Lost and Found: An Illustrated Compendium of Things No Longer in General Use

by Robert Paul Smith

Very Good; Moderate wear to the dust cover. The binding is tight and square., clean ppgs. Satisfaction is Guaranteed!

152 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Authored the classic evocation of childhood: 'Where Did You Go? Out. What Did You Do? Nothing.'

Graduated from Columbia College in 1936, worked as a writer for CBS Radio and wrote four novels: So It Doesn't Whistle (1946); The Journey, (1943); Because of My Love (1946); The Time and the Place (1951).

The classic "battle-of-the-sexes" comedy 'The Tender Trap', a play by Smith and Dobie Gillis creator Max Shulman, opened in 1954 with Robert Preston in the leading role. It was later made into a movie starring Frank Sinatra and Debbie Reynolds.

'Where Did You Go? Out. What Did You Do? Nothing' is a nostalgic evocation of the inner life of childhood. It advocates the value to children of privacy; the importance of unstructured time; the joys of boredom; and the virtues of freedom from adult supervision. He opens by saying "The thing is, I don't understand what kids do with themselves any more." He contrasts the overstructured, overscheduled, oversupervised suburban life of the child in the suburban 1950's with reminiscences of his own childhood. He concludes "I guess what I am saying is that people who don't have nightmares don't have dreams. If you will excuse me, I have an appointment with myself to sit on the front steps and watch some grass growing."

Reviews

[Kirk · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the spirit of Where Did You Go? Out What Did You Do? Nothing and How to Do Nothing with Nobody All Alone by Yourself, Robert Paul Smith's Lost & Found presents further childhood reminiscences of a n increasingly remote age. All of the mundane, ordinary objects common to life in the 20s and 30s are given 2-3 pages of humorous recollection with a child's sensibility. As with all of the books I've read by Smith, there is the prevailing theme that, although the ways of living in the past might not have been easy, they were more worthwhile and imparted a sense of value to the finished products. He often compares the durability and reusability of the objects of his childhood to the disposable culture which flourished (or festered?) after World War II.

My favorite of the Lost & Found chapters is the razor strap hook and its depiction of the straight razor:

"Any man who shaved with a straight razor was a man with unlimited confidence in himself and in the future. He also believed in the staying power of a good piece of steel and in his ability to keep a cutting edge on same.
[...]Any man who had the guts to sharpen and face his own personal guillotine each morning of the year started each day as a hero. What happened when the safety razor came into fashion was that heroes went out. Emerson never could have written "Self-Reliance" after being abraded by an electric razor."