Letter, Diaries

Following his participation in James Cook’s circumnavigation in HMS Endeavour (1768-71), Joseph Banks developed an extensive global network of scientists and explorers. His correspondence shows how h …

Frances Burney was born on June 13th, 1752 in Lynn Regis (now King’s Lynn). By the age of 8 Frances had still not learned the alphabet and couldn’t read. She now began a period of self-education, whi …

Following his participation in James Cook’s circumnavigation in HMS Endeavour (1768-71), Joseph Banks developed an extensive global network of scientists and explorers. His correspondence shows how h …

‘Do you want me to talk to you of our love? There are no words, however eloquent, to express all the passion, all the fire, all the madness contained within these two words: our love A collection of …

Frances Burney was born on June 13th, 1752 in Lynn Regis (now King’s Lynn). By the age of 8 Frances had still not learned the alphabet and couldn’t read. She now began a period of self-education, whi …

Born on November 5th 1850 in Johnstown, Wisconsin, Ella Wheeler was the youngest of four children. She began to write as a child and by the time she graduated was already well known as a poet through …

Delve into a legendary literary love affair’I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia. I composed a beautiful letter to you in the sleepless nightmare hours of the night, and it has all gone. I jus …

When he turned sixty-five, the playwright Simon Gray began to keep a diary: not a careful honing of the day’s events with a view to posterity but an account of his thoughts as he had them, honestly, …