Writers And Their Notebooks by Diana Raab (Editor), Philip Lopate (Forward)

Philip Lopate is a very fine writer and essayist and so when I saw that he had written the forward to Writers And Their Notebooks edited by Diana M Raab (2010) I decided this was a book worth checking out.  I am also someone who loves journals and notebooks.

Writers and Their Notebooks is divided into five parts:  The Journal As Tool,  The Journal As Survival, The Journal For Travel, The Journal As Muse and The Journal For Life.  And with the exception of Sue Grafton most of the writers in this volume are not well known.  Here are passages by some of the essayists I recommend:

Kathleen Gerard in her essay Clearing The Deck writes about going through cancer treatments and not feeling like continuing with her daily journal:  

"So I made a bargain with myself: Do your twenty minutes, then the rest of the day is yours. At least you’ll keep your writing muscles from atrophy. With that in mind, I decided that because I was so emotional and unsettled, I’d use my journal simply to document factual events as they were happening—whether medical consultations or where I met friends for lunch. Deep down, I trusted the process, believing that the sense of disciplined constancy—however modified—could anchor me through the arising challenges"  

And my favorite essay Forgetting to Remember—Why I Keep a Journal by  Kyoko Mori.  She had a very difficult childhood and journaling got her through the hard times.  But at the beginning of her essay is this very nice passage about her grandfather who also kept a diary:

"My grandfather, Takeo Nagai, was the first person I knew who was serious about writing. In the summers when my mother, brother, and I visited his house in the Japanese countryside, every afternoon Takeo sat down at his desk with his diary—a small notebook with a cover, a different color for every year—and composed his entries with a fountain pen... He described the flowers blooming and the tomatoes ripening in the garden, the walks he took with my brother and me, the books he was reading and the neighbors who came to visit. Each day—no matter how eventful or quiet—was made to fit precisely in the allotted space. For my grandfather, writing was about discipline".

What I found interesting is that not every essayist in Writer's And Their Notebooks felt that keeping a notebook was such a great idea.  Peter Selgin in his humorous essay Keeping Up With The Days writes about how his journaling became an addiction where he was writing all the time.  He was even taking his notebook out on dates and at dinner with friends so he could jot a few things down.  And in Journaling Without The Journal Michelle Wildgen eventually gave up keeping a notebook because she felt it was interfering with the novels and stories she wanted to write.

For me, Writers And Their Notebooks is a 3 star read.  Some of the essays in this book really spoke to me but quite a few others I didn't connect with but other readers might feel differently.   I  closed the book wanting to read more from Kyoko Mori and Philip Lopate's essays are always worth reading.