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Diaries of Girls and Women: A Midwestern American Sampler
http://www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/books/3054.htm This is my current book, just published by the University of Wisconsin Press in its series entitled "Studies in American Autobiography." Diaries of Girls and Women: A Midwestern Sampler is based on my fifteen-year study of diaries kept by Midwestern American women from Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin during the period from 1837-1999. This collection features extensive excerpts from forty-six girls' and women's diaries, particularly from unpublished diaries (some in manuscript, some in typescript) that have until now not been readily accessible to a wide readership. One goal of the book is to examine the many kinds of diaries that girls and women have kept and continue to keep. Some diarists wrote only for themselves, while others wrote for larger audiences that may have included their family and friends. Some diaries were donated by their writers to state and county historical societies so that future researchers could read and interpret them. Other diaries were kept by descendants of the diarists for future generations to enjoy. Many of the girls and women whose diaries are included in this book thought of their diaries as their "faithful friends," in whom they would record events and feelings, creating what many saw as a "book of life." Some of the girls and women whose diaries are excerpted in this book include the following: Sarah Pratt, Isabella MacKinnon, Emily Quiner, Sarah Jane Kimball, Addie Tripp, Antoinette Porter King, Sarah Gillespie, Jennie Andrews, Etta Call, Maria Merrill, Maranda Cline, Ada James, Gertrude Cairns, Dorothea and Agnes Barland, Elspeth Close, Gwendolyn Wilson, Louise Bailey, Alice Gortner Johnson, Martha Furgerson Nash, Maud Hart Lovelace, Ruth Van Horn Zuckerman, Carol Johnson, Juanita Ahrens, Sandy Gens, the School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND), the Sisters of St. Francis (OSF), and a number of contemporary adolescent girls. This book is intended for a general audience interested in autobiography, particularly the study of diaries, within the context of Midwestern life. Scroll down to read a diary timeline. If you'd like to read excerpts from the book's introduction, click on "Sampler" at left. If you'd like to learn more about the University of Wisconsin's Series on American Autobiography, please visit this URL: http://sites.unc.edu/~andrews If you'd like to read information on how the book will be marketed, click on "Marketing" at left. Timeline for excerpts from diaries included in the collection:
1865-1895 Chronicle of the School Sisters of Notre Dame
1877-1879 Sarah Gillespie diary 1876-1877 Jennie Andrews diary 1876-1879 Martha Smith Brewster diary 1880 Mary Griffith diary
1999 Rachel Bunkers-Harmes diary
1999 Mary Madigan diary
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