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26th out of 47 books
—
33 voters
A Book of One's Own: People and Their Diaries
Mallon has assembled a guide to the great diaries of literature -- from Samuel Pepys to Anais Nin. Mallon has written a new introduction for this edition which comments on the political consequences of keeping a journal, as in the former controversy involving Sen. Bob Packwood. A diarist himself, Mallon places journal writers in history, fleshing them out with both backgro...more
Paperback, 314 pages
Published
September 1st 1995
by Ruminator Books
(first published 1984)
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I really enjoyed this overview of more than one hundred diaries. Mallon groups the diaries into categories of writers and their circumstances and shows that diaries can serve many purposes. Some record travels, others confinement, some religious development and others creative, some are used to argue a point of view whilst others are used as cofessionals.
If you are interested in books, writing and the creative process this book will be of interest to you. The role of diaries as a historical reco...more
If you are interested in books, writing and the creative process this book will be of interest to you. The role of diaries as a historical reco...more
Jun 15, 2010
Adrian
added it
Mallon's survey of the best published diaries and why they are special. We all enjoy coming across our favourites in books like these. Mine are- Boswell, Sarton, Barbellion, Speer and Mansfield. I've noted some diarists I was unaware of such as Helen Bevington, William Souter, Ellen Weeton and Eve Wilson. This book was written 25 years before Mallon's volume on letter writers and betrays a religious inclination I wasn't aware of reading the later volume. He is also a little quick to judge withou...more
Thomas Mallon is a fantastic novelist, whose sentences crackle with humor and irony.
When I found this book at a used bookstore, I wondered whether it was the same Mallon who wrote a non-fiction survey of journals and diaries. It is. And Mallon's same wryness and wit are there just the same.
I keep a journal every day, so there was a lot to interest me in this book. But because it jumps from one diarist to another, the book never grabbed me the way, say, "Fellow Travelers" did. (I am however amaz...more
When I found this book at a used bookstore, I wondered whether it was the same Mallon who wrote a non-fiction survey of journals and diaries. It is. And Mallon's same wryness and wit are there just the same.
I keep a journal every day, so there was a lot to interest me in this book. But because it jumps from one diarist to another, the book never grabbed me the way, say, "Fellow Travelers" did. (I am however amaz...more
"I was, I was - I am."
A fun read indeed! Conversational, witty, erudite, as interested in the diaries of famous poets as those of their overshadowed spouses and siblings. Mallon slips through the pages of chroniclers, travelers, pilgrims, creators, confessors, prisoners, and apologists with ease, contributing empathetic, critical, and humorous commentary. At the very least, peruse the introduction!
"The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his...more
A fun read indeed! Conversational, witty, erudite, as interested in the diaries of famous poets as those of their overshadowed spouses and siblings. Mallon slips through the pages of chroniclers, travelers, pilgrims, creators, confessors, prisoners, and apologists with ease, contributing empathetic, critical, and humorous commentary. At the very least, peruse the introduction!
"The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his...more
Feb 18, 2010
Joy H.
marked it as keep-in-mind
About diary-keeping.
An affirmation for journals and diaries, which fascinate us both as writers and readers. Wonderful introduction. The rest is something of a history of diary-writers and their secret stories, categorized by the function of the diaries. The most interesting was the section on diaries logging the writer's creation of art.
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Mallon's anthology introduces readers to a lot of people who have written about their own lives as they happen.
Never made it past the introduction. Boring.
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review of another edition
Shelves:
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writing
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Thomas Mallon is a novelist, critic and director of the creative writing program at The George Washington University.
He attended Brown University as an undergraduate and earned a Master of Arts and a Ph.D. from Harvard. He received the Ingram Merrill Foundation Award in 1994 and won a Rockefeller Fellowship in 1987. Mallon taught English at Vassar College from 1979-1991.
Mallon is the author of the...more
More about Thomas Mallon...
He attended Brown University as an undergraduate and earned a Master of Arts and a Ph.D. from Harvard. He received the Ingram Merrill Foundation Award in 1994 and won a Rockefeller Fellowship in 1987. Mallon taught English at Vassar College from 1979-1991.
Mallon is the author of the...more
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