List of diarists

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

William Allingham, poet

Isaac Ambrose, Puritan

Henri-Frederic Amiel, philosopher, poet, and critic

Ananda Ranga Pillai, dubash of French India.

Harriet Arbuthnot, 19th century English associate of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Takeo Arishima (有島 武郎, 1878–1923), Japanese novelist, who left 20 volumes of diaries

Lady Cynthia Asquith, writer

Martha Ballard, midwife and healer

W. N. P. Barbellion, naturalist, essayist and short story writer

Marie Bashkirtseff (1858–1884), painter and sculptor

Fred Bason, bookseller, broadcaster and writer

Peter Hill Beard, photographer in Africa

Ruth Benedict, anthropologist

Tony Benn, British politician

Alan Bennett, writer, playwright

Arnold Bennett, novelist

Hélène Berr, wrote about the Nazi occupation of Paris

Alfred Bestall, English illustrator, best known for his work on the Rupert Bear stories

Adolfo Bioy Casares, Argentine fiction writer and frequent collaborator with Jorge Luis Borges

Nicholas Blundell (1669–1737) (diary 1711–1728)

Violet Bonham Carter, English 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

Patrick Breen, member of The Donner Party whose diary covered the hardships faced by the group whilst stranded in the wilderness in the winter of 1846/47.

Vera Brittain, author and feminist

Benjamin Britten, English composer

David Bruce (1898-1977), American diplomat whose published diaries cover his time as Ambassador in 1960s London.

Reader Bullard (1885–1976), British diplomat

Fanny Burney, English novelist and memoirist

William Byrd II, Colonial American diarist

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

Judy Cassab, Australian artist

Henry "Chips" Channon (1897–1966) British politician and author

John Cheever, American novelist

Claire Lee Chennault, US World War II General, head of the Flying Tigers

Mary Chesnut described life in South Carolina during the American Civil War.

Emil Cioran, Romanian writer and philosopher

Alan Clark (1928–1999) British politician and historian

Andrew Clark (1856–1922), British diarist and cleric

Ralph Clark, British naval officer

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

Marie Curie, Polish physicist and chemist

Adam Czerniaków, head of the Warsaw Ghetto's Judenrat

Thomas Dallam (1570 – after 1614), organ builder (diary 1598–99, voyage to and description of Turkey)

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, Russian author

Marguerite Duras, French author

Bob Dylan, American musician

Isabelle Eberhardt

Mircea Eliade, Romanian historian of religion and mythologist

George Eliot, English novelist

Edward Robb Ellis, writer and reporter

Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer

Brian Eno, English musician, record producer and polymath

John Evelyn, English writer, scholar and gardener

Marianne Faithfull, singer and actress

St. Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938), mystic and secretary of Divine Mercy

Eliza Fay (1756–1816), four visits to India

Celia Fiennes (1652–1741), diarist traveller

Zlata Filipović, diarist in Sarajevo during the Yugoslav war

F. Scott Fitzgerald, writer

Marjorie Fleming (1803–1811), child diarist

Anne Frank, child diarist describing period of hiding during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam in World War II

Miles Franklin, Australian author

Elizabeth Wynne Fremantle, wife of Thomas Fremantle (Royal Navy officer) and main author of The Wynne Diaries (1789–1857)

Donald Friend, Australian artist

Robert Fripp, musician

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

Petr Ginz (1928-1944) Czech author, artist and editor-in-chief of the magazine Vedem, Victim of the Holocaust

Mary Gladstone, British political diarist

Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler's Propaganda Minister

Gilles de Gouberville (1521–1578), seigneur in Cotentin, Normandy

Francine du Plessix Gray, author

Bob Greene, journalist

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

Alec Guinness, British actor

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

Keith Haring, artist

Peter Hawker, officer in the British military and celebrated diarist

Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th President of the United States

Hedwig Elizabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp (1759-1818), documented the life of the Swedish royal court and elite in 1775–1817

Philip Henslowe, Elizabethan theatrical entrepreneur

Etty Hillesum, young Jewish victim of Nazi Germany

Edmund C. Hinde (1830–1909) documented experiences in the California Gold Rush in the 1850s.

