Lets face it, it’s really wrong to read someone else’s diary. It crosses all sorts of boundaries that you don’t want to cross. It also makes you completely untrustworthy and kind of a piece of shit, unless of course the diary belongs to one of our favourite authors. Then it’s totally okay.
The main difference between diary entires written before the great wave of Facebook and Twitter and those written after is that before people started offloading every little detail of their lives onto their public profiles, writers actually wrote concisely what they really feel into their diary. It wasn’t a chore, like “Oh man, I should have journaled today.” It wasn’t for others to read, it was a way to organise your life or share your deepest and darkest.
Here are some photographs of author’s diaries, ranging from Jack Kerouac to Charlotte Brontë.
1. Charlotte Brontë’s Diary
Image Via Pinterest
2. Jack Kerouac’s Notebook
Image Via StumbleUpon
3. John Steinbeck’s Journal Page
Image Via The Morgan Library
4. Leonardo da Vinci’s Copious Notes
Image Via Twitter
5. David Foster Wallace’s Draft of The Pale King.
Image Via Stumble Upon
6. Jennifer Egan’s Journal
Image Via Stumble Upon
7. Notes of Issac Newton
Image Via Pinterest
Bonus: The Diary of Frida Kahlo
Image Via Twitter
Frida clearly wins most beautiful and imaginative diary award, followed closely by David Foster Wallace, who, for some reason, I was not expecting such beautiful handwriting from.
Feature Image Via The New Yorker