History Main / Diary

** ComicBook/{{Paperinik}} (Donald Duck superhero alter-ego) found his origin when Donald accidentally discovered the journal of Fantomius, the GentlemanThief that had been active in Duckburg in the twenties. More realistically than in most examples, Fantomius had multiple journals (we know of at least three of them, possibly four).

* In ''ComicBook/TwelveReasonsWhyILoveHer'', both Gwen and Evan, have chapters that look like diary entries and add depth to the characters.

* Zoey from ''ComicBook/AVoiceInTheDark'' keeps a diary, which is used as narration for the series. Each time she fills up a book, which includes details on her violent urges and past killing, she burns the book and starts a new one.

* ''Fanfic/ThePrivateDiaryOfElizabethQuatermain''
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series "Hermione, Queen of Witches" is a variant: the entire story consists of Hermione writing in her diary, but the diary writes back.
* The ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' fanfic FanFic/BackgroundPony is told through the diary of Lyra Heartstrings, although one chapter is [[spoiler: the diary of Alabaster Comehoof, who suffered the same curse as Lyra a thousand years ago.]]

* The 4th entry of the ''Fanfic/TalesOfTheUndiscoveredSwords'' is told through the diary of Kiriha Sadamune, an amnesiac sword who wants to preserve his new memory by writing it down.

* The ''Anime/KillLaKill'' fic, Paper Cranes, is this and an EpistolaryNovel, as Ryuuko is writing her letters to her sister in a diary the latter had given her.

* Very possibly the entirety of ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''; it has been mentioned in the novels that wizards of the White Council are expected to keep journals, which they pass down to their apprentices--as well as the journals of their teachers, and their teacher's teachers, etc, ''ad nauseam.'' What Harry may well eventually receive will include the journals of Merlin. The ''[[Myth/ArthurianLegend original]]'' {{Myth/Merlin}}.

* ''Literature/TheSacredDiaryOfAdrianPlass'', a fictional, funny account of Christian life in England.

* ''Literature/TheFurtherAdventuresOfBatman''

** "Subway Jack" has case file A-4567-C which is written in Batman's FirstPersonPerspective.
* ''My Story'' is a HistoricalFiction series, where each book is the diary of someone insignificant who knows [[HistoricalDomainCharacter a famous historical figure]] or lived during a notable historical event. For example ''Anne Boleyn & Me'' is the diary of a young girl who becomes a lady-in-waiting to UsefulNotes/AnneBoleyn.

* In ''Film/SummerCampNightmare'', Donald Poultry TheSmartGuy uses a tape recorder to dictate an audio diary of the events that take place during his time at Camp North Pines. The audio diary is later confiscated by the police at the end of the film as evidence regarding the takeover of the camp staged by Franklin Reilly, though Donald does ask if he could have the tapes back when they're through with them.

** Dawn Summers is shown writing in a diary complete with voice over narrating of what is being written. It's presumed that she has done this for most of her life, but could also be an [[ActorAllusion allusion]] to Michelle Trachtenberg's role as Harriet in ''Literature/HarrietTheSpy''.

* Frederica's diary is of use to the detectives in ''VideoGame/DarkTales: Metzengerstein'' as they try to solve her disappearance.

* ''[[http://thewretchedoneswebcomic.com/ The Wretched Ones]]''[='=] plot is kicked off with the discovery of Nicholas Thomas' lost journals one hundred years after he died.

* [[http://people.com/archive/out-of-sight-vol-51-no-15/ Accused of murdering his wife Virginia]], Alvin Ridley's life and reputation were saved [[http://snapjudgment.org/writing-wall-0 by his dead wife's hypergraphic diary]] [[https://krazykillers.wordpress.com/2015/09/28/reclusive-ridley-caused-a-riotous-reaction-in-ringgold/ in 1999]]. Turns out [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1999/01/27/from-murder-trial-in-ga-town-a-love-story-emerges/dbe5c208-ad20-4712-9b06-31dcb804f3c4/?utm_term=.ea7788e50528 they really were just an eccentric but happily married couple]] who [[LonersAreFreaks kept to themselves]]. She had passed in her sleep because of an epileptic seizure but her family were firmly against their marriage and wanted to blame Alvin for it, thus the murder charge. On Youtube, look up "Death in a Small Town" or "Virginia Ridley".

