Necessary Secrets: The Journals of Elizabeth Smart

by Elizabeth Smart

Elizabeth Smart was born in Ottawa in 1913 and died in London in March 1986. Perhaps best known for her book By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept , which reviewers described as 'a work of art' and 'a masterpiece', Elizabeth Smart kept a series of journals of which this is the first published volume.This book covers the period from 1933 to 1940, which was a time of extensive travel and profound personal change. Her entries, rapidly written, usually at night when propped up in bed, were sometimes daily and sometimes sporadic accounts of events, sights, sensations and feelings. These are glimpses of her social life, her family, her friends; there are detailed records of her trips and the private record of the heart of a woman – a woman who never overtly rejects the standards and expectations placed upon her, but quietly begins to construct her own personal values.The focus of the journals gradually shifts from an external to an internal one, and they reveal a growing need to articulate the voice of her soul in its search for fulfilment. By the end of 1939, Elizabeth Smart knew what she wanted to write and even how it should be written. She had found a voice and a style – the relationship with the poet George Barker was to provide her with the subject she needed. Finally, subject and voice coincided.Necessary Secrets is entertaining and enlightening reading for anyone who has either a taste for fine writing or an ear for fine stories. Through this book one can enter into the mind of a remarkable woman who was many years ahead of her time and who remains, even now, an enigmatic literary personality.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Memoir, Diary, Biography Memoir, Canada

285 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. This profile is for Elizabeth^Smart.

Elizabeth Smart (December 27, 1913 – March 4, 1986) was a Canadian poet and novelist. Her book, By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, detailed her romance with the poet George Barker. She is the subject of the 1991 biography, By Heart: Elizabeth Smart a Life, by Rosemary Sullivan, and a film, Elizabeth Smart: On the Side of the Angels, produced by Maya Gallus.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's hard to really rate or review a book of journals. I enjoyed learning more about Smart, her upbringing, the fact that she knew F.H. Varley, among other important Canadians. This book brought up an interesting question for me: How was wilderness defined in the early 20th Century? This might seem like a tangent, but Smart is constantly writing about her need for nature, her love of wild places, and yet, she hardly seems to visit them, and when she does she sometimes comments on their unsightliness. It left me wondering what her definition of "wilderness" may have been in the 1930s and 40s. Not wondering in a sarcastic way, but really wondering, what was the early/mid 20th Century experience of nature for Canadians, remembering that this is still a generation that saw Europe, among other places, through the lens of war?

[Mattea Gernentz · Rating 4 out of 5]

“A whisper disperses life’s pollen. He says this. But it is a word too much. The thing said calms the wonder, but, unattended, the mystery grows. You see why I wept under the birch trees?” (198).

I keep thinking about this quote from John Bayley: "Elizabeth Smart was not a genius: but she is the rare case of a writer who succeeds by writing as if she were one."

Smart is utterly compelling yet simultaneously utterly muddled. She is in love with the feeling of being in love, in love with being. There is a backwards quote wherein she essentially says she must “fulfil Nature and then invite God in.” She is headstrong and sometimes self-absorbed. Yet, there are scattered moments of faith, dreams, etc. that come across as almost mystic.

The effect of Smart's musical education is evident, echoed in her desire to be known as the “harmonious one.” She travels the globe (visiting Egypt, New Zealand, Sweden, Germany, France, and beyond) and avidly reads the greats, including Woolf, Mansfield, Joyce, and Nin. She is dramatically attached to the moon (what writer isn't?) and constantly berates herself for not working more. In the 1930s, she is more and more aware of her own charms and becomes preoccupied with sex. She is entangled with French painter Jean Varda—yes, the cousin of the iconic Agnès Varda, Uncle Yanco!

For me, there is some silver thread binding many of Smart's thoughts and experience to Sylvia Plath. Even Smart's immediate and intense devotion to George Barker upon reading his poetry mirrors Plath's admiration of Ted Hughes. Plath had read Hughes's piece "Hawk in The Rain" and, when they met at a Cambridge party in February 1956, she recited fragments of his poems published in St. Botolph’s Review, leading to a tipsy embrace wherein she memorably bit his cheek and he bled.

What an immense literary satisfaction to see Smart's prose develop into the style that would shape her 1945 novella. There is such a distinct turn c. 1940 after she meets Barker.

Smart has become largely defined by the great sacrifice implied in her maddening devotion to an erratic already-married man (and raising their four children as the sole breadwinner), but it must be said that her most tender writing in the journals is not of George or Jean, for whom violent delights had violent ends, but Surrealist poet Alice Paalen.

A woman asked me if I liked reading and shared that she's reading a book about Mary. She then asked, "What are you reading?" "The journals of Elizabeth Smart, a Canadian author. She wrote By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept." "Oh. Why did she weep?" "Well, because she was in love with a married man who could never fully be hers." Silence. Not winning any points today with the Catholics, I fear.

[Angela]

I think this is one of the few books I'm just going to return to the library without finishing.

Like most of the books on my to-read list I don't remember anymore how this got there. Usually that doesn't matter - the books that make it to that list tend to be pretty good even if I don't remember why I wanted to read them originally.

In this case it's not that it's bad writing. It's just that it's journal writing. When I read through my own journals, notes about who I hung out with and what they wore, what we ate, etc. bring back a whole set of associated memories that are meaningful to me. In this case I don't have those memories. And I'm having a hard time caring about this person's daily activities and thoughts.

It may just be the reading mood I'm in at the moment. I'm feeling kind of scattered and like I don't have time to do all the things/read all the books I would like to. So not exactly the best frame of mind to immerse myself into someone else's less-than-tightly-plotted life.

[Camilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's really amazing to see the genesis of Smart's style, and I found it relieving, as always, that one of my literary heroes struggled with finding motivation (as I often do). The first part can being occasionally boring as an account of daily events sometimes lacking personal observation, and the Mexico section I found entirely too metaphorical-- she was basking in the beauty of the language but denying it certain feeling with her vagaries. The last section is the best but is often almost identical to parts in 'By Grand Central Station...'

[Elisabeth Winkler · Rating 5 out of 5]

A writer's journal. The horrible struggle of not writing. But it makes you realise even writing about not writing (and descriptively so as Smart does) is writing practice.

I read a few pages every day. This book has been my companion for months (I am updating this Aug 2013).

The more I read, the more kinship I feel with the author.

I love her descriptions of her travels and her honest reports on her failings and triumphs. Very real.

[Kendra · Rating 5 out of 5]

It feels wrong, somehow, to rate someone's journal entries. But I'm giving it five stars because I really enjoyed reading this book, and can see that quotations from Elizabeth Smart's entries are certainly going to wind up in the pages of my own journal; there's something about much of Smart's writing that really resonates with me.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully written but I struggled to maintain interest.

[Lewis Isbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wept

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Acquired 1994
On permanent loan from a friend in Montreal, Quebec