Trollidity: The Hobbit-Hole of Phantasmagoric Splendour

Escapades: The reading list from The New Diary

An item on my Escapades list

In the end of the book The New Diary by Tristine Rainer, there is a section entitled ‘Readings of Interest to Diarists’. Many (but by no means all) of the books on this list are published diaries—some famous and some obscure—and books about journalling. Being fascinated with diaries as I am, I want to read the whole list.

Given here is simply the list itself, with none of Rainer's comments.

  • Adams, Kathleen, M.A. Journal to the Self. [DONE. Received it for Christmas 2008.]
  • Adams, Kathleen, M.A. Mightier than the Sword.
  • Atwood, Margaret. The Journals of Susanna Moodie: Poems.
    • Mentioned within this entry: Moodie, Susanna. Roughing It in the Bush.
  • Avakian, Elizabeth. To Deliver Me of My Dreams.


  • Baldwin, Christina. Life's Companion, Journal Writing as a Spiritual Quest.
  • Baldwin, Christina. One to One: Self-Understanding through Journal Writing.
  • Barreno, M.J.; M.T. Horta; and M.V. de Costa. The Three Marias: New Portugese Letters.
  • Bashkirtseff, Marie. Marie Bashkirtseff: The Journal of a Young Artist. [I've read From Childhood to Girlhood, which is made up of exerpts from Marie's early journals, but I haven't been able to get my hands on a copy of the larger work yet.]
  • Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. Diary by E.B.B. [DONE. Read it in 2001; checked it out of the college library.]
  • Burney, Frances (Fanny). The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney (Madame D'Arblay). [PARTLY DONE. Read Volume I in March of 2008 and Volume II in April and May. Read the e-books from Project Gutenberg.]


  • Carlyle, Jane Baillie. Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle, 3 vols.


  • Dostoyevsky, Anna Grigor'evna (Snitkina). Dostoyevsky Portrayed by His Wife, The Diary and Reminiscences of Mme. Dostoyevsky.
  • Dunaway, Philip and Mel Evans, eds. A Treasury of the World's Great Diaries. [DONE. I have this book, actually, and it is the perfect book to keep in your bag for reading at random moments.]
  • Durrell, Lawrence. The Black Book.


  • Evans, Elizabeth. Weathering the Storm, Women of the American Revolution.


  • Falk, Ruth. Women Loving. A Journey Toward Becoming an Independent Woman.
  • Faraday, Ann. Dream Power.
  • Field, Joanna. A Life of One's Own. [NB: This is Marion Milner writing under a pseudonym.]
  • Fiennes, Celia. Through England on a Side-Saddle, in the Time of William and Mary.
  • Forten, Charlotte. The Journal of Charlotte L. Forten: Free Negro in the Slave Era.
  • Frank, Anne. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. [DONE. I think I was in fifth grade the first time I read it.]


  • Garfield, Patricia. Creative Dreaming.
  • Gide, André. The Journals of André Gide.


  • Hamilton-Merritt, Jane. A Meditator's Diary. A Western Woman's Unique Experiences in Thailand Temples.
  • Harris, Thomas A. I'm OK—You're OK.
  • Horney, Karen. Self-Analysis.
  • Hutchins, Maude. A Diary of Love.


  • Isherwood, Christopher. Kathleen and Frank.
  • Isherwood, Christopher. Diaries: Volume I, 1939–1960.
  • Isherwood, Christopher. Berlin Stories. [Does it count if I've seen Cabaret? No?]
  • Izumi Shikibu. The Isumi Shikibu Diary: A Romance of the Heian Court.


  • James, Alice. The Diary of Alice James.
  • Jung, C.G. Memories, Dreams, Reflections.
  • Jung, C.G. Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle.


  • Koestler, Arthur. The Act of Creation: A Study of the Conscious and Unconscious in Science and Art.


