Notebooks & Journals

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  Leuchtturm1917 Medium (A5) Hardcover, Dotted

  251 numbered pages, table of contents, two ribbons · Anthracite

  A favourite of journalers and bullet-journalists; numbered pages, an index, and an expandable back pocket make it a sturdier everyday alternative to the Moleskine.

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  Moleskine Classic Notebook, Hardcover, Large, Ruled

  5 × 8.25 in., 240 pages, elastic closure · Black

  The black-oilcloth notebook carried by Hemingway, Chatwin, and a generation of writers since. Acid-free ivory paper, ribbon marker, and an expandable inner pocket.

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  Midori MD Notebook, A5, Plain Paper

  Designphil · 176 pages, cream MD paper

  A minimalist Japanese softcover with thin, fountain-pen friendly cream paper. Designed to be opened flat and used as a writer’s working notebook rather than a presentation object.

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  Field Notes Original Kraft 3-Pack, Ruled

  3.5 × 5.5 in. pocket memo books, 48 pages each

  Three saddle-stitched pocket notebooks made in the U.S.A. — small enough to live in a back pocket for first drafts, overheard lines, and walking notes. Ruled paper.

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Pens for Drafting

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  Pilot Metropolitan Fountain Pen

  Black barrel, classic design, medium nib · cartridge + squeeze converter

  The standard recommendation as a first “real” fountain pen: a brass barrel, a smooth Japanese steel nib, and a price well under thirty dollars. Ships ready to use.

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  LAMY Safari Fountain Pen

  Charcoal, medium nib · designed by Wolfgang Fabian, 1980

  A modernist German classic in tough ABS plastic, with a grip section moulded for a relaxed three-finger hold. Nibs swap easily, so a single pen can grow with the writer.

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  Kaweco Classic Sport Fountain Pen

  Black, medium nib · pocket-sized, posts to full length

  A faithful reissue of the 1911 octagonal pocket pen. 4 inches capped; 5 inches when the cap is posted on the back. Ideal for a coat pocket on a long walk.

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  TWSBI ECO Fountain Pen

  Clear demonstrator, medium nib · piston filler, 2 ml capacity

  A piston-fill demonstrator at an unusually low price: holds a generous reservoir of bottled ink, and shows the level through the transparent barrel. The natural step up from the Metropolitan or Safari.

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  Pilot Varsity Disposable Fountain Pen, 7-Color Pack

  Pre-filled, medium steel nib · black, blue, red, pink, green, purple, turquoise

  A no-commitment way to try a fountain pen, or to draft in seven different inks at the same desk. The nib is a real iridium tip, not a felt-tip imitation.

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  Pilot G2 Premium Gel Pens, Fine Point 0.7 mm

  Black ink, retractable, dozen pack

  If a fountain pen is one step too many, this is the everyday default: smooth, archival-quality gel ink in a refillable barrel. Twelve to a box keeps one in every coat pocket and bag.

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  Pilot Iroshizuku Bottled Ink Mini Set (Spring)

  Chiku-rin, Murasaki-shikibu, Asa-gao · 3 × 15 ml in gift box

  Three bottles of Pilot’s premium fountain-pen ink — bamboo green, beautyberry purple, morning-glory blue — in a small presentation box. The natural pairing for any of the fountain pens above.

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Pocket Hardcovers — Giftable Editions

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  Dickinson: Poems

  Emily Dickinson; Peter Washington (ed.) · Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets, 1993

  A 256-page sewn-cloth pocket hardcover with silk ribbon marker and decorative endpapers. The Pocket Poets are designed to be given as gifts and carried as objects in their own right.

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  Frost: Poems

  Robert Frost; John Hollander (ed.) · Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets, 1997

  A pocket hardcover gathering of Frost’s most-quoted poems — Mending Wall, Birches, The Road Not Taken, Stopping by Woods, and many lesser-known equals.

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  Whitman: Poems

  Walt Whitman; Peter Washington (ed.) · Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets, 1994

  Forty-two poems including Song of Myself, Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, and I Hear America Singing. A handsome companion to the Frost and Dickinson volumes; the three look well together on a shelf.

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  Walt Whitman: Poetry and Prose

  Justin Kaplan (ed.) · Library of America vol. 3, 1982

  The Library of America’s acid-free, sewn-cloth omnibus: the complete Leaves of Grass, the 1855 first edition in full, and the prose — nearly 1,400 pages in a single volume bound to last.

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  Poem-a-Day: 365 Poems for Every Occasion

  Academy of American Poets; introduction by Edward Hirsch · Abrams, 2015

  A year of contemporary American poems drawn from the Academy’s long-running Poem-a-Day series, organised loosely by the seasons. A natural gift for someone starting a daily reading habit.

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For the Desk and the Writing Practice

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  Magnetic Poetry: Original Kit

  Dave Kapell · over 400 magnetic word tiles

  The fridge-poem kit that started a small industry in 1993. Several hundred lyrical and grammatical tiles — verbs, nouns, prepositions, prefixes — assembled to read like a battered collected poems.

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  The Poet’s Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry

  Kim Addonizio & Dorianne Laux · W. W. Norton, 1997

  Thirty short chapters by two working poets on subject, image, line, voice, and revision — each closing with a writing exercise. The most-used craft book in MFA programs after the Norton anthology.

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