Diary
Encyclopedia
A diary is a record (originally in handwritten format) with discrete entries arranged by date
reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. A personal diary may include a person's experiences, and/or thoughts or feelings, including comment on current events outside the writer's direct experience. Someone who keeps a diary is known as a diarist. Diaries undertaken for institutional purposes play a role in many aspects of human civilization, including government records (e.g., Hansard
), business ledger
s and military record
s.
Generally the term is today employed for personal diaries, normally intended to remain private or to have a limited circulation amongst friends or relatives. The word "journal" may be sometimes used for "diary," but generally a diary has (or intends to have) daily entries, whereas journal-writing can be less frequent.
Whilst a diary may provide information for a memoir
, autobiography
or biography
, it is generally written not with the intention of being published as it stands, but for the author's own use. In recent years, however, there is internal evidence in some diaries (e.g., those of Ned Rorem
, Alan Clark
, Tony Benn
or Simon Gray
) that they are written with eventual publication in mind, with the intention of self-vindication (pre- or posthumous) or simply for profit.
By extension the term diary is also used to mean a printed publication of a written diary; and may also refer to other terms of journal including electronic formats (e.g., blog
s).
access became commonly available, many people adopted it as another medium in which to chronicle their lives with the added dimension of an audience. The first online diary
is thought to be Claudio Pinhanez's "Open Diary," published at the MIT Media Lab
website from 14 November 1994 until 1996. Other early online diarists include Justin Hall
, who began eleven years of personal online diary-writing in 1994, Carolyn Burke, who started publishing "Carolyn's Diary" on 3 January 1995, and Bryon Sutherland, who announced his diary The Semi-Existence of Bryon in a USENET
newsgroup on 19 April 1995.
Web-based services such as Open Diary
(started in October, 1998) and LiveJournal
(January, 1999) soon appeared to streamline and automate online publishing, but growth in personal storytelling came with the emergence of blog
s. While the format first focused on external links and topical commentary, widespread blogging tools were quickly used to create web journals. Recent advances have also been made to enable the privacy of internet diary entries. For example, some diary software now stores entries in encrypted format, such 256-bit AES (Advanced Encryption Standard
) encryption, and others only permit access to the diary after correct PIN entry on a secure USB device.
, travel diary, or road journal, is the documentation of a journey or series of journeys.
consumption for the purpose of weight loss or other nutritional monitoring.
or sleep log is a tool used in the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorder
s.
are called Tagebücher.
wrote their diaries in India ink
on their t-square
s; examples of these from the 1880s are retained in the College's museum.
is a regularly updated official record of a military unit's administration and activities during wartime maintained by an officer in the unit.
al diaries. One of the earliest printed fictional diaries was the humorous Diary of a Nobody
by George Grossmith
and his brother Weedon. 20th century examples include radio broadcasts (e.g. Mrs. Dale's Diary) and published books (e.g. the Diaries of Adrian Mole
). Both prompted long-running satirical
features in the magazine Private Eye
: the former entitled Mrs Wilson's Diary in reference to Mary Wilson, wife of Prime Minister
Harold Wilson
, the latter entitled "The Secret Diary of John Major Aged 47¾" and written as a pastiche of the Adrian Mole
diaries from the perspective of the then Prime Minister John Major
.
:Category:Diaries
:Category:Diarists
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Calendar date
A date in a calendar is a reference to a particular day represented within a calendar system. The calendar date allows the specific day to be identified. The number of days between two dates may be calculated. For example, "24 " is ten days after "14 " in the Gregorian calendar. The date of a...
reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. A personal diary may include a person's experiences, and/or thoughts or feelings, including comment on current events outside the writer's direct experience. Someone who keeps a diary is known as a diarist. Diaries undertaken for institutional purposes play a role in many aspects of human civilization, including government records (e.g., Hansard
Hansard
Hansard is the name of the printed transcripts of parliamentary debates in the Westminster system of government. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard, an early printer and publisher of these transcripts.-Origins:...
), business ledger
Ledger
A ledger is the principal book or computer file for recording and totaling monetary transactions by account, with debits and credits in separate columns and a beginning balance and ending balance for each account. The ledger is a permanent summary of all amounts entered in supporting journals which...
s and military record
Service record
A service record is a collection of either electronic or printed material which provides a documentary history of a person's activities and accomplishments while serving as a member of a given organization...
s.
Generally the term is today employed for personal diaries, normally intended to remain private or to have a limited circulation amongst friends or relatives. The word "journal" may be sometimes used for "diary," but generally a diary has (or intends to have) daily entries, whereas journal-writing can be less frequent.