  • Lessing, Doris. The Golden Notebook. [DONE. Read about half of it once and couldn't immerse myself in it at all; one of the rare times I put down a book without finishing it. Tried again a few years later and it was like reading an entirely different book.]


  • McKee, Ruth Karr. Mary Richardson Walker: Her Book.
  • Mallon, Thomas. A Book of One's Own: People and Their Diaries.
  • Mansfield, Katherine. The Journal of Katherine Mansfield. [I've read some of Mansfield's fiction but haven't run across a copy of her diary.]
  • Martin, Martha of Alaska (pseud.). O, Rugged Land of Gold.
  • Miner, Earl. The Japanese Poetic Diary.
  • Mitchell, Suzanne (pseud.). My Own Woman: The Diary of an Analysis.
  • Moffat, Mary Jane, and Charlotte Painter, eds. Revelations: Diaries of Women.
  • Munby, Arthur J. Munby: Man of Two Worlds.
  • Murasaki, Shikibu (Lady). The Tale of Genji, 2 vols.


  • Nichols, Susan Claire. The Personal Journal: A Mental Health Proposal.
  • Nijinsky, Vaslav. The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky.
  • Nin, Anaïs. A Woman Speaks: The Lectures, Seminars, and Interviews of Anaïs Nin.
  • Nin, Anaïs. The Diary, Volumes I through VI. [PARTLY DONE. I've read the only one I've had the opportunity to read, which is Diary I.]
    • Also mentioned in this entry: Nin's novels— Under a Glass Bell, Ladders to Fire, Children of the Albatross, The Four-Chambered Heart, A Spy in the House of Love, and Seduction of the Minotaur in Cities of the Interior.
  • Nin, Anaïs. Linotte: The Early Diary of Anaïs Nin (1914–1920), The Early Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 2 (1920–1923), Journal of a Wife (1929–1927), Henry and June (1931–1932), Incest: From "A Journal of Love" (1932–1934), Fire: From "A Journal of Love" (1934–1937), Nearer the Moon: From "A Journal of Love" (1937–1939).


  • Omori, Annie Shepley (trans.), and Kochi Doi. Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan.


  • Pennebaker, James, Ph.D. Opening Up, The Healing Power of Expressing Emotions
  • Pepys, Samuel. The Diary of Samuel Pepys, vol. 8. [Have read exerpts from Pepys's diaries and part of Volume One.]
  • Progoff, Ira. At a Journal Workshop.
  • Progoff, Ira. Jung, Synchronicity, and Human Destiny: Noncausal Dimensions of Human Experience.


  • Rainer, Tristine. Your Life as Story, Discovering the New Autobiography and Writing Memoir as Literature.
  • Rico, Gabriele. Pain and Possibility, Writing Your Way Through Personal Crisis.
  • Riedesel, Frederika Charlotte Louise. Baroness von Riedesel and the American Revolution: Journal and Correspondence of a Tour of Duty, 1776–1783.
  • Rossi, Ernest Lawrence. Dreams and the Growth of Personality.


  • Sand, George (pseud. for Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin). The Intimate Journal of George Sand.
  • Sarashina, Lady. As I Crossed the Bridge of Dreams: Recollections of a Woman in Eleventh-Century Japan.
  • Sarton, May. Journal of a Solitude.
  • Scott-Maxwell, Florida. The Measure of My Days.
  • Sei Shōnagon. The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon, 2 vols.
  • Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Mary Shelley's Journal.


  • Thoreau, Henry. The Journal.


  • Waldman, Mark Robert, Editor. The Spirit of Writing, Classic and Contemporary Essays Celebrating the Writing Life.
  • Warhol, Andy. The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again).
  • Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One's Own. [DONE. I checked this out of the college library as well; I'd like to read it again someday, however, because I've forgotten most of it.]
  • Woolf, Virginia. The Diary of Virginia Woolf: Volume I, 1915–1919. [Have read exerpts but never had a full copy.]
  • Wordsworth, Dorothy. The Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth. 2 vols. [Exerpts only.]