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[[AC:Comic Books]]

** Paperinik (Donald Duck superhero alter-ego) found his origin when Donald accidentally discovered the journal of Fantomius, the GentlemanThief that had been active in Duckburg in the twenties. More realistically than in most examples, Fantomius had multiple journals (we know of at least three of them, possibly four).

[[AC:{{Fanfic}}]]

* The excellent (but unfortunately DeadFic) Literature/HarryPotter series "Hermione, Queen of Witches" is a variant on this trope; the entire story consists of Hermione writing in her diary, but the diary writes back.

* [[Radio/GilesWemmbleyHoggGoesOff Giles Wemmbley-Hogg]] chronicles his travels as an audio diary.

* ''[[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel Junior]] in his early career was a kind of Dickens character. As Freddy Freeman, he was a poor lame boy who lived in a chilly garret and sold newspapers. Most superheroes had sidekicks so they'd have someone to talk to; Freddy had his diary. It was his one really valuable possession, with gold-leaf decoration on the covers. Mary Marvel's adventures were also told in diary form.
* ''{{ComicBook/Circles}}'': Paulie keeps a personal one to chronicle the events that happen throughout the years. He kept it away from everyone and including Douglas who wanted to read them. [[spoiler:Of course, Paulie knew that eventually he would stop and then he would leave the journals for Douglas and the others to read. Douglas was inspired and began to write entries to Jason to pass onto him.]]

[[AC:Fan Works]]

Diaries have existed at least since medieval times. The earliest known were [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikki_Bungaku written by Japanese princesses and court ladies]]. Religious devotees, male and female, used them for spiritual introspection and self-improvement. By the Renaissance, diaries held ordinary daily life events alongside personal thoughts and feelings. People also kept "commonplace books" to record quotations and ideas from other people.

* {{Discussed}} in Jane Austen's ''Literature/NorthangerAbbey''. Henry Tilney gently mocks Catherine that he doesn't believe her not keeping a diary. How else could she tell her friends about her glorious time in Bath? He also thinks that ladies gain their writing style from practising with diaries. This is an early (1817!) instance of the use of the word "journal" as a verb; Henry speaks several times of "journaling", making the whole discussion sound oddly modern.

* Every episode of ''Series/MrBelvidere'' ends with the title character writing in his diary, with a voice over narrating the contents of the day's entry.

* Very possibly the entirety of ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles''; it has been mentioned in the novels that wizards of the White Council are expected to keep journals, which they pass down to their apprentices--as well as the journals of their teachers, and their teacher's teachers, etc, ''ad nauseum.'' What Harry may well eventually receive will include the journals of Merlin. The ''[[Myth/ArthurianLegend original]]'' {{Myth/Merlin}}.

** Dawn Summers is shown writing in a diary complete with voice over narrating of what is being written. It's presumed that she has done this for most of her life but could also be an [[ActorAllusion allusion]] to Michelle Trachtenberg's role as Harriet in ''Literature/HarrietTheSpy''.

* ''Literature/TheDiaryOfAYoungGirl'', the diary of Holocaust victim Anne Frank, probably the most famous diary ever published.

