Some Famous Diaries You Might Want to Know

A day-to-day recording of experience, the diary is a unique literary form. From the Renaissance to contemporary times, published diaries or journals have presented a broad range of material, from sensational exposures, such as Marie Bashkirtseff's 'Journal,' to philosophic speculations, such as those in Andre Gide's distinguished 'Journals.' The finest examples of the diary have been produced by political and religious leaders ( George Washington, Cotton Mather, Pope John XXIII), travelers ( William Parry, Capt. James Cook), and literary figures ( Jonathan Swift, James Boswell, Walter Scott, Katherine Mansfield). The lucidity of the diaries of public figures is less surprising, given that such diaries were often written with an eye to eventual publication. Such ambition was satirized in the comedy of manners 'The Importance of Being Earnest,' in which 18-year-old Cecily describes her diary as

"a very young girl's record of her own thoughts and impressions, and consequently meant for publication."

Still, the undisputed classic of all diaries in the English language is the diary of the English naval administrator Samuel Pepys. His is one of the most fascinating and dramatic accounts of life in Restoration England, describing such catastrophic events as the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London:

"I did within these six days see smoke still remaining of the late fire in the City; and it is strange to think how this very day I cannot sleep a-night without great terrors of fire; and this very night could not sleep till almost 2 in the morning through thoughts of fire."

alongside everyday matters such as what he ate for dinner:

"He [Sir W. Hickes] did give us the meanest dinner---of beef---shoulder and umbles of venison which he takes away from the keeper of the Forest---and a few pigeons; and all in the meanest manner that ever I did see---to the basest degree."

One of the most memorable of 20th-century diaries is the diary of Anne Frank, published in 1947. Anne kept her diary from 1942 to 1944 while she, her family, and some friends were hiding in a warehouse in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in an attempt to escape the persecution of the Jews under National Socialism ( Nazism). Surrounded by death and destruction, she set down the hopes, conflicts, and feelings of a young girl on the verge of womanhood:

"I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation of misery and death. ... I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too; I can feel the sufferings of millions; and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right. ..."

A few days after her last entry, the Nazis ferreted out the group, and Anne was sent to a concentration camp, where she died at the age of 15.