more serious, scholarly material - no frivolous or spurious items need apply. In Columbus, Ohio, at the library of Ohio State University, you'll find what may well be the premier publicly accessible UFO archive. Alas, the severity of its security makes it unavailable via the Interlibrary Loan Service. As the brainchild of MUFON state director for Ohio William Jones, the OSU archive remains a work-in-progress for him and his colleagues. In an e-message to me of Sept. 14, 1999, Jones wrote: "We need a lot of older material to fill in blanks in the collection. Can anyone help?" That "anyone" certainly could be one Jan Aldrich, director of http://www.project1947.com/shg/ . His web site's "Sign Historical Group" subpage contains an inventory of the OSU collection, to which Aldrich has donated some blank-filling material of his own. Aldrich, in New England, remains among the top-tier collectors of UFOana, whose other members include Barry Greenwood of Stoneham, Mass.; Richard W. Heiden of Milwaukee; Lucius Farish of Plumerville, Ark. (retired publisher of the monthly UFO Newsclipping Service); and me, here in Alexandria, Va. (overtci@cavtel.net). But I'm aware of some other collectors' grappling their way up the ladder of UFOlit enrichment, some of whom are - guess what! - WOMEN. In fact, one of them, Dr. Brenda Denzler of North Carolina (author of The Lure of the Edge: Scientific Passion, Religious Beliefs, and the Pursuit of UFOs), recently tried to help me find an academic home for my material (once I've decided to part with it). Try as she might, though, she failed to convince the library at Duke University to become interested in my offer. Later, I, too, struck out when I queried the accessions librarians at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., and the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg. I was seeking an institution close enough to me and/or to my daughter's home so that my estate could more readily monitor terms of the collection's placement and management. That was Plan A. Plan B calls for me to entrust to my daughter the public sale of the collection - possibly via an Internet auction service. That way, everyone gains: serious collectors/preservers of some near-priceless UFOlit; and my daughter in her quest for supplementing a meager retirement income. I shall let her decide whether there'll be a Plan C - i.e., auctioning off part of the stuff and donating the other part to help fill in some more blanks in the OSU archive. In the meantime, I plan to continue avoiding contact with religious fanatics and vindictive ex-wives.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
* Though he fancies himself far from being a poet, Larry W. Bryant has tried his hand, once or twice, at composing a tanka - an ancient form of Japanese poetry consisting of five lines totaling 31 or fewer syllables (in a 5,7,5,7,7 syllabic pattern). His next book, which he occasionally refers to as "the world's longest book review," will bear the title Conjuring Gretchen: The Saga of Virginia's Preacher-Hypnotist (to be published this spring by Galde Press, Inc. - http://www.galdepress.com ).
