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  • Published: 29 September 2020
  • ISBN: 9780241412947
  • Imprint: Dorling Kindersley
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 256
  • RRP: $42.99

Great Diaries

The world's most remarkable diaries, journals, notebooks, and letters



An illustrated guide to the finest literary and historically important diaries from ancient times to the present day


Travel back in time and witness both everyday life and great moments in history in this fascinating compilation of diaries through the ages.

Bringing together historical and literary diaries, artists' sketchbooks, explorers' journals, and scientists' notebooks, Great Diaries provides an intimate insight into the lives and thoughts of some of the most interesting people of the last two thousand years. Discover what it was like to build a pyramid, sail the seas with Magellan, travel into the heart of Africa, or serve on the Western Front. Find out how writers and artists planned their masterpieces, and how scientists developed their groundbreaking theories.

Arranged chronologically, Great Diaries takes you into the pages of the world's greatest diaries, notebooks, and letters, including those of Samuel Pepys, Henry-David Thoreau, the Goncourt brothers, Virginia Woolf, and Anne Frank. Stunning reproductions of the original notebooks and manuscripts are complemented by extracts and quotations, and illustrated features set the diaries in their cultural and historical context.

Essential reading for everyone who is passionate about history and literature, Great Diaries provides a fascinating insight into the everyday lives, thoughts, and feelings of men and women through the centuries.

  • Published: 29 September 2020
  • ISBN: 9780241412947
  • Imprint: Dorling Kindersley
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 256
  • RRP: $42.99

About the author

DK

We believe in the power of discovery. That’s why we create books for everyone that explore ideas and nurture curiosity about the world we live in.
From first words to the Big Bang, from the wonders of nature to city adventures, you will find expert knowledge, hours of fun and endless inspiration in the pages of our books.

Praise for Great Diaries

This is a lushly illustrated look at the personal writing of some of the past's great thinkers, from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Charles Darwin to Frida Kahlo and Anne Lister. It's a diverse, varied list, ranging the centuries and continents, from 11th-century Japan to World War II, and the journals, notebooks and letters reproduced offer genuine insights into lives lived in other places and other times.

BBC History Magazine

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Article
Great Diaries: The diary of Frida Kahlo

Travel back in time and witness both everyday life and great moments in history in this fascinating compliation of diaries through the ages.