Notebooks

Ilf's notes not only portray the image of a writer but also reflect the diverse phenomena of the era "volens nolens". In the 1920s, Ilf was a newspaper journalist, working for the railway workers' newspaper "Gudok". He traveled on short... and long business trips across the country, writing reports. His thick notebooks are filled with facts, observations, and fine details. He was used to taking notes. For a journalist, this is impossible without it. For a writer, even more so. "Make sure to take notes," Ilf often told his co-author, "everything passes, everything is forgotten. I understand - you don't want to take notes. You want to look around, not write. But then you need to force yourself."