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Love the idea of starting a diary but struggle to stay motivated?
Some of the most famous and inspiring historical figures kept a record of their lives through the form of journals and diaries.
Here is a list of Sharon Korkes' favourite famous journals and diaries:
1. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Anne Frank's diary holds the record for the highest selling published diary, with over 25 million copies sold. This makes The Diary of a Young Girl the most famous diary ever published. It is the diary kept by a young girl while her and her family were in hiding for two years during the Nazi occupation in the Netherlands.
2. The Journals of Sylvia Plath by Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath was an American poet and novelist from the 1960s. She was known for her emotional and dark poetry as she grappled with mental health difficulties and depression, as well as her semi-biographical novel, The Bell Jar. She kept her journals from age 11 through her death at 30.
3. The Reagan Diaries by Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan was the 40th US President. During his two terms President he kept a daily diary by hand, recording his thoughts and observations on the extraordinary, the historic, and the routine day-to-day occurrences of his presidency.
4. The Civil War Diary of a Southern Woman by Sarah Morgan Dawson
Sarah Morgan began her journal when she was nineteen and just nine months after the start of the Civil War. Her record of the events during the war remains one of the most vivid, evocative portrayals in existence of a time and place that today make up a crucial chapter in US national history.
5. The Diary of Virginia Woolf by Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf is one of my favourite authors! She is considered one of the most ground breaking writers of the 20th century as she pioneered new narratives, as well as being regarded as one of the mothers of feminist literature. She kept her diaries (all five volumes) from 1915 until 1941 and they contain her unguarded accounts of her writing efforts and personal life.
6. The Broke Diaries: The Completely True and Hilarious Misadventures of a Good Girl Gone Broke by Angela Nissel
Angela Nissel was a broke and struggling college student at the University of Pennsylvania. Her diaries, which started out on the internet (one of the first successful blogs maybe?), were a hilarious and down-to-earth account of her struggles to pay her bills.
7. Water Cooler Diaries: Women across America Share Their Day at Work by Joni Cole and B.K. Rakhra
The Water Cooler Diaries is a collection of on-the-job "day-in-the-life" chronicles from hundreds of women. This is a look at what each of their days looked like on March 27, 2007.
8. A Day at a Time: The Diary Literature of American Women Writers from 1764 to the Present edited by Margo Culley
This collection includes journals composed over the past two centuries by 29 American women from different classes, social levels, and ethnic backgrounds.
We hope this collection of famous journals and diaries have inspired you to get writing! Haven't started yet but want to? Make sure to check out our own collection of journals and diaries to help you get started.
Do you have a favourite journal or diary to read? Do share them with us!
