In the early 20th century, a small family-owned business in France kept many a Paris stationer stocked with little black notebooks that became the tool of choice for famous artists and writers of the time. Eventually the man who manufactured these notebooks died, leaving many to mourn the loss of the portable notebooks. When a publisher in Milan began making similar books, naming them Moleskine after Bruce Chatwin’s description of the small black notebooks he bought in Paris, the popularity of these notebooks experienced a resurgence. So who were some of these great thinkers who used the original Moleskines? Take a look below to learn about ten of the most famous.

1. Bruce Chatwin. This famous travel writer, author of In Patagonia, was a famous Moleskine enthusiast. In fact, he is credited with dubbing these small notebooks "Moleskine." When the original French manufacturer of these notebooks went out of business in 1986, Chatwin bought up all the remaining books he could find. Luckily for Moleskine fans everywhere, a publisher in Milan brought them back to life again in 1997.
2. Ernest Hemingway. Perhaps one of the most famous Moleskine users and one of the most recognizable names in American literature, Ernest Hemingway was a devotee to these notebooks. In his memoir, A Moveable Feast, Hemingway describes taking notes in his Moleskine at the Paris cafes he frequented. He is reported to have worked on writing The Sun Also Rises in his Moleskine at these cafes.
3. Andre Breton. Breton, considered the leader of the surrealist movement as well as a poet, famously used a Moleskine for his work. In fact, one of his notebooks is kept in his friend and fellow poet Paul Eluard’s library.
4. Luis Sepulveda. Just as his friend Bruce Chatwin, this writer and political activist from Chile was won over by the Moleskine. He writes about making notes in his Moleskine, given to him by Chatwin, while looking out over the sea.
5. Vincent van Gogh. Perhaps one of the most famous painters, van Gogh was known to use Moleskines for sketching the drafts of his paintings. A sketch of his painting, Sunflowers, can be seen in one of his Moleskines. The Museum of Amsterdam has seven of van Gogh’s Moleskines, used from 1881 to 1890, on display.
6. Henri Matisse. The unmistakable work of Matisse, who moved beyond the style of his Impressionist peers, was first sketched out in a Moleskine. As Matisse and van Gogh were friends, it is probable that one of these two enlightened the other about the existence of these notebooks.
7. Pablo Picasso. Picasso was also believed to have used the French Moleskines so popular with other great thinkers of his time. Last year a notebook that belonged to Picasso was confiscated at the Zurich airport, leading at least one person to wonder if it was a Moleskine.
8. Oscar Wilde. Oscar Wilde was known to often keep his notes and observations in a small notebook. While there is some question whether or not Wilde’s notebook was in fact a Moleskine, there is no question that he kept a small black notebook with him always.
9. Jean-Paul Sartre. Known as one of the most famous thinkers of the 20th century and one of the founders of existentialism, Sartre was known to have a penchant for Moleskine notebooks, as well as almost any other scrap of paper he could find. Like Hemingway, Sartre preferred to write in the Parisian cafes.
10. Louis-Ferdinand Celine. Considered one of the most influential writers of the 20th century, Celine is credited with modernizing French and world literature. However, some of his writings during World War II have flagged him as an anti-Semite. Despite the controversy over this French writer, one thing is not disputed–Celine used one of the small black notebooks made famous by so many of the great thinkers of the 20th century.