DANIEL'S NOTEBOOKS
DANIEL JOHNSTON's spiral-bound notebook collection - "Portrait of the artist as a young man"

It is our hope to regularly update this section with excerpts from the large number of notebooks that Daniel Johnston kept as a medium for his compulsive creative expression.  The notebooks  provide chronological record of his art and song writing, and even his state of mind.

Family members note that the spiral-bound lined-paper notebooks were such a regular part of Daniel, that they were not really "noticed".   From his earliest years, Daniel was given writing material and encouraged to draw, and seeing Daniel with a notebook was just "seeing Daniel".

The most amazing thing is that so many of the notebooks have been preserved.  Daniel hung on to them, valuing them as his life - as an extension of himself.  When he was apprehended during manic excursion and delusions, he is reported found carrying a pile of notebooks around as his only possessions.   Only in recent years have some been lost.   There may be as many as a dozen notebooks that are unaccounted for - normally sold by Daniel for quick cash at vulnerable moments.

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"Texas Trip - December 1980"