Private Pages: Diaries of American Women 1830s-1970s

by Penelope Franklin

A rare and valuable glimpse into the lives of American women—through their diaries, published here for the first time
 
By turns delightful, poignant, and heartbreaking, these diary entries explore inner landscapes, telling of love, marriage, and motherhood, of religion and family obligation, of the need to break free, to improve oneself, and to make something of one’s life.
 
In Private Pages we meet a devoted student in Minneapolis in the 1920s, grappling with the issues of her age; a Midwestern farm wife stuck in a loveless marriage in the 1890s; a Depression-era Berkeley, California, woman writing for her unborn grandchildren; a Southern Jewish woman at the end of the Civil War; a professional writer falling in love; and eight others, all of whom touch us in unique ways as we come to know them intimately through their diaries.
 
Customs and technologies change, but human emotions endure. From a turn-of-the-century thirteen-year-old with a schoolgirl crush on a teacher to an elderly nineteenth-century Quaker at the end of her life, each of these women strikes a chord of sympathy and understanding in us, for their concerns are, after all, very like our own.

Genres: Nonfiction, Diary

528 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Bekah · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books ever. I go back to this whenever I need some feel-goods.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating collection of diaries from women. One thing that struck me is how introspective, personal, and limited in a kind of scope these generally are. One diary happens during WW I but the international disruption does not disrupt the thoughts of boys, interpersonal relationships, and image. Not that that is a bad thing. These include selections from the diary of a Japanese-American who was interned during WWII, which she calls an "evacuation" without it interfering with her own similar, personal thoughts and social interactions. A Jewish Southerner during the Civil War, however, has strong thoughts on that conflict and it appears anyone writing during the era did feel compelled to write about that.

[Jennifer]

I picked this up at the Goshen Fair. Diaries of American women. I'm hooked.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another of my all-time favorites! It's so interesting to read these women's diaries and realize how things have changed and how things haven't changed for women through the years.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many very interesting diaries of ordinary women throughout American history. One very annoying “artistic hippie” type that I couldn’t even skim. I think I actually knew women like her in my youth that I thought were airheaded and pretentious. I didn’t care for them then and have even less patience for them now. My fave was the last, the elderly Deborah who kept complaining about her lousy pens and her new kitten who must have been Pepper’s ancestor.

[Gail Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books. Love how the different perspectives progress through age, time and circumstance.

[Teresa]

I thought it was kind of boring. I love reading old diaries and stuff but I just could not get into this book. Maybe I will try reading this again sometime.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just wonderful.

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! I could relate to every woman featured despite differences in time, place, and age. a great book to read for anyone that journals.