Whilst a diary may provide information for a memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
, autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
or biography
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
, it is generally written not with the intention of being published as it stands, but for the author's own use. In recent years, however, there is internal evidence in some diaries (e.g., those of Ned Rorem
Ned Rorem
Ned Rorem is a Pulitzer prize-winning American composer and diarist. He is best known and most praised for his song settings.-Life:...
, Alan Clark
Alan Clark
Alan Kenneth Mackenzie Clark was a British Conservative MP and diarist. He served as a junior minister in Margaret Thatcher's governments at the Departments of Employment, Trade, and Defence, and became a privy counsellor in 1991...
, Tony Benn
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC is a British Labour Party politician and a former MP and Cabinet Minister.His successful campaign to renounce his hereditary peerage was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963...
or Simon Gray
Simon Gray
Simon James Holliday Gray, CBE , was an English playwright and memoirist who also had a career as a university lecturer in English literature at Queen Mary, University of London, for 20 years...
) that they are written with eventual publication in mind, with the intention of self-vindication (pre- or posthumous) or simply for profit.
By extension the term diary is also used to mean a printed publication of a written diary; and may also refer to other terms of journal including electronic formats (e.g., blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
s).
Internet diaries
As internetInternet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
access became commonly available, many people adopted it as another medium in which to chronicle their lives with the added dimension of an audience. The first online diary
Online diary
An online diary is a personal diary or journal that is published on the World Wide Web on a personal website or a diary-hosting website.-Overview:...
is thought to be Claudio Pinhanez's "Open Diary," published at the MIT Media Lab
MIT Media Lab
The MIT Media Lab is a laboratory of MIT School of Architecture and Planning. Devoted to research projects at the convergence of design, multimedia and technology, the Media Lab has been widely popularized since the 1990s by business and technology publications such as Wired and Red Herring for a...
website from 14 November 1994 until 1996. Other early online diarists include Justin Hall
Justin Hall
Justin Hall , is an American freelance journalist who is best known as a pioneer blogger , and for writing reviews from game conferences such as E3 as well as the Tokyo Game Show....
, who began eleven years of personal online diary-writing in 1994, Carolyn Burke, who started publishing "Carolyn's Diary" on 3 January 1995, and Bryon Sutherland, who announced his diary The Semi-Existence of Bryon in a USENET
Usenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
newsgroup on 19 April 1995.
Web-based services such as Open Diary
Open Diary
Open Diary is an online diary community, an early example of social networking software. It was founded on October 20, 1998 by Bruce Ableson, known on the Open Diary website by the title of his diary, The DiaryMaster...
(started in October, 1998) and LiveJournal
LiveJournal
LiveJournal is a virtual community where Internet users can keep a blog, journal or diary. LiveJournal is also the name of the free and open source server software that was designed to run the LiveJournal virtual community....
(January, 1999) soon appeared to streamline and automate online publishing, but growth in personal storytelling came with the emergence of blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
s. While the format first focused on external links and topical commentary, widespread blogging tools were quickly used to create web journals. Recent advances have also been made to enable the privacy of internet diary entries. For example, some diary software now stores entries in encrypted format, such 256-bit AES (Advanced Encryption Standard
Advanced Encryption Standard
Advanced Encryption Standard is a specification for the encryption of electronic data. It has been adopted by the U.S. government and is now used worldwide. It supersedes DES...
) encryption, and others only permit access to the diary after correct PIN entry on a secure USB device.
Travel journals
A travel journalTravel journal
A travel journal, also called road journal or travelogue, is a record made by a voyager. Generally in diary form, a travel journal contains descriptions of the traveler's experiences, is normally written during the course of the journey, intended on updating friends or family on the journey...
, travel diary, or road journal, is the documentation of a journey or series of journeys.
Diet journal
A diet journal or food diary is a daily record of all food and beverage consumed, usually for the purpose of the tracking calorieCalorie
The calorie is a pre-SI metric unit of energy. It was first defined by Nicolas Clément in 1824 as a unit of heat, entering French and English dictionaries between 1841 and 1867. In most fields its use is archaic, having been replaced by the SI unit of energy, the joule...
consumption for the purpose of weight loss or other nutritional monitoring.
Sleep diaries
A sleep diarySleep diary
A sleep diary is a record of an individual's sleeping and waking times with related information, usually over a period of several weeks. It is self-reported or can be recorded by a care-giver....
or sleep log is a tool used in the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorder
Sleep disorder
A sleep disorder, or somnipathy, is a medical disorder of the sleep patterns of a person or animal. Some sleep disorders are serious enough to interfere with normal physical, mental and emotional functioning...
s.
