List of longest diaries

This is a list of diaries notable for their exceptional length, primarily by word count but also by duration.

Table of diaries sortable by word count and duration
Author Word count Duration Period Notes
Laura Penrose Francis 40 million 60 years 1952–2012 Word count and duration as of 2012.
Robert Shields 37.5 million 25 years 1972–1997 Exact word count not available until 2049.
Claude Fredericks 30 million 80 years 1932–2012 Word count is estimated; the manuscript runs to 65,000 pages.
Joseph Holloway 25 million 45 years 1899–1944 "Dublin playgoer." Published diaries 1899 to 1944.
Edward Robb Ellis 22 million 71 years 1927–1998
Heinrich Witt 18 million 70 years 1859–1890 Witt (1799–1892) was born in Germany, lived in Peru, and wrote in English.
Arthur Crew Inman 17 million 44 years 1919–1963 155 volumes. Other accounts state 10 million words.
Tony Benn 15 million 69 years 1940–2009 "…sixty-nine years of writing, typing or dictating almost every day…"
Li Shuxiang 13 million 74 years 1941–2015 85 volumes.
Nella Last 12 million 28 years 1939–1967 Participant in Mass Observation project.
Dr. John Henry Salter 10 million 83 years 1849–1932 GP of Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Essex.
Thomas McGrath 9 million 50 years 1973–2022
Henri-Frédéric Amiel 6