I have saved almost all the pocket size notebooks I’ve used in my life, except for the very earliest ones. I was drawn to small diaries and notebooks before I could even write, and the very first ones I remember using were Hallmark promotional diaries given away at the local drugstore– but I don’t have … Continue reading Hallmark Diaries from the 1970s
In my post about Denbigh notebooks, I linked to a site that had a photo of a Denbigh notebook from the 1960s: Drew Family Diaries. These diaries are worth a post of their own! Roger Drew created a website to share this amazing collection of diaries kept by members of his family, starting with his … Continue reading The Drew Family Diaries
These Harvard Coop diaries mark the beginnings of my serious obsession with little black notebooks. I started using them at around the age of 9. Before that, I’d had some 3 x 5″ spiral notebooks, and I liked to get the little Hallmark month-to-a-page planners that drugstores would give out for free, but I barely … Continue reading Harvard Coop Diaries
Continuing with Part 2 of my exploration of spiral notebooks and wire-o notebooks from my collection! As in Part 1, all of these are 3 x 5″ notebooks unless otherwise noted, and mostly from the 1980s. The Roaring Spring notebooks seem very classic and looked a little retro even in the ’80s. I loved those … Continue reading Wire-O and Spiral Notebooks from My Collection, Part 2
Some of my earliest notebook obsessions were spiral and wire-o binding notebooks. Back when I was a kid, other kinds of notebook were not as easy to find, or were prohibitively expensive for a kid to buy with her allowance. Nowadays, I rarely find myself using a wire bound notebook, but I thought I’d take … Continue reading Spiral and Wire-O Notebooks from My Collection, Part 1
Only the biggest stationery geek in the world goes around saying things like “I LOVE MOTTLED PRESSBOARD!” Only the biggest stationery geeks probably even know what it is… in fact, I myself didn’t know what it was until just recently. Or rather, I knew what it was but I didn’t know what it was called. … Continue reading Mottled Pressboard Notebooks
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Fabulous page from the diary of artist Duncan Hannah, as featured in the Paris Review: Source: Diaries, 1970–73 In a separate article, the Paris Review also featured this photo of all Hannah’s diaries: Source: Duncan Hannah’s New York Found via Austin Kleon’s Inspiring Diaries
Here’s an interesting question from a reader named Jeff: I have a Roaring Spring notebook that was used as a journal by a family member, the contents are very precious to us but there’s some confusion as to the year(s) that the contents refer to! (The writer only used Month/Day annotations, no year.) Some family … Continue reading Roaring Spring Notebook from the 1980s?
Continuing to celebrate this blog’s 10th anniversary, here’s another blast from the past– the past of this blog, and my own past as a notebook addict! The post below is just one of many I’ve written about my own collection of notebooks saved from throughout my life. (See My Collection) The 1970s and 1980s ones … Continue reading Revisiting the Past: 1980s Roaring Spring Spiral Notebook (2009)
