Mar 11 2010

 

The History of the Diary

It was not until the late Renaissance that the diary began to have some literary value as the importance of the individual began to become to the fore. Since then it has often been used by the historian, not only in the immense importance of it's supply of facts often unrecorded in historical and political chronicles, but also as a picture of the daily life of it's writers time and personality.

For example the Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris, kept by an anonymous French Priest from 1409 to 1431 and continued by the hand of another until 1449, is invaluable to the historian of the reigns of Charles V1 and Charles V11.

The same kind of attention to historical and political events characterizes Memorials of the English Affairs by the lawyer, writer and parliamentarian Bulstrode Whitelocke (1605-75) and the diary of the French Marquis de Dangeau (1638-1720), which spans the years 1684 to his death.

Among the most famous diaries of English literature are those of John Evelyn for 1641-1706; Samuel Pepys (1660-69) , perhaps the most valuable and minute record in existence Jonathan Swift's Journal to Stella, 1710-13; John Wesley's Journal, 1735-90; James Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785), the first to be published in the life time of it's author and Fanny Burney's Diary, 1778-1840 the most notable English diary of the late 18th century.

Samuel Pepys probably the greatest diarist of all time gave an astonishingly accurate and frank picture of his weaknesses and frailties and yet at the same time a stunning picture of life not only in London but also at the court, the theatre, his Navy office and his household.

There was a great sensation caused in 1887 of the posthumous publication of the diaries of the Russian artist Marie Bashkirtsev's Journal in Paris.

In the 20th century, the Journal of Katherine Mansfield (1927), the two-volume Journal of the Nobel Prize for Literature winner Andre' Gide (1869-1951), and the five-volume Diary of Virginia Woolf (1977-84) are among the most notable of examples.

The most poignant records of recent years was the wartime diary of Anne Frank, (1929-45) Het Achterhuis, 1947 (The Diary of a young girl, 1953); it was widely translated and is one of the most widely read pieces of literature in history.

There are thousands of thoughts lying within us that we do not know until we take up the pen to write as can be illustrated in that famous quote from The importance of Being Earnest 'I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train'.