Common Book, August 22, 1996-April 2, 1997.

Series Five of The Paris Review Archives includes fifty-five office "common books" dating roughly 1957-1997. Common books were collaboratively written notebooks, kept by magazine staff and used for general office notes, containing reminders, contact information, records of phone messages, to-do lists, and other memoranda. Many common books contain ephemera such as newspaper clippings, office photographs, business cards, documents, and letters. In the words of novelist and former magazine staff member, Mona Simpson, common books were used for "anything and everything." These common books originated in the New York office of The Paris Review, with the sole exception of a volume kept in the Paris office (MA 5040 BD 2). The common books were left open in the office and moved around different desks and countertops. The preferred notebook for Paris Review common books was the 300-page-count Columnar Book manufactured by Boorum & Pease. The common books provide viewers a glimpse of the everyday workings of The Paris Review office, from the magazine's early infancy to its rise as an established literary publication and cultural icon of the twentieth-century American literary scene.