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.

In his journal entry for December 27, 1962, Indiana notes that the day began fairly early, and that "work came natural for [the] first time since [the] holiday rush began." He records touching up Mate for Howard Lipman (misspelled as Lipton), re-stenciling the main letters of The American Gas Works, and re-stretching Joseph Hirshhorn's The Eateria. He writes: "All this amounted [to] a full day’s job, but in addition I cleaned brushes, entertained, de-flead [the] cat, ate, and even took a walk in [the] snow."

Indiana records that Eleanor Ward (his gallerist) read him the review of his solo show in Art International, which included a reproduction of Year of Meteors. He writes that "it is critical, but not snide or dismissing." He also notes that he gave Museum of Modern Art curator Campbell Wylly his Artists' and Writers' Cookbook, and that Wylly still had his eye on “Small Red Eight on Blue Octagon on Yellow Circle in a Black Diamond” (8) for his hard edge and geometric show, in which Ellsworth Kelly "declined to participate when he heard [that] geometrists were [to] be included."