The Small Details of Life: 20 Diaries by Women in Canada, 1830-1996 (review)

Abstract

In the late 1970s, scholars in Canadian women's history first drew attention to the significance of manuscript diaries by women to be found in national, local, and private archives. Since then a number of individual diaries, regional collections, and anthologies of short excerpts from diaries have been published. They provide an entry point into the detail of women's lives which would otherwise largely be lost. Diaries that were never meant to be published differ considerably from the settler accounts and literary writings of well-known women such as Susanna Moodie and Anne Langton, who wrote for their family or for a broader audience. By and large, diaries from the nineteenth century, as well as many from the twentieth century, record daily events and activities, often in an abbreviated fashion and with little introspection. Diaries were more likely to be used as a safe place for emotional outpourings and self-discovery in the twentieth century.