Notebooks

The notebooks cover virtually the whole of Pitfield's creative life (there is a gap between June 1927 and February 1932). He treated them as both sketchbooks and commonplace books, carrying the current one with him wherever he went, in a specially designed coat pocket. They contain sketches - both artistic and musical - poems, quotations from his reading, teaching notes and the occasional newspaper cutting. Especially attractive are the many pencil, pen-and-ink or watercolour sketches of places visited. An extraordinary record of a full and creative life, they reflect his ongoing concerns and the sources of his inspiration. Recurring themes include the natural world, architecture, pacifism and vegetarianism. Each book is numbered in a single sequence; those from 1 - 39 were bound in threes and these rebound and additionally numbered 1-13 (so that, for example, number 6 contains books 25-27). This numbering is somewhat confused, as 2, 4 and 5 are missing, but the continuous sequence runs throughout with the exception of books 4-11, which are missing. It appears that Pitfield planned to continue rebinding the notebooks into threes, as books 40-42 are marked inside Vol.14 no.s 1, 2 and 3.