Having to face my wall, my reluctance, my failure of nerve,
no excuses, nobody obstructing my path to the bathroom
or library, inner repository. Having to see how I stall and
cajole, what a discipline problem I tend to be. I don't want
to write, I'm too hot, I'm hungry. This chair's too short,
I don't like this table, people are talking downstairs, this
shag rug is too deep, too blue, too green. I'm feverish, I'm
edgy, the coffee had too much caffeine, my fingers hurt.

Browns from the Dictionary of Color Words

Miscell. Browns
hazel: lt.
hay: lt.
brunet: var; lt-drk.
toast: var; lt-drk
tobacco: var; or-blk.
gazelle: var.
nut: var.
bay: neu; wrm; med.
olive: drab; med.
nutmeg: neu; med.
Van Dyke: rich; drk.
roan: prpsh; drk.
seal: wrm; drk.
beaver: v. seal.
burnt cork: rich; drk.
bistre: peppy; drk.
bitumen: or mummy brn:
once made from tarry remains
of real mummies;
now made from asphalt.

Browns can be drab, muddy, rich, dirty, warm, ruddy, rusty, nasty, dark, sordid, purplish, nut-brn, yellowish, reddish, orange, berry-brn, mottled or light.

Thanks to Robert Pfanner, Compiler and Editor, and Paschal Quackenbush, Color Consultant, and the National Writers Club who copyrighted this in 1941, not 1942, when presumably there may have been other matters on the national mind.

From the Introduction

All terms fall into one of four classes:

(1) those designating some thing or substance
having literary color-value
such as bamboo or cherry

(2) actual pigments such as cobalt blue
or cadmium red

(3) special names or tints such as sang de boeuf
or clair de lune

(4) miscellaneous terms such as Tyrian,
auburn, and jaundice

Color words tend to fall into two classes:

(1) true color-words or generic terms like
"red" and "yellow"

(2) qttributive terms like "flamingo"
and "jonquil."

"Henna hair" is acceptable;
"Henna red hair" is bad.
"Vermilion scarf" is good;
"vermilion red scarf" is bad.
"cherry red" or "copper red" are correct.
"Taupe purple is clumsy and vague;
more specific would be, "a warm soft taupe."
Only "Tyrian" can modify "purple",
as in the phrase "Tyrian purple."
"Flaming vermilion" is good;
but "flaming pink" makes nonsense.
One might write of a "brilliant magenta"
but never of a "brilliant wisteria".