Diary
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"After I had done it [read L'École des filles] I burned it, that it might not be among my books to my shame […]." -Samuel Pepys |
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A diary is a written or audiovisual record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Diaries have traditionally been handwritten but are now also often digital. A personal diary may include a person's experiences, thoughts, and/or feelings, excluding comments on current events outside the writer's direct experience. Someone who keeps a diary is known as a diarist. Diaries undertaken for institutional purposes play a role in many aspects of human civilization, including government records (e.g. Hansard), business ledgers, and military records. In British English, the word may also denote a preprinted journal format.
Today the term is generally employed for personal diaries, normally intended to remain private or to have a limited circulation amongst friends or relatives. The word "journal" may be sometimes used for "diary," but generally a diary has (or intends to have) daily entries (from the Latin word for 'day'), whereas journal-writing can be less frequent.
Although a diary may provide information for a memoir, autobiography or biography, it is generally written not with the intention of being published as it stands, but for the author's own use. In recent years, however, there is internal evidence in some diaries (e.g. those of Ned Rorem, Alan Clark, Tony Benn or Simon Gray) that they are written with eventual publication in mind, with the intention of self-vindication (pre- or posthumous), or simply for profit.
By extension, the term diary is also used to mean a printed publication of a written diary; and may also refer to other terms of journal including electronic formats (e.g. blogs).
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Famous diaries
Fake diaries
- Hitler Diaries
- Mussolini diaries
- The Diary of Mrs Pepys (by F.D. Ponsonby, London 1934)
- The Journal of Mrs Pepys (by Sara George, 1998)
- Diary of a Farmer's Wife 1796-1797 (spurious, published 1964)
- Go Ask Alice
Diaries of disputed authenticity
- Roger Casement's Black Diaries, which details his alleged homosexual activities. Believed by some to be a forgery perpetrated by the British government.
Fictional diaries
- Bridget Jones's Diary
- Diary of a Nobody
- The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks
- The Moneypenny Diaries
- The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾
- The Turner Diaries
- The Princess Diaries
- Sloppy Firsts
- Diary of a Chav by Grace Dent
See also
Namesakes
- Diary of a Chambermaid
- Extracts from Gosschen's Diary
- Aphrodesia's Diary
- Diary of a Nobody
- The Diary of a Superfluous Man
- The Diary of a Young Girl
- Diary (novel)
- Diary of a Madman
See also
- Art diary
- Autobiography
- Commentarii
- Commonplace book
- Fake memoirs
- Journal
- List of books on diaries and journals
- List of diarists
- List of dream diaries
- List of fictional diaries
- Memoir