A literary tour through the notable diaries of history, giving us a window into the private lives of the famous and infamous, with a new introduction by the author

“Charming, diverting, and exceptionally intelligent.” —The New Yorker

Before the age of social media, chronicling one’s life was a private matter. In this literary tour through the notable diaries of history, Thomas Mallon is a witty guide to the personal journals of the famous and infamous, bring­ing to life their neuroses, artistic practices, and preoccupations. Virginia Woolf casts her sharp eye on friends and acquaintances. Samuel Pepys chronicles political life in Restoration England. Sylvia Plath’s notebooks are filled with images she will turn into poems. F. Scott Fitzgerald records overheard conversation while Leonardo da Vinci scribbles down his dreams. Anaïs Nin treats her diary as a tell-all, reflecting on love, sex, and death across several volumes and decades.

In A Book of One’s Own, Mallon is a sympathetic, stylish, and insightful companion, transporting us across eras and continents with infectious joie de vivre. Here is a profound and compelling case for the diary as the quint­essential literary art form, an act of defiance against being forgotten, and a stab at immortality.