query re: Russian commonplace books

[Alina Israeli]

High school girls often have a notebook of favorite poem (maybe it's  
a descendent of Al'bom of Pushkin's time). The habit wanes with age.  
However this seems to be different from "commonplace books" http:// 
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonplace

On Sep 21, 2007, at 10:44 AM, Rebecca Jane Stanton wrote:

> Actually I have at least one friend in Petersburg who does keep  
> what would, I think, be best described as a commonplace book --  
> into which she writes poems and other fragments of literature she's  
> read that strike a chord with her, effectively anthologizing them  
> for personal use.  She produces it quite often when I'm around and  
> the subject of poetry comes up.  I can't imagine she is alone in  
> this -- especially given the Russian affinity for books and  
> libraries, the historical scarcity of commercially produced books,  
> the tradition of samizdat, etc. -- but the question of whether it  
> exists as a recognized cultural phenomenon with a name, much less a  
> known history, in Russia is one I'm not in a position to answer.
>
> Regards,
> RJS
>
>

Alina Israeli
LFS, American University
4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington DC. 20016
(202) 885-2387 	
fax (202) 885-1076
aisrael at american.edu




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