During an interview with Tim Ferriss, Neil Gaiman talks about his love for Leuchtturm notebooks and the Pilot Falcon fountain pen, among other writing tools: Tim Ferriss: You mentioned distraction earlier and your dangerously adorable son, which I certainly agree with. I had read somewhere, actually, before I get to that, this might seem like a … Continue reading Neil Gaiman on Notebooks and Fountain Pens
I loved these images of Octavia Butler’s notebook, with her affirmations about becoming a successful writer. (She eventually did.) The post at Black Cardigan Edit where I found these also shows off some notebook pages by Sylvia Plath and Frida Kahlo! Other posts about writers’ notebooks Other posts about artists notebooks and sketchbooks
Our latest notebook addict of the week is Vanessa Berry, an Australian writer and artist. In a 2012 blog post, she talks about her collection of 31 diaries, written starting in 1998. The photo of the whole collection is striking: The close-ups of the individual notebooks are also fascinating. She mostly uses old notebooks found … Continue reading Notebook Addict of the Week: Vanessa Berry
I recently read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and was struck by this passage in the biographical note about the author, Muriel Spark: I had not heard of James Thin, but sadly, when I looked them up, it turns out that this long-standing bookseller, stationer and publisher no longer exists, and their Edinburgh shop … Continue reading Muriel Spark’s Notebooks
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
I always love seeing articles about writers’ archives. I’d love to go through some of those boxes and see all the notebooks within, even if I haven’t read that writer’s work! Saul Bellow is an example… I haven’t read his books, but he left an extensive archive including lots of notebooks, one of which is … Continue reading Saul Bellow’s Notebook
Bestselling author and artist Austin Kleon keeps some great notebooks (see here for other posts I’ve done featuring his work) , and I love this shot of some of his collection. Based on the dates, he goes through about 8 per year, and this photo was from March 2018, so I’m sure there are quite … Continue reading Notebook Addict of the Week: Austin Kleon
I found this week’s addict via Pinterest, which linked back to her Flickr photos. As J. F. Penn, Joanna is a thriller writer. (Her books are described by readers as “Dan Brown meets Lara Croft.” Sounds fun!) As Joanna Penn, she has also published several how-to books about how to self-publish and market books, public … Continue reading Notebook Addict of the Week: Joanna Penn
This is from a couple of months ago, a notebook that belonged to Agatha Christie was being auctioned: Crime novelist Agatha Christie’s handwritten notebook in which she plotted ideas for one of her detective novels is up for auction. The 1948, “regular, off-the-shelf†bound notebook, which features a hand-drawn ink sketch Christie made to illustrate … Continue reading Agatha Christie’s Notebook
I was not familiar with Japanese author Shunei Fujisawa, but the publication of some of his notebooks was a notable event in Japan. Shuhei Fujisawa (1927-1997) recorded the deep sorrow he felt over the loss of his wife, Etsuko, in a pocketbook, excerpts of which his sole daughter, Nobuko Endo, has published in a magazine … Continue reading Shunei Fujisawa’s Notebooks