Henry Hitchcock served under General William Tecumseh Sherman.

Louisa Gurney Hoare (1784–1836), writer on education

Richard Hoare, second baronet (1758–1838), English antiquary who traveled in Europe and the British Isles

Lady Margaret Hoby, 1599–1605

John Hobhouse, English politician and Member of Parliament

William Holland, English clergyman.

Karen Horney, psychoanalyst

Gerard Manley Hopkins, English poet

William Ralph Inge, Anglican priest and author

Julia, Lady Inglis, diarist of the 1857 Siege of Lucknow

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

Carolina Maria de Jesus, Brazilian writer, activist

John Beauchamp Jones, a writer and high-level clerk in the Confederate War Department in Richmond, Virginia

Liz Jones, writer and journalist

Ernst Jünger, writer, Wehrmacht officer

Franz Kafka, German-language writer from Czechoslovakia

Frida Kahlo, painter

Alfred Kazin, literary critic

Friedrich Kellner, justice inspector and author of My Opposition

Frances Anne Kemble, actress

Harry Graf Kessler (1868–1937), art and politics, World War I, diary 1880–1937

Søren Kierkegaard, philosopher

Francis Kilvert, Anglican priest, 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 wrote 1 Litre of Tears

Paul Klee, painter

Käthe Kollwitz, artist, 1867–1945

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

Valery Larbaud, French author

Paul Léatuaud, French writer (1872-1956) and author of Le Journal Littéraire

James Lees-Milne, biographer and historian, secretary of Country House Committee of the National Trust 1936–1950

Madeleine L'Engle, author

Elisabeth Leseur

Anne Morrow Lindbergh, wife of the aviator, lifetime diarist, describes in detail what the family experienced as a result of the kidnapping of their child

Anne Lister, 1791-1840, lifetime diarist, describes her Lesbian identity, partly in code

Courtney Love, actress and rock musician

Narcissus Luttrell, 18th century English historian and politician

Henry Machyn, 16th century London diarist

Harold Macmillan, British Prime Minister

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 (松尾 芭蕉), Japanese haiku and renga poet known for his travel diaries

Fujiwara no Michinaga (藤原 道長?, 966–1028), Japanese ruler

Alanis Morissette, Canadian singer-songwriter

Helena Morley (1880–1970), described life as a teenager in Diamantina, Brazil during the 1890s

Roger Morrice, Puritan minister and political journalist

Lena Mukhina (1924–1991), Soviet teenager during the Siege of Leningrad

Chris Mullin (born 1947), British Labour politician and writer

Arthur Munby (1828–1910), English poet, barrister, and solicitor

Iris Murdoch (1919–1999), Anglo-Irish novelist

N–Z

Stevie Nicks, singer/songwriter, member of Fleetwood Mac

Harold Nicolson (1886–1968), English diplomat, politician and author

Vaslav Nijinsky, Russian ballet dancer and choreographer

Anaïs Nin, lover of Henry Miller, writer of erotica and pornography, and poet

Joyce Carol Oates, author

John Olsen, Australian artist

Joe Orton, English playwright

Cynthia Ozick, author

Michael Palin, member of the Monty Python team, actor and travel writer

Frances Partridge (née Marshall) (1900–2004), writer

George S. Patton, US World War II General, diary part-published posthumously as War As I Knew It

Charles Willson Peale, Colonial American painter

Emily Pepys (1833–1877). English child diarist (diary 1844–1845)

Samuel Pepys, English civil servant

Elizabeth Percy, Duchess of Northumberland (1716–1776)

Sylvia Plath, poet

John Thomas Pocock (1814–1876), English diarist writing as a schoolboy in early 19th-century London

