My unofficial diary reading project is moving right along. I am still working my way through Revelations: Diaries of Women edited by Mary Jane Moffat. It's a book that I like to dip into rather than sit and try and read straight through. Some of the entries are very intense, like the excerpts from Hannah Senesh's diary. She had left Hungary and emigrated to Palestine at the outbreak of WWII, but she felt a calling to help others and parachuted into Yugoslavia and then returned to Hungary in order to help other Jews escape. She was caught and eventually executed. It's heart wrenching to hear stories like hers. George Sand's entries are intense for an entirely different reason. She had been passionately in love with a man who rejected her, and despite her independent nature (dressing as a man) she agonized over the relationship and poured it all out in one of her journals.
I've finished Alexandra Johnson's A Brief History of Diaries, which is chock full of interesting information (expect a few wrap up posts soon), and have picked up her book The Hidden Writer to read next. I expect there will be some overlap of information, but as A Brief History of Diaries was such a slim book, there should be plenty to expand upon. I'll be starting it this week. Between the books I've been reading and the suggestions I've received from many of you, I have had (had to you realize) add to my diary collection (noting if you will, that two of the books in diaries I've mentioned are library loans and therefore guilt free) by purchasing supplemental reading material. How can I be teased by these books and then not go to the actual sources? One book always leads to another, you know. You might just recognize a few of these:
Notes from Walnut Tree Farm by Roger Deakin sounds marvelous. This is a nature diary that Deakin kept for the last six years of his life. Walnut Tree Farm is where he lived. Until I started reading essays a few years back I had given nature writing a wide bearth thinking I wouldn't be interested, but I discovered that the essays about nature I read were often my favorite of all the essays. The entries in this diary are by month, so I expect to learn about the seasons as Deakin experienced them. Thanks to Catharina for mentioning this.
France Partridge's A Pacifist's War: Diaries 1939-1945 arrived in the mail only yesterday. I had almost given up hope that it would ever come as I ordered it mid-January. I've not even had time to look at it properly yet, but the period she writes about is of interest to me, plus she was in on the Bloomsbury Group, which should make for interesting reading. Maybe I had better order the second volume now as I might just finish this long before the next would arrive. Thanks to Susan E. for this recommendation.
"If you buy one more book this year, do make it To War With Whitaker" reads the blurb on the cover. I like their optimism--they're assuming whoever picks this one up has already been book shopping. I'm happy to oblige them, as I have indeed already been book shopping this year. To War With Whitaker: The Wartime Diaries of the Countess of Ranfurly 1939-1945 were written by a young wife whose husband was sent to the Middle East, and she followed him. Spiffing and madcap are words I see describing this book. Not only is it about WWII, but she travels alone from Cape Town to Palestine, so this will make perfect companions for my Middle East reading. Bibliolathas gave me the heads up on this one.
I guess war diaries are especially attractive to me, as here is yet another one--An Apetite for Life: The Education of a Young Diarist 1924-1927 by Charles Ritchie. This isn't Ritchie's first published diary, but it seems to be his first chronologically. He was Canadian and served in the diplomatic corps. This volume covers his youth in Halifax and years at Oxford. Nodding at Claire for this one--thanks!
Can you tell I am a complete pushover for reading suggestions (especially nice when it comes from readers and bloggers whose tastes are often similar to mine). These were not all of the books recommended (I have noted the rest down, of course, just give me a chance to acquire the rest...). You can see this post if you are curious about the other titles that were shared with me.
If I recall correctly I came across Olivia Crockett's Love & War in London: The Mass Observation Wartime Diary of Olivia Crockett when I was searching for the other diaries. Don't you just love it when Amazon gives you more ideas for similar reading? I'm intrigued by the Mass Observation project. Crockett was 26 in 1939. Not only was she living through a war she was also in a relationship with a married man.
After reading about Pepys how could I not get his diary? The Diary of Samuel Pepys, edited by Richard Le Gallienne, is of course abridged. I'm guessing they've shared all the good bits. I'm looking forward to making his proper acquaintance.
Lady Murasaki is also mentioned by Alexandra Johnson. I have wanted to read Murasaki's The Tale of Genji, but I was happy to see that The Diary of Murasaki is a nice, slim volume. She lived from c. 973-c. 1020 and was tutor to the young Empress Shoshi. Years ago I read the fictional account of her life by Liza Dalby, The Tale of Mursaki. A reread might be in order as I recall liking the story and it would make a perfect companion book.
And one of the excerpts in Revelations is from Sei Shonagon's The Pillow Book. I couldn't resist reading the rest. She and Murasaki were more or less contemporaries--I wonder if they knew each other? The passage in Revelations was about her standards for a lover's deportment.
I'm planning on starting with Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Bring Me a Unicorn, which I have long had on my own shelves, when I finish Revelations, but with so many wonderful books stacking up, maybe I should just dive right in. The nice thing about diaries is being able to dip in and out and not lose the thread of the story.
So, all this from one book! Am I not a bookseller's dream? It's nice to find a book you really click with--the right book for the right reader at the right time. Don't you just love books?