Robert Indiana kept a series of illustrated journals during the late 1950s and 1960s, in which he discusses the development of his work as well as his daily life on Coenties Slip.

Indiana's journal page for January 9, 1962, contains sketches of two works. The first is of a 24 by 22-inch painting, The Erred Nonagon, with a note added at a later date indicating that the painting was gifted to his partner, fashion designer John Kloss. Regarding the work Indiana comments "First Nonending Nonagon in [the] early hours of [the] morning contained a rather glaring error, namely it is a nine in a hexagon." Indiana records that his second painting that evening corrected the error. The page includes a sketch of the work, Polygon: Nonagon, with a note added at a later date indicating the work was acquired by Richard Brown Baker.

Indiana also discusses going to the opening of the Jim Dine exhibition (New Paintings, at the Martha Jackson Gallery). He notes that the opening was crowded, and that everyone from Bill Seitz, Leo Castelli, Jasper Johns, and Ellsworth Kelly on down was there. He opines that Dine's show was greatly in debt to Johns.