List of diarists
This is a list of diarists.
This literature-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
A - F
- John Adams, 2nd President of the United States, statesman, diplomat
- John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States, statesman, diplomat
- James Agate, writer and critic
- Louisa May Alcott, novelist
- Isaac Ambrose, Puritan
- Henri-Frederic Amiel, philosopher, poet, and critic
- Ananda Ranga Pillai, dubash of French India.
- Harriet Arbuthnot, 19th century English diarist and close associate of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
- Martha Ballard, midwife and healer
- Darren Baldwin
- W. N. P. Barbellion, naturalist, essayist and short story writer
- Marie Bashkirtseff (1858–1884), painter and sculptor
- Libby Beaman (1844–1932), first non-native woman in Pribilof Islands
- Peter Hill Beard, photographer in Africa
- Ruth Benedict, anthropologist
- Tony Benn, British politician
- Alan Bennett, writer, playwright
- Arnold Bennett, novelist
- Adolfo Bioy Casares, Argentine fiction writer and frequent collaborator of Jorge Luis Borges.
- Nicholas Blundell (1669–1737) (diary 1711–1728)
- Violet Bonham Carter, British politician, daughter of Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith
- Stanley Booth, chronicled his personal experiences with music personalities of the 1960s and 1970s
- James Boswell, chronicler of Samuel Johnson
- Vera Brittain, author and feminist
- Reader Bullard (1885–1976), British diplomat
- Fanny Burney, novelist
- Meg Cabot, YA author
- Alastair Campbell, British journalist, broadcaster and author
- Emily Carr, artist
- Jim Carroll, author, poet, and musician
- Lewis Carroll, writer and mathematician
- Henry "Chips" Channon (1897–1966) British politician and author
- John Cheever, American novelist
- Claire Lee Chennault, US World War II General. Head of the legendary Flying Tigers.
- Mary Chesnut, described life in South Carolina during the American Civil War
- Alan Clark (1928–1999) British politician and historian
- Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini's foreign minister
- Kurt Cobain, rock musician, Nirvana's lead singer
- Mary Coke (1727–1811), English diarist and correspondent
- Richard Crossman, British politician and writer
- Aleister Crowley, British occultist and poet
- Adam Czerniaków, head of the Warsaw Ghetto's Judenrat
- Charles Lutwidge Dodgson: see Lewis Carroll
- George Bubb Dodington, British politician and nobleman
- Pete Doherty, rock musician (Babyshambles), ex-Libertines
- Anna Dostoyevskaya, wife of Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Fyodor Dostoevsky, author
- Marguerite Duras, author
- Bob Dylan, musician
- Isabelle Eberhardt
- Mircea Eliade, Romanian historian of religion and mythologist
- George Eliot, writer
- Edward Robb Ellis, writer and reporter
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer
- John Evelyn, writer and gardener
- Marianne Faithfull, singer and actress
- Eliza Fay (1756–1616), four visits to India
- Zlata Filipović, diarist in Sarajevo during the Yugoslav war
- Miles Franklin, Australian author
- Donald Friend, Australian artist
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, writer
- Anne Frank, hid from the Nazis during World War II
- Elizabeth Freke (1642–1714) (diary 1671–1714)
- Elizabeth Wynne Fremantle, husband of Thomas Fremantle (Royal Navy officer) and main author of The Wynne Diaries (1789–1857)
- Max Frisch, playwright and novelist
- Buckminster Fuller, designer and engineer
G - M
- Wanda Gag, artist and children's book author
- André Gide, author
- Allen Ginsberg, Beat poet
- Mary Gladstone, British political diarist
- Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler's Propaganda Minister
- Francine du Plessix Gray, author
- Charles Greville (1794–1865), English civil servant and cricketer
- Eugénie de Guérin
- Che Guevara Revolutionary, kept diaries of his travels and of the wars he fought in
- Charlotte Forten Grimké, abolitionist and women's rights activist
- Peter Hagendorf, mercenary soldier in the Thirty Years' War
- Richard Hammond, Top Gear Presenter
- Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre
- Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th president of the United States
- Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp
- Philip Henslowe, Elizabethan theatrical entrepreneur
- Etty Hillesum, young Jewish victim of Nazi Germany
- George Hilton (1673–1725) (diary 1699–1723)
- Henry Hitchcock, served under General William Tecumseh Sherman
- Louisa Gurney Hoare (1784–1836), writer on education
- Richard Hoare, second baronet (1758–1838), English antiquary on his travels in Europe and the British Isles
- Lady Margaret Hoby, 1599–1605
- Karen Horney, psychoanalyst
- Gerard Manley Hopkins, poet
- John Hunton, 1839–1928, kept diaries documenting his daily frontier life in Wyoming, knew and wrote about many famous Old West characters
- Arthur Crew Inman, author of a 17-million word diary
- Alice James, sister of Henry James and William James: lived in England during the 1880s and 1890s
- Derek Jarman, painter and filmmaker
- Arthur Jessop (1639–1727), West Yorkshire apothecary
- Carolina Maria de Jesus, Brazilian writer, activist
- Liz Jones, writer and journalist
- William Jones, 1755–1821, vicar of Broxbourne (diary 1777–1821)
- Ernst Jünger, writer, Wehrmacht officer
- Franz Kafka, writer
- Frida Kahlo, painter
- Alfred Kazin, literary critic
- Friedrich Kellner, Justice Inspector and author of My Opposition
- Frances Anne Kemble, actress
- Søren Kierkegaard, philosopher
- Francis Kilvert, described rural Victorian life
- Lincoln Edward Kirstein American writer, impresario, and co-founder of the New York City Ballet
