A while ago, I wrote about Phil’s Stationery, one of the few remaining independent stores of its kind in NYC, selling new and vintage office supplies. When I stumbled across their midtown Manhattan store, I was in heaven. The sign alone is just so cool, and inside, there was a pleasantly dusty mess of notebooks, … Continue reading Vintage Office Supplies From Phil’s Stationery
I recently came across a 2005 post from Orange Crate Art, where he recognizes a description of a familiar notebook in a New Yorker article: From a New Yorker piece on Larry David and Curb Your Enthusiasm: Like many comedians, Larry David carries a pocket notebook for writing down ideas. “You’re in a parking garage, and Larry’s wallet … Continue reading Larry David’s notebook
An excellent article at LitHub by Bradford Morrow, author of the just-published Prague Sonata, among other books. Really interesting look at a writer’s process and why he prefers physical note-taking to digital methods. Big thanks to reader Raymond for sending me the tip! “My memory is good, but capricious at times. My scraps of paper … Continue reading Bradford Morrow’s Boorum & Pease Ledger
This week’s addict is right in line with the rest of this week’s theme. He has quite a collection of those old reddish-brown notebooks and is desperate to find more! He mentions them being made by Oxford, which must be the brand they ended up with in more recent years after Boorum & Pease was … Continue reading Notebook Addict of the Week: Jesse Jarnow
Here’s another simple notebook style from Boorum and Pease, and this one still seems to be available, at least in this size and format: Boorum & Pease Handy Size 7 x 4 3/8 Inch 96-Page Bound Memo Book with Stiff Tan Cover (6559) Below is from a post by Andy at Woodclinched (a blog about … Continue reading Another Retro Style from Boorum & Pease
Here’s another old-time favorite of mine: These are pocket sized notebooks made by Boorum & Pease and Esselte in the 1980s, with lined pages and a textured black hard cover. I look at these now and see them as a sort of proto-Moleskine. I was always looking for a nice “little black book,” in a … Continue reading Boorum & Pease/Esselte Black Notebooks
A reader recently wrote to me with the following question: “I have been looking for a particular kind of notebook for quite some time. I see them more in movies than anything, and examples include JFK and the most recent Captain America movie (see pic below). It’s very similar to the one you have posted … Continue reading Boorum and Pease Brown Taped-Spine Notebook
I thought it would be fun to have a whole week of posts about an old brand of notebooks that used to be ubiquitous and now has become almost– but not quite— extinct: Boorum and Pease. They started out as an independent manufacturer of blank books based in Brooklyn, but since then, they’ve been absorbed … Continue reading This Week’s Theme: Old Notebooks from Boorum & Pease
This week’s addict was found thanks to a tip from last week’s addict, June. John Dickerson wrote a piece on Slate that I think many of us will identify with, about our impulses to capture the moments of our lives, whether it be in paper notebooks or in smartphone snapshots. The article was accompanied by … Continue reading Notebook Addict of the Week: John Dickerson
Remember Michael Bierut’s 86 notebooks? Well, he’s up to 90 now. And they’re in an exhibition with a really cool poster! Read more: Michael Bierut‘s ‘30 Years 90 Notebooks’ at College of Saint Rose | New at Pentagram | Pentagram.