Re-Noted: Creative People and their Notebooks

Gift ideas for the note-book lovers in your life

A few days ago, I went to buy coffee beans. But, as usual, I found myself in the store’s notebook section. Looking at the black and white marbled composition notebooks, I thought: that’s Jean-Michel Basquiat’s notebook! Picking up a red spiral notebook, I thought: that’s Kurt Cobain’s notebook! Turning to the Five-Star notebook, I thought: that’s Octavia Butler’s notebook!

In honor of the holiday season, here’s an idea for the note-book lover in your life: gift them the same kind of notebook their favorite author/artist/musician used.

Many of the note-takers chronicled in Noted were devoted to particular notebooks. Of course, Ernest Hemingway loved Moleskine’s precursor, but lots of brilliant creatives used far less expensive notebooks that you can pick up for under $5.

Clockwise: Octavia Butler’s notebook, Jean-Michel Basquait’s notebook, Kurt Cobain’s notebook, and Toni Morrison’s notepad

I think this would make a fantastic present—especially if you paired the notebook with a printed edition of that person’s notes. You might even add a favorite line or two from that author/artist/musician to the first page of the blank notebook. I’ve included a few quotes to spark your creativity.

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Basquiat: Composition Notebooks

Basquiat bought his notebooks from the local drug store. And he filled them with poetry written in his distinctive handwriting.

Here are a few quotes I loved from Basquiat—extra points if you write them out in Basquiat’s distinctive handwriting.

I start with a picture and then finish it. I don’t think about art when I’m working. I try to think about life.

I cross out words so you will see them more: the fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them.¹

I was making one in an airplane once. I was copying some stuff out of a Roman sculpture book. This lady said ‘Oh, what are you studying.’ I said, ‘It’s a drawing.’²

Pair this notebook with Larry Warsh’s spectacular edition of Basquait’s notebooks.

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Octavia Butler’s 5-Star Notebooks

Sitting with Octavia Butler’s notes at the Huntington Library, I was excited to learn that she relied on the same notebooks I used through college: Mead’s Five-Star Series.

You might inscribe Octavia’s “essentials of success”:

Essentials of Success - Motivation

Persistence + determination

Self-discipline

Imagination + creativity

Excellence

Specific goals

Specialized knowledge

Adaptability

Responsibility

Cooperation

Self-reliance

Mental rehearsal

Time management

Concentration, Sustained Attention OEB

Pair this notebook with Lynell George’s beautiful exploration of Butler’s creative process, A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky.

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Kurt Cobain: Spiral Notebook

Cobain left behind over two-dozen spiral notebooks, filled with diary-like entries, lists of his favorite bands, lyric drafts, and cartoon strips.

Cobain collaged together entries from his notebook to form brilliant lyrics. He wrote,

...the reason why most of my lyrics don’t connect is that they’re all pieces of my poetry. I’ve used lines from all of these different poems—and in the first place none of the poems are about anything…8

Pair this notebook with an edition of Kurt’s journals.

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Rachel Carson’s Pocket-Sized Memo Book

The conservationist, Rachel Carson, confessed that her favorite “laboratory” was the natural word. She always carried a small notebook in her pocket so she could record her observations.

One of Carson’s pocket-sized notebooks, The Beinecke Library, Yale University

Carson explained that notes taken on the spot were especially valuable. They helped her record immediate impressions and “special observations.” She writes,

A few notes made on the spot, even under difficult conditions, have the freshness and detail that becomes blurred when one depends on remembering hours or days later. Even though rough, such notes bring the whole scene to life for me when later I wish to work it into the manuscript.³

Pair with Carson’s conversation-changing book, Silent Spring.

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Toni Morrison: Yellow Legal Pads

Toni Morrison’s great novels unfurled over hundreds of pages of yellow legal pads.

Here’s some of what Morrison said about her writing process:

I have so many things to do: I have to get it down someplace so that I can refresh my memory about certain things, not about the overall work I’m doing, but about the details which could slide by me and slip away.

I don’t have an outline. Sometimes I sit down and write out what could be called a précis, except that it goes on and on and on. It’s like a plot, but it isn’t; it’s just things I think about the people and what happens. Notes. They’re notes, I suppose, but sometimes they have continuity.⁴

Pair a yellow legal pad with any of Morrison’s dazzling novels or a collection of her essays like The Source of Self Regard.

One of Morrison’s drafts of Beloved, Princeton University, Box 13, Folder 15

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I’m not saying these notebooks will definitely lead to brilliant works of art, but there’s something powerful about encountering a favorite writer’s tools. Just remember this: the magic isn’t in the notebook. The magic is in you.⁵

As a bonus, you could also include a gift subscription to Noted. That way you’ll share fresh inspiration for how to fill a notebook throughout the year!

Moreover, a gift subscription to Noted, grants access to our Commonplace Book Club—the Winter edition starts on January 1st.

This is how I imagine the gift bundle:

You can download the Noted gift certificate here:

Noted Gift Certificate2

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In the spirit of the holidays, here’s 20% off yearly subscriptions (this applies to gifts too). It’s available until January 1st.

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Noted is fueled by you. Your ❤️’s and comments inspire me. As always, I would love to know your thoughts.

Yours in note-taking,

P.S. Paid subscribers, look out for a post on the pleasures of hand-made notebooks later this week.

1. Cited in “King for a Decade”.

2. Basquiat quoted in BK Museum Basquiat Notebooks, Dieter Buchart p. 43.

3. Carson Autobiographical Material, Beinecke Library, Box 108 Folder 2077.

4. Interview with Jane Bakerman. “The Seams Can’t Show: An Interview with Toni Morrison.” Black American Literature Forum, vol. 12, no. 2, 1978, pp. 56–60. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3041597.

5. This line is inspired by

Caroline Cala Donofrio

’s gorgeous writing, especially this post.