* The [[UpToEleven longest]] diary in the world is that of the Reverend Robert Shields, who spent a quarter of a century in his retirement years starting in 1972 documenting ''all'' the minutia of his life, right down to the timestamps - the temperatures of certain points in his office where he wrote, the weight and contents of the day's newspapers, the price of certain products at the grocery store, [[{{Squick}} his bowel movements,]] his medications, the weather, what he ate, the conversations he had, musings on God and life, his dreams,[[note]]legend has it he slept for only a few hours at a time so he could retain his dreams long enough to write them down[[/note]] what he was reading at the time, and of course that he was writing the diary itself. Entries in the latter category all read about the same - "I was at the keyboard of the IBM Wheelwriter making entries for the diary" - and exist solely to account for all the time he did exactly that. While he might have had a neurological condition known as ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypergraphia hypergraphia]]'', in which affected individuals have an insatiable urge to write, Shields defended his writing and resulting reclusiveness by arguing that perhaps his extremely detailed work would matter one day: "Maybe by looking into someone's life at that depth, every minute of every day, they will find out something about all people." He suffered a stroke that stopped him from writing any further ten years before he died - [[TearJerker though he had said much earlier that if he stopped writing it, he would feel as if he'd "turned off [his] life"]] - and while his longsuffering wife did try to continue his work via dictation, she of course didn't have the drive that he did and quickly stopped. Shields' diary was donated to Washington State University, where it remains stored in ''94 cartons''. {{Doorstopper}}? This thing could stop every single door in his hometown of Daytona all at once. It's estimated that the journal has ''37.5 million'' words in it, but Shields mandated that an exact count cannot be derived for fifty years after his passing; as he died in 2007, we'll never know how many words are actually in it until '''2057''' at the earliest.

* The ''Literature/ProvostsDog'' books by Creator/TamoraPierce is written in the form of journal entries by the titular character.

* Tom Riddle's [[DeadlyBook diary]] in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets''. Riddle's diary is based on how Creator/JKRowling views diaries as "really frightening," due to their power to make little girls confide in them only to become paranoid that [[SecretDiary someone will read them and discover their secrets]].
* Eustace's diary in ''Literature/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader.''
* In ''Literature/FirstRidersCall'', several entries from the journal of Hadriax el Fex, TheDragon to an ancient EvilOverlord, break up the chapters and serve to provide backstory for the conflict that is happening now. [[spoiler: It is also revealed to have special significance to the protagonist, who turns out to be his descendant.]]
* An old diary found by Leo Colston in ''Literature/TheGoBetween'' revives memories of a traumatic summer holiday fifty years earlier.

* {{Discussed}} in Jane Austen's ''Literature/NorthangerAbbey''. Henry Tilney gently mocks Catherine that he doesn't believe her not keeping a diary. How else could she tell her friends about her glorious time in Bath? He also thinks that ladies gain their writing style from practising with diaries. This is an early (1817!) instance of the use of the word "journal" as a verb; Henry speaks several times of "journaling", making the whole discussion sound oddly modern.
* A.S. Byatt's novel ''Literature/{{Possession}}'' has several diaries. The first clue to the mystery is found in the diary of Henry Crabb Robinson (a real person, who often invited famous creators to his home for ''salons''). There's more in the journal of Ellen Ash, who is said to use her book to "baffle" future readers with complex hints. Blanche Glover's diary tells another part of the story. Sabine de Kercoz, Christabel's cousin, intended her journal to improve her writing so she could be an author herself, but ended up telling the story of what happened after Christabel's romance with Randolph Ash.
* In Lawrence Block's suspense novel ''Literature/{{Ariel|Block}}'', Ariel keeps her diary in an ordinary school notebook so her mother won't snoop. She says she got the idea of hiding secret things in plain sight from Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's ''Literature/ThePurloinedLetter''.

* Asta Westerby's diary is the subject and the core of ''Asta's Book'' (first published in the U.S. as ''Anna's Book'') a ripping good mystery yarn by Barbara Vine. Asta is a strong-minded young Danish woman living in a London suburb in 1906. She keeps the diary faithfully through the decades, completing about sixty volumes before she puts it aside in her nineties. Her daughter Swanhild discovers it years later and arranges to have it published, finding that it creates as many mysteries as it solves.