Tagebuch
The German Tagebuch is normally rendered as diary in English, but the term includes workbooks or working journals as well as diaries proper. For example, the notebooks of the Austrian writer Robert MusilRobert Musil
Robert Musil was an Austrian writer. His unfinished long novel The Man Without Qualities is generally considered to be one of the most important modernist novels...
are called Tagebücher.
Unusual diaries
Some officer cadets at the Royal Military College of CanadaRoyal Military College of Canada
The Royal Military College of Canada, RMC, or RMCC , is the military academy of the Canadian Forces, and is a degree-granting university. RMC was established in 1876. RMC is the only federal institution in Canada with degree granting powers...
wrote their diaries in India ink
India ink
India ink is a simple black ink once widely used for writing and printing and now more commonly used for drawing, especially when inking comic books and comic strips.-Composition:...
on their t-square
T-square
A T-square is a technical drawing instrument used by draftsmen primarily as a guide for drawing horizontal lines on a drafting table. It may also guide a triangle to draw vertical or diagonal lines. Its name comes from the general shape of the instrument where the horizontal member of the T slides...
s; examples of these from the 1880s are retained in the College's museum.
War diary
A war diaryWar diary
A war diary is a regularly updated official record kept by military units of their activities during wartime. The purpose of these diaries is to both record information which can later be used by the military to improve its training and tactics as well as to generate a detailed record of units'...
is a regularly updated official record of a military unit's administration and activities during wartime maintained by an officer in the unit.
Fictional diaries
There are numerous examples of fictionFiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
al diaries. One of the earliest printed fictional diaries was the humorous Diary of a Nobody
Diary of a Nobody
The Diary of a Nobody, an English comic novel written by George Grossmith and his brother Weedon Grossmith with illustrations by Weedon, first appeared in the magazine Punch in 1888 – 89, and was first printed in book form in 1892...
by George Grossmith
George Grossmith
George Grossmith was an English comedian, writer, composer, actor, and singer. His performing career spanned more than four decades...
and his brother Weedon. 20th century examples include radio broadcasts (e.g. Mrs. Dale's Diary) and published books (e.g. the Diaries of Adrian Mole
Adrian Mole
Adrian Albert Mole is the fictional protagonist in a series of books by English author Sue Townsend. The character first appeared in a BBC Radio 4 play in 1982. The books are written in the form of a diary, with some additional content such as correspondence...
). Both prompted long-running satirical
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
features in the magazine Private Eye
Private Eye
Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine, edited by Ian Hislop.Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deemed guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency,...
: the former entitled Mrs Wilson's Diary in reference to Mary Wilson, wife of Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
Harold Wilson
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...
, the latter entitled "The Secret Diary of John Major Aged 47¾" and written as a pastiche of the Adrian Mole
Adrian Mole
Adrian Albert Mole is the fictional protagonist in a series of books by English author Sue Townsend. The character first appeared in a BBC Radio 4 play in 1982. The books are written in the form of a diary, with some additional content such as correspondence...
diaries from the perspective of the then Prime Minister John Major
John Major
Sir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...
.
See also
- AutobiographyAutobiographyAn autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
- CommentariiCommentariiCommentarii are notes to assist the memory, or memoranda. This original idea of the word gave rise to a variety of meanings: notes and abstracts of speeches for the assistance of orators; family memorials, the origin of many of the legends introduced into early Roman history from a desire to...
- Commonplace book
- Art diaryArt diaryAn art diary, art journal or visual journal is a daily journal kept by artists, often containing both words and sketches, and occasionally including Mixed media elements such as collages...
- Fake memoirsFake memoirsFake memoirs form a category of literary forgery in which a wholly or partially fabricated autobiography, memoir or journal of an individual is presented as fact. Often, the purported author of the work also is fabricated...
- Journal (disambiguation)Journal (disambiguation)Journal may refer to:* a written medium, for instance:** an academic journal** a diary** a literary magazine, a periodical devoted to literature** a daily newspaper** a scientific journal...
- List of books on diaries and journals
- List of diarists
- List of dream diaries
- List of fictional diaries
- Nikki BungakuNikki Bungakuis a genre of Japanese diary literature including prominent works such as the Tosa Nikki, Kagerō Nikki, and Murasaki Shikibu Nikki. While diaries began as records imitating daily logs kept by Chinese government officials, private and literary diaries emerged and flourished during the Heian period...
- Online diaryOnline diaryAn online diary is a personal diary or journal that is published on the World Wide Web on a personal website or a diary-hosting website.-Overview:...
:Category:Diaries
:Category:Diarists
Further reading
Ronald Blythe's The Pleasures of Diaries: Four Centuries of Private Writing (Pantheon, 1989 ISBN 0-394-58017-6) contains selections from (mostly) English diarists' work.Bold text