The National Library in Jerusalem, Israel has just revealed to the public for the first time a collection of Franz Kafka’s papers, including some notebooks. The writings themselves have been published before, but without access to the original papers, people couldn’t see how he wrote, and doodled and sketched, as in the example below! Trove … Continue reading Franz Kafka’s Notebook
This week’s addict is a writer who does much of his work in notebooks. He recently finished a novel consisting of “116,386 words, 472 pages (almost a ream of paper), and numerous books of hand written script.” “I always write the first draft by hand, I find it more intimate than typing directly onto … Continue reading Notebook Addict of the Week: Kevin
Interesting– you don’t usually hear the term “sketchbook” applied to things this old. I think back then paper was a more valuable commodity and wasn’t used as much for practicing and doodling, as some of these pages seem to have been. Or else those rough pages just didn’t survive, and were perhaps erased and re-used. … Continue reading A 15th Century Sketchbook
Here’s something very cool from the British Library, which I noticed my friend at notizbuchblog.de posted about recently. On the library’s website, you can look through some wonderful old books, including priceless items like the poet and artist William Blake’s notebook below: See more at Virtual books: images only – The Notebook of William Blake: … Continue reading Notebooks of William Blake and Leonardo da Vinci