* The Doctor keeps the ''500 Year Diary'' in the series ''Series/DoctorWho''
** The Twelfth Doctor upgraded recently to a ''2000 Year Diary''.
** River Song also keeps a diary. Because they keep meeting out of order, they have to compare recent diary entries to confirm when and where they are in their respective timelines, to avoid "spoilers".
* ''Series/DoogieHowserMD'' ended each episode with Doogie writing on his computer diary.
* ''Secret Diary of a Call Girl'', which is based on the above ''Belle de Jour'' blog
* Sue Sylvester from ''Series/{{Glee}}'' is sometimes seen writing quips about important events or characters in a diary, most noticeably Mr. Schue.
* On ''Series/TheXFiles'', Scully writes a diary to Mulder, presumably as a means to help them both cope with her [[spoiler: impending death from an inoperable tumor.]] Shown in "Memento Mori".
** Mulder also finds the diary of [[spoiler:his sister]] in "Closure".
* Brazilian show Casseta & Planeta had a frequent sketch called ''Diary of a Macho'', revolving around a violence-loving DumbMuscle (a stereotype known there as "pitboy") writing one of those. The opening line is always "Dear diary - not dear, because 'dear' is a queer thing! [more manly term] diary...".

* In the ITV adaptation of Creator/JaneAusten's ''Northanger Abbey'' (2007), Catherine and Henry Tilney discuss ladies' writing diaries as in the book, and moreover, Catherine is shown as an avid diary keeper.

* Another aspiring novelist is Beaver of ''Series/LeaveItToBeaver''. Hearing that Beaver is contemplating a writing career. Ward gives him a diary. He emphasizes its private, personal nature and the fact that some great writers used ideas from their own childhood diaries. Beaver openly despairs of simply recording his "boring" real life. When he is late home from school, Ward and June [[{{Hypocrite}} of course break into the diary]], where they discover lurid accounts of reckless, criminal activity. Completely snowed by the SecretDiary stereotype, they fail to realize he is using the book to practice fictional narrative.
* A worn, stained diary figures in the ''Series/MagnumPI'' adventure "Forever in Time". It's kept by the elderly traditional Pali-Uli Keahikapu, once a lady-in-waiting to a Hawaiian princess, who is now concerned about the safety of the princess's granddaughter.[[note]]If you pause the video you can see that she also writes about missing her dead husband, the entry breaks off, and the next page begins "Well, now that I've had some buttermilk I feel I can continue." Aww.[[/note]] The last entry, twenty or so pages before the end, is "MUST STOP VICTORIA'S DEATH."
* There's also a diary in the ''Series/HawaiiFiveO'' episode "Up Tight". This one belongs to young Edie Hastings, who [[DrugsAreBad threw herself off a cliff while on "speed"]] (though clearly LSD is meant). The trail leads to Prof. [[MeaningfulName Stone]], a Timothy Leary {{Expy}}, whom Edie's father confronts with her book. He demands Stone read Edie's words, revealing that the two were lovers, before forcing him to take some of his own drugs (he ends up on the same cliff). Stone reads from the ''front'' of the book, which looks very new; Edie had only made a couple of entries before her death.

* One episode of ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'' has Blanche discovering Rose's diary, and she and Dorothy are horrified to read entries in which she talks about "living with these two pigs." As it turns out, the diary they've been reading is Rose's old 4-H diary, kept one summer when she raised two pigs for the county fair.
** In another episode, Blanche pulls out her own diary to try to resolve a plot point. Dorothy is baffled to see the word BED on the cover, at which Blanche laughs and explains that it's not the word BED - it's her monogram, which just happens to spell that word.

--> ''"I keep a diary in order to enter the wonderful secrets of my life. If I didn't write them down, I should probably forget all about them."''
--> ''"I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train."''

