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.

This journal page covers November 6–7, 1961. In his entry for November 6 Indiana records that his morning was taken up by the installation of a telephone extension and buzzer system, and that after he went to Art's (clinical psychologist and art collector, Arthur Carr) to fix his kitchen shelf and do other work. He notes rehanging "The Good Thief" (Indiana occasionally undertook religious subjects; an abstract rendering of the Good Thief appears in Stavrosis) and that he saw "Male Nude" framed (Indiana drew a series of male nudes over the years).

In his entry for November 7 Indiana records "Pumpkin kaput," referencing an assemblage he made using a pumpkin. Below this is a sketch of a detail of The Great Reap, with the note "cobalt blue dots for above." Indiana also records meeting Carr, that he had dinner with J. (his partner fashion designer John Kloss), and that Lenore Tawney came over.