Mixsonian Larry   

John Leslie Mixson
and the Publishing of the
Mixon-Mixson Books

Publishing Book 1
Page 5

John had had enough when on December 28th he sends a certified letter to Mrs. Barnett at ARP saying, “This will terminate my agreement with you and/or your Company to act as my selling agency.”[f16-d42]

 On February 5, 1971 John sends a letter to Mrs. Mary Curtis saying that he is still due 160 books for which the total costs for the 500 books for John was $3182.30. John reiterates some of the problems which Mitzi Barnett had told him and request that Mrs. Curtis send him a written statement telling him the true facts in the case.[f16-d45]

On February 13th John sends a letter to Mr. Travis Barnett and Mrs. Barnett saying from information he has learned that “American Reference Publishers I no longer a corporation, but is now owned by two or more individuals.”, and that he needs to know who the present owners are.   He goes on to ask who actually did the printing if was not ARP.  John says the expects the final books to be printed, bound and delivered no later than March 1st and that he was billed for a completed job on all the books a year ago which was paid in full.[f16-d46]

On February 26th John received a letter from Travis Barnett saying that Mr. Curtis did not print the book all the pages were folded and assembled at Arrow Printing and a few sections were short because they had to discard some copies due to printing quality.    He goes on to say all the printing for ARP was done by Mr. Curtis at the time but Arrow Printing was busy and agreed for another printer to do the printing but the folding and assembly would be done at Arrow Printing.[f16-d48]  He then says,

“Quite a bit of unpleasantness resulted because evidently he had changed his mind about who was to do the printing.” About American Reference Publishers he says, “Mr. Canning almost closed the company last year and filed for bankruptcy because no reasonable agreement could be worked out with the Curtis’s and he asked Mitzi to take the company on May 15, 1971, and at that time… At this time Mitzi took over management and in our attempts to obtain Mr. Curtis’ stock and issue new stock, Mr. Canning’s attorney and our attorney also requested deliver of you book pages in order for to completed the task. We have asked for them several times and they have never been delivered. Since Mitzi has taken over the management of ARP, we have been trying to satisfy obligations and contracts made by the previous management. Internal Revenue had tax liens against ARP for almost $3,000, about $5,000 was owed to book companies for books and all credit had been cut off, and about $1,200 worth of customers orders were unfilled because of the difficulty in ordering books and the company had been asked to move because were four months behind in rent.

Since Mitzi had taken over management of the company, all the tax liens have been paid off, the rent is current, we are on open account with the book companies, and the large back order of books have been filled. Mitzi dearly loves American Reference and has devoted the last year in saving the company and customers from losing everything. She has turned the company around and is now showing a profit with no help from anyone. She has worked 10 to 12 hours a day, six and seven days a week, without a salary. She has held up well but the strain and pressures are beginning to show.

Since Mitzi has assumed management, we have received no cooperation from the Curtises. Mr. Curtis has tried to file bankruptcy, sue for a judgement for a printing bill made under their management, called our creditors and tried to get them to sue us, had the mail change to his residence and other harassing factors.

We are sorry to trouble you with our internal problems but wished to acquaint you with the situation. If you will bear with us just a little longer we will have enough copies to fill all Mixson book orders. At the present, Mr. Canning holds no stock in American Reference, although he is very much interested in it ($43,000 worth.) We have no objections to you talking to Mr. Canning to verify any of the above facts as he is aware of the situation. Fifty per cent of the stock is owned by Mr. Curtis and 50 pers cent is owned by Mitzi and myself.

We are hoping that Mr. Curtis will soon realize that nothing can be gained by either party but perhaps a little personal satisfaction by suing, harassment and other deterring factors and that by cooperation we can issue additional stock to others who are now willing to invest their money and time to realize the goals much quicker for which the company was established.”

 

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