[[AC:NewspaperComics]]
* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' had one strip:
-->'''Calvin:''' History will thank me for keeping this journal at such a young age. As one of those individuals destined for true greatness, this record of my thoughts and convictions will provide valuable insight into my budding genius. Think of it - a priceless historical document in the making! Wow!
-->'''Calvin:''' So who ''else'' should I add to my list of total jerks?
-->'''Hobbes:''' Who else do you even ''know''?

[[AC:WebComics]]

* [[http://thewretchedoneswebcomic.com/ The Wretched Ones]] plot is kicked off with the discovery of Nicholas Thomas' lost journals one hundred years after he died.

** "{{Literature/Bats}}" is written in the form of a diary by Alfred Pennyworth, who is trying to deal with the possibility of Bruce Wayne having gone insane.
** "Literature/SubwayJack" has case file A-4567-C which is written in Batman’s FirstPersonPerspective.

* Bobby's diary in ''Series/PrayersForBobby''.

* ''Series/BuffytheVampireSlayer'':
** Dawn Summers is shown writing in a diary complete with voice over narrating of what is being written. It's presumed that she has done this for most of her life but could also be an [[ActorAllusion allusion]] to Michelle Trachtenberg's role as Harriet in ''Series/HarrietTheSpy''.

* In ''[[Series/BuffytheVampireSlayer Buffy]]'' Dawn Summers is shown writing in a diary complete with voice over narrating of what is being written. It's presumed that she has done this for most of her life but could also be an [[ActorAllusion allusion]] to Michelle Trachtenberg's role as Harriet in ''Series/HarrietTheSpy''. Rupert Giles also keeps his own diary, which briefly gets touched upon in an episode when we learn what he thought of Buffy upon their first day meeting.

* In season 4 of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' the Mane Six use a diary to tell the friendship lessons they have learned in that week's episode.

** Becomes downright unrealistic in the case of ''My Heart Is On The Ground'', where a Lakotah child in the Carlisle Residential Indian School is given a diary to improve her English.

* For a long time, historian-journalist Edward Robb Ellis was considered to have written the world's longest diary, from 1927 to 1997. It boasts an impressive 21 million words, give or take, but Ellis' record was soon beaten by Rev. Robert Shields (see below).

* Before Shields, the world record holders were [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Robb_Ellis Edward Robb Ellis]] at 22 million words, and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Crew_Inman Arthur Crew Inman]] at 17 million words. They couldn't have been more dissimilar. Working-class Chicagoan Eddie Ellis began his diary as a teenager and kept it for 70 years, during which time he was a newspaper reporter, historian, served in the US Navy, and wrote four books about American history. Arthur Crew Inman came from an extremely wealthy Southern family and was a white supremacist, Jew-hater and misogynist. He was also paranoid about his health and never went anywhere; he hired "interesting people" to come and talk to him while he concealed himself behind dark curtains.

Men and women from all walks of life have kept all kinds of diaries and journals, but they've become increasingly gendered over the last century or so. Partly due to the popularity in the Victorian era of fictional works in diary form, diaries became culturally coded as "feminine", in spite of the fact that some of the greatest diaries by men were written in this period[[note]]George Templeton Strong, the Goncourt brothers, UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt[[/note]]. Even now, diaries tend to be seen [[https://www.themorgan.org/blog/do-real-men-keep-diaries primarily as a tool of women's empowerment]].[[note]]largely due to the immense influence in the 1970s of Creator/AnaisNin and her protégée Trula La Calle, author of ''The New Diary''.[[/note]]. While both men's and women's diaries are covered in Thomas Mallon's ''A Book Of One's Own'', there are no anthologies of men's diaries, while there are several [[https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1974/11/15/to-love-and-to-work-pwhy/ anthologies of women's diaries]]. This may be a social issue. Men may be teased for having a diary which forces them to be more secretive or use a {{Less Embarrassing Term}} such as "a journal". [[http://www.artofmanliness.com/2009/06/07/30-days-to-a-better-man-day-8-start-a-journal/ The Art of Manliness has this to say about diaries]] and why men should keep them. [[https://wolfandiron.com/every-man-keep-handwritten-journal/ More on diaries and journals from Wolf & Iron]].