James K. Polk, 11th President of the United States

John William Polidori, poet, writer and physician

Beatrix Potter, English author and illustrator of children's books

Hana Pravda, actress and Holocaust survivor

Dawn Powell, writer

Barbara Pym, 20th-century novelist

Ronald Reagan 40th President of the United States

Märta Helena Reenstierna (1753–1841)

Henry Crabb Robinson (1775–1887)

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), 26th President of the United States

Ned Rorem, composer

Henry Rollins, singer for Black Flag

Barbara Rosenthal, New York avant-garde New Media artist/writer/performer

Everett Ruess, artist and poet, who disappeared in the Utah Desert

Dudley Ryder (1691–1756), English Lord Chief Justice (diary 1715–16)

George Sand, French writer

May Sarton, poet and novelist

Rudy Sarzo, rock bassist, most notably of Ozzy Osbourne fame

Siegfried Sassoon, English poet and author

Robert Falcon Scott, English explorer whose diary covered his unsuccessful expedition in Antarctica in 1912

Sir Walter Scott, novelist

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., American historian and political adviser

George Bernard Shaw, Irish Nobel Prize-winning playwright

Robert Shields, American teacher, whose diaries totaled over 37 million words

Michael Shiner, freed slave and Navy Yard worker who described life in 19th century Washington D.C

Sei Shōnagon (清少納言), lady-in-waiting at the Japanese imperial court around AD 1000, in the middle Heian period

Emily Shore

Malla Silfverstolpe, Swedish salon hostess

Elizabeth Simcoe, wrote in Upper Canada in the 1790s

Nikki Sixx, bassist/songwriter for Mötley Crüe

John Skinner, English vicar, amateur antiquarian and suicide

Philip Slier, Hidden Letters

Stephen Spender, poet

Frances Stevenson, mistress and second wife of British Prime Minister David Lloyd George

Joseph Stilwell, US World War II general, posthumously published as The Stilwell Papers

George Templeton Strong (1820–1875), New York lawyer

Rosemary Sutcliff (1920–92), English historical novelist and writer for children and young adults

John Swete, English clergyman and artist, covering excursions in late 18th-century Devon

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer

Henry Teonge (1620–1690), English naval chaplain (diaries 1675–76 and 1678–79)

Daniel Terdiman, award-winning journalist and diarist

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

Meta Truscott, (1917–2014) Australian diarist and Ashgrove historian (diaries 1934–2014)

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 queen

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

Evelyn Waugh, English novelist

Simone Weil, philosopher

Denton Welch, author

John Wesley, 18th-century English mystic/theologian who founded the Methodist movement

Gilbert White, English naturalist and Anglican cleric

Opal Whiteley, author, naturalist and subject of several books, including one by Benjamin Hoff

Elie Wiesel, author

Kenneth Williams, English comic actor

Charlotte Williams-Wynn, aristocrat

Edmund Wilson, writer and critic

James Woodforde, 18th century English clergyman

Wilford Woodruff, fourth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Virginia Woolf, English author and feminist

Dorothy Wordsworth, English 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

Hitler Diaries

Mussolini diaries

Diary of a Farmer's Wife 1796–1797 (spurious, published 1964)

Go Ask Alice

Diaries of disputed authenticity

The Black Diaries, diaries purportedly written by Roger Casement detailing his alleged homosexual activities. Believed by some to be a forgery perpetrated by the British government.

Fictional diaries

The Diary of Mrs. Pepys (by F.D. Ponsonby, London 1934)

The Journal of Mrs Pepys: Portrait of a Marriage (by Sara George, 1998)

Bridget Jones's Diary

Diary of a Nobody

Diary of a Somebody by Christopher Matthew

The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks

The Moneypenny Diaries

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾

The Turner Diaries

The Princess Diaries

Sloppy Firsts

Diary of a Chav by Grace Dent

Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Any Human Heart: The Intimate Journals of Logan Mountstuart by William Boyd

A Journal of Impossible Things A journal kept by the Doctor from the episodes "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood" of the television series "Doctor Who."