#diaries

#diaries

Before they become historical documents, diaries start out as ordinary ledgers, a frame-by-frame accounting of the moments and events of a person's days. With the help of time, scholarship, and critical interest, they become history in miniature, an up-close look at how a life was formed and shaped by the times the diarist lived in. One could read Randy Shilts's monumental 1987 history And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic to learn about the infuriating and chaotic early history of the crisis:

In the early episodes of each season of the popular reality dating show "Love Is Blind," the contestants are provided with notebooks in which to jot down first impressions of their potential matches, who remain hidden behind a screen until a couple agrees to get engaged. We have obtained a selection of these diaries and, for the first time ever, present an exclusive look inside their pages-revealing the fraught thought process behind falling in love with someone, sight unseen.

"Many diarists feel that way: Sheila Hancock wrote about destroying decades' worth of hers: Maybe this vicious, verging-on-insane woman is the real me, but if it is I don't want my daughters to find out."

The person beneath the published voice remains elusive. By design, the mortal Joan stayed hidden. Despite the directness of her prose, one can never quite work out what she's really trying to say.