Diaries have existed since medieval times. The earliest known were [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikki_Bungaku written by Japanese princesses and court ladies]]. Religious devotees, male and female, used them for spiritual introspection and self-improvement. By the Renaissance, diaries held ordinary daily life events alongside personal thoughts and feelings. People also kept "commonplace books" to record quotations and ideas from other people.

Men and women from all walks of life have kept all kinds of diaries and journals, but they've become increasingly gendered over the last century or so. Partly due to the popularity in the Victorian era of fictional works in diary form, diaries became culturally coded as "feminine", in spite of the fact that some of the greatest diaries by men were written in this period[[note]]George Templeton Strong, the Goncourt brothers, UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt[[/note]]. Even now, diaries tend to be seen [[https://www.themorgan.org/blog/do-real-men-keep-diaries primarily as a tool of women's empowerment]].[[note]]largely due to the immense influence in the 1970s of Creator/AnaisNin and her protégée Trula La Calle, author of ''The New Diary''.[[/note]]. While both men's and women's diaries are covered in Thomas Mallon's ''A Book Of One's Own'', there are no anthologies of men's diaries, while there are several [[https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1974/11/15/to-love-and-to-work-pwhy/ anthologies of women's diaries]]. This may be a social issue. Men may be teased for having a diary which forces them to be more secretive or use a {{Less Embarrassing Term}} such as "a journal". [[http://www.artofmanliness.com/2009/06/07/30-days-to-a-better-man-day-8-start-a-journal/ The Art of Manliness has this to say about diaries]] and why men should keep them. [[https://wolfandiron.com/every-man-keep-handwritten-journal/ More on diaries and journals from Wolf & Iron]].

* David's diaries (from the mid-XX century) are vital for kicking off the modern part of the plot in Webcomic/HeroByNight.

* ''Literature/TheDiaryOfSamuelPepys'': 1660-1669 life in London as experienced by a top British officer. It's considered one of the most important primary sources for the English Restoration period, especially since his account of the Great Fire of London is considered skin-crawlingly vivid, and is sometimes analyzed in classes studying British literature. It's not nearly as boring as it sounds, either; he has quite the sense of humor, and also, um, talks about his sex life quite a lot.

* [[http://people.com/archive/out-of-sight-vol-51-no-15/ Accused of murdering his wife Virginia]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUDPZHkeuug Alvin Ridley's life and reputation were saved]] [[http://snapjudgment.org/writing-wall-0 by his dead wife's hypergraphic diary]] [[https://krazykillers.wordpress.com/2015/09/28/reclusive-ridley-caused-a-riotous-reaction-in-ringgold/ in 1999]]. Turns out [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1999/01/27/from-murder-trial-in-ga-town-a-love-story-emerges/dbe5c208-ad20-4712-9b06-31dcb804f3c4/?utm_term=.ea7788e50528 they really were just an eccentric but happily married couple]] who [[LonersAreFreaks kept to themselves]]. She had passed in her sleep because of an epileptic seizure but her family were firmly against their marriage and wanted to blame Alvin for it, thus the murder charge.

* In ''Film/SummerCampNightmare'', Donald Poultry TheSmartGuy uses a tape recorder to dictate an audio diary of the events that take place during his time at Camp North Pines. The audio diary is later confiscated by the police at the end of the film as evidence, though Donald does ask if he could have the tapes back when they're through with them.

* ''Literature/TheDiaryOfSamuelPepys'': 1660-1669 life in London as experienced by a top British officer. It's considered one of the most important primary sources for the English Restoration period, especially since his account of the Great Fire of London is considered skin-crawlingly vivid, and is sometimes analyzed in classes studying British literature.