Commonplace Books

What are they?

• A product of Europe's early modern Renaissance, the commonplace was a book where one recorded favorite or interesting passages or quotes from one's reading, and one’s reflections on those passages.

Who used them?

• Thomas Jefferson• John Milton• John Locke• Henry David Thoreau

The handwritten cover page of one of Thomas Jefferson’s Legal commonplace books

How did they use them?

“They who used them broke texts into fragments and assembled them into new patterns by transcribing them in different sections of their notebooks. Then they reread the copies and rearranged the patterns while adding more excerpts. Reading and writing were therefore inseparable activities. They belonged to a continuous effort to make sense of things, for the world was full of signs: you could read your way through it; and by keeping an account of your readings, you made a book of your own, one stamped with your personality.” (The New York Review of Books, 2000)

What should go into my commonplace book?

• Quotes- With page or location number

• Personal reflections on reading

• Summaries of reading • Connections• Questions about text• Vocabulary with

definitions

Mrs. Groth’sCommonplace

book

Susan Wise Bauer“[A commonplace book] is neither an unadorned collection of facts, nor an entirely inward account of what’s going on in your heart and soul. Rather, it is the place where the reader takes external information and records it; appropriates it through a summary, written in the reader’s own words; and then evaluates it through reflection and personal thought. As you read, you should follow this three-part process: jot down specific phrases, sentences, and paragraphs as you come across them; when you’ve finished your reading, go back and write a brief summary of what you’ve learned; an then write your own reflections, questions, and thoughts.”

What are the benefits of a commonplace book?

“Keeping a commonplace book will prevent you from passively skimming over the words in a book. You may not be able to read while lying down; but your understanding of the material is likely to increase by leaps and bounds.”- A Writer’s Commonplace Book by Rosemary Friedman

In 1942, Forster finished reading Thomas Hodgkin’s Italy and Her Invaders

• His commonplace book reads, in part:• Why did Rome fall?...• Subsidiary causes were• 1. The foundation of Constantinople, due to

fear of Persia; danger from the north never realized. “It was the diffusion of her vital force over several nerve centers, Carthage, Antioch, Alexandria, but above all Constantinople that ruined her. Some of the old tree perished.”

2. Christianity

• Despite St. Augustine’s view. For it opposed the deification of the Emperor which consecrated the state…

• He concludes the summary of the reading, and then adds his own thoughts:

• “My original impulse in this excursion was the discovery of parallels, then I was diverted into interest in the past, now that too is flagging, and I have driven myself with difficulty to finish this analysis. My ignorance and the powerlessness of knowledge weigh on me…”

Model

• Forster restated the main points of his reading in his own words, quotes word for word where Hodgkin supplies a succinct sentence of his own, connects each of Hodgkin’s points to the woes of the present day, and then adds a heartfelt commentary on his own emotional reactions to the crumpling of great empires.