- Aya Kitō, chronicled her 10 year battle with spinocerebellar degeneration and author of 1 Litre of Tears
- Käthe Kollwitz, artist, 1867–1945
- John MacDonald, diarist, Memoirs of an eighteenth century footman (1745–1779)
- William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canadian prime minister
- Victor Klemperer, professor of literature, described life as a Jew under the Nazis
- Selma Lagerlöf, first female winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature
- Luca Landucci, Florentine apothecary
- Mark Latham, Australian politician
- James Lees-Milne, biographer and historian, secretary of the Country House Committee of the National Trust 1936–1950
- Madeleine L'Engle, author
- Elisabeth Leseur
- Anne Morrow Lindbergh, wife of the aviator, kept diaries her whole life and describes in detail what the family experienced as a result of the kidnapping of their child
- Courtney Love, actress and rock musician
- Henry Machyn, 16 century London diarist
- Charles Malik, philosopher and diplomat
- Thomas Mann, German novelist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature
- Judith Malina, actress, cofounder of the Living Theatre
- John Manningham, lawyer, 1602–1603
- Katherine Mansfield, author
- Florida Scott-Maxwell, actress, analytical psychologist
- Megan McCafferty, YA author
- Matsuo Bashō, haiku and renga poet also known for his travel diaries
- Michinaga, 11th century de facto Japanese ruler
- John Milward (1599–1670) (diary 1666–1668)
- Alanis Morissette, Canadian singer-songwriter
- Helena Morley (1880–1970), described life as a teenage girl in the Brazilian town of Diamantina during the 1890s
- Roger Morrice, Puritan minister and political journalist
- Arthur Munby, Victorian poet, barrister, and solicitor
- Iris Murdoch, author
N - Z
- Sylas Neville (1741–1840) (diary 1767–1788)
- Stevie Nicks, singer/songwriter, member of Fleetwood Mac
- Harold Nicolson (1886–1968), British diplomat, politician and author
- Vaslav Nijinsky, Russian ballet dancer and choreographer (The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky)
- Anaïs Nin, lover of Henry Miller, pornographer and poet: also known for her erotica
- James Oakes (1741–1829) (diary 1778–1827)
- Joyce Carol Oates, author
- Joe Orton, playwright
- Cynthia Ozick, author
- Michael Palin, member of Monty python, actor and travel writer
- Frances Partridge (née Marshall) (1900–2004), writer
- George S. Patton, US World War II General. Part of it was published by his wife after his death as War As I Knew It.
- Emily Pepys (1833–1877). English child diarist (diary 1844–1845)
- Samuel Pepys, civil servant
- Elizabeth Percy, Duchess of Northumberland, 1716–1776
- Sylvia Plath, poet
- James K. Polk, 11th President of the United States
- Beatrix Potter English author of many children's books
- Hana Pravda actress and Holocaust survivor
- Dawn Powell, writer
- Barbara Pym, 20th century novelist
- Thomas Raikes
- Ronald Reagan 40th President of the United States
- Märta Helena Reenstierna (1753–1841)
- Henry Crabb Robinson (1775–1887)
- Ned Rorem, composer
- Henry Rollins, singer for Black Flag
- Everett Ruess, artist and poet who disappeared in the Utah Desert
- Dudley Ryder (1691–1756). Lord Chief Justice (diary 1715–1716)
- George Sand, writer
- May Sarton, poet and novelist
- Rudy Sarzo, rock bassist, most notably of Ozzy Osbourne fame
- Siegfried Sassoon, poet and author
- Marlene A. Schiwy, writer
- Sir Walter Scott, novelist
- George Bernard Shaw, Nobel Prize-winning playwright
- Sei Shōnagon
- Emily Shore
- Malla Silfverstolpe, Swedish salon hostess
- Elizabeth Simcoe, Upper Canada in the 1790s
- Nikki Sixx, bassist/songwriter for Mötley Crüe
- Frances Stevenson, mistress and second wife of British Prime Minister David Lloyd George
- Joseph Stilwell, US World War II General. Published by his widow after his death as The Stilwell Papers.
- George Templeton Strong (1820–1875), New York lawyer
- Henry Teonge (1620–1690), naval chaplain (diaries 1675–76 and 1678–79)
- Daniel Terdiman, award-winning journalist and diarist, published in both print and non-print media
- John Thomlinson (1692–1761), clergyman, (diary 1717–1722)
- Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), author and philosopher
- Hester Thrale (1740–1821), author, friend and confidante of Samuel Johnson
- Sophia Tolstoy, wife of Russian author Leo Tolstoy: they read each other's diaries
- Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva, poet and writer
- Anne Truitt, artist
- Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States
- Thomas Turner (diarist and shopkeeper), 1729–1793
- Marie Vassiltchikov, Russian princess, involved in plot to kill Adolf Hitler
- Victoria of the United Kingdom, 19th century monarch of the UK.
- Alice Walker, author
- Cosima Wagner, daughter of Franz Liszt, second wife of Richard Wagner
- Richard Wagner, composer
- Ralph Ward, Yorkshire cattle-dealer (diary 1754–1756)
- Sabrina Ward Harrison
- Andy Warhol, artist
- Simone Weil, philosopher
- Denton Welch, author
- Opal Whiteley, author, naturalist and subject of several books, including one by Benjamin Hoff
- Elie Wiesel, author
- Kenneth Williams, comic actor
- Lieutenant-General Adam Williamson (1676–1747), deputy lieutenant of the Tower of London, (diary 1722–1747)
- Edmund Wilson, writer and critic
- Otto Wolf, hid from the Nazis during World War II
- James Woodforde, eighteenth century English clergyman
- Wilford Woodruff, fourth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- Virginia Woolf, author and feminist
- Dorothy Wordsworth, poet, sister of William Wordsworth
- Zina D. H. Young, third President of the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Fake diaries
Diaries of disputed authenticity
Fictional diaries
See also
External links