John Leslie Mixson
and the Publishing of the
Mixon-Mixson Books
Publishing Book 1
Page 6
Mr. Barnett’s letter would have likely made John wonder if he would ever get the last of his books then on March 18th John received a letter from Mary Barnett Curtis saying,[f16-d47]
“Have you been able to get any satisfaction out of Mrs. Barnett? Mrs. Barnett, on the recommendation of the other stock holder, is undergoing a trial period as manger of the publishing company. She has no genealogical background, all her work, even the editing of you books was done under my direct supervision.
Mrs. Barnett does have great ability in editing and typing it was for this reason I selected her to train. It will be determined within the next 60 to 90 days whether or not she qualifies or should be replaced.
I’m afraid that Mrs. Barnett is trying to “Up the Organization” on me and I cannot exactly pin down what she is trying to do. To my knowledge she has never asked Arrow Printing Company to run or complete any part of your book but she keeps telling everyone that Arrow Printing Company refuses to deliver these “pages” that Arrow is supposed to have printed.
When I discovered that she had let your book to an unqualified printer I cautioned her to stay on top of him. On completion of the job I discovered that he could not deliver 500 completed books I refused to allow payment for any except the portion of the order that he could deliver completed which was some 300 and some odd books. I do not know whether full delivery was every made or not since she would never definitely answer me on this.
My husband is very upset by these accusations which are passed around verbally by her but which accusation he cannot secure in writing. This situation reminds me of the story of the Gossip whose penance for gossiping was to go around to everyone she had gossiped to and let fly a hand full of feathers, completing the rounds she was to go back and pick-up all the feathers.”
With Mrs. Barnett Curtis’s husband being the owner of Arrow Printing, it was beginning to sound like a three ring circus with John being caught in the middle.