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 May 11, 1961, includes a color sketch of Le Premier Homme. It does not include any notes on the painting, although a comment added at a later date indicates that Arthur Carr (a clinical psychologist and art collector) came to own the work. 

Indiana also mentions taking J's (his partner, fashion designer John Kloss) phonograph to Scarsdale (where he taught art classes), describing "more sound and many reactions," and that he later met Kloss at Grand Central, where they dined at Schrafft's. He also notes that fellow Coenties Slip resident Lenore Tawney needed to find a new place to live.