Many equate the word “archive” with a dim and dusty room full of ponderous and musty, imponderably dull books important only to a few weird souls whose work will never see the light of public day. Yet hidden in archives are the vibrant stories of people, their thoughts, and the events and movements they experienced. Hakan Blomqvist covers one of these sources about “the first decades of the UFO movement, especially the contactee scene.” John Keel figures in Blomqvist’s story, but we turn to another source for Keel’s correspondence with the Flying Saucer Review editor in A Letter from Charles Bowen, January 19, 1967. Doug Skinner highlights Bowen’s sense that some of the stigma of ufology was “waning” at the time. Bowen’s emphasis on quoting references in articles where possible is also refreshing. More interesting tidbits from that time period appear in A Letter to Charles Bowen, January 29, 1969 (Note that the year is incorrect in the title). Flying Saucer Review Vol 13 No. 2 (March-April, 1967) contains the heavily-referenced article on the 1966 American UFO flap that Keel mentions writing for Bowen. Among other fascinating items, Keel’s “North America 1966: Development of a Great Wave” contains an early mention of “UFO cattle-rustling,” and echoes some of Bowen’s sentiments about the “waning” but still present stigma about UFO discourse. (WM)

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