We all do it. Sitting in a meeting or a waiting room, we pick up a pen and scrap of paper and mindlessly start to scribble. We’re in good company: Ernest Hemingway, Claude Monet, Queen Victoria and many other notable names throughout history did it too. And now you can see the fruits of their mindless labor, all in one place.
A new book, “Scrawl: An A to Z of Famous Doodles,” brings together two centuries’ worth of sketches by nearly 100 of the world’s most important artists, politicians, and scientists. They were collected over the course of 40 years by the late David Schulson, who founded a company—now called Schulson Autographs—that sought out and sold handwritten ephemera by famous figures.
The book, published by Rizzoli, will be available to the public on May 14. It was compiled Schulson’s wife, Claudia Strauss-Schulson, and their children, Caren and Todd Strauss-Schulson.
Jack Kerouac, painting made with house paint and glue. Courtesy of Rizzoli.
Included are pictures and notes in the marginalia of artist sketchbooks, office letterhead, and even White House meeting notes. Each provides a glimpse into the personality of the illustrator. Some are deeply fitting: conceptual artist Sol LeWitt pointing out the “points on the plane of a napkin,” for instance, or a psychedelic drawing by Beat Generation novelist Jack Kerouac.
Others are more generic—a silly smiley face by fashion photographer Richard Avedon or an ad-hoc to-do list by Steve Jobs. (Celebrities: they’re just like us!) Unsurprisingly, there are also nudes: from the crude and cartoonish, like a comically well-endowed self-portrait by filmmaker Federico Fellini, to the strangely sensual, such as an intimate sketch of faces and naked body parts by actor Marlon Brando.
You can find more information on “Scrawl: An A to Z of Famous Doodles” here. See examples from the book below.
Roland Torpor, sketch with pen and ink. Courtesy of Rizzoli.
Marlon Brando. Courtesy of Rizzoli.
Tennessee Williams. Courtesy of Rizzoli.
Sketch by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, March 3, 1959. Courtesy of Schulson Autographs.
Steve Jobs. Courtesy of Schulson Autographs.
Queen Victoria. Courtesy of Schulson Autographs.
Pablo Picasso, drawing, Paris 1951. Courtesy of Schulson Autographs.
Sol LeWitt, sketch on a napkin. Courtesy of Schulson Autographs.
Federico Fellini. Courtesy of Schulson Autographs.
Romare Bearden, letter to David Schulson, late 1970s. Courtesy of Schulson Autographs.
Richard Avedon. Courtesy of Schulson Autographs.
Andy Warhol, sketch. Courtesy of Schulson Autographs.