Manuscripts

People are often surprised when they discover writers' manuscripts. I myself was surprised when I first saw one of Jean Cocteau's in a Paris bookstore many years ago. Some time later I visited the Parisian Musée des Letrres et Manuscrits where there are some remarkable exemples of manuscripts.
More recently was an interview with Richard Ford, the American novelist, who stills writes his works with pen and paper, modifying, noting, inserting words and notes in a astonishingly ordered, but seemingly simplistic style.
Below is a page from Serge Gainsbourg's L'homme à tête de choux, of course those who are familiar with the late Gainsbourg will sgrug their shoulders; what did you expect?


On the other hand you could expect something more elegant from Norman Mailer; no! here is the character timeline for 'Harlot's Ghost' - a fictional chronicle of the C.I.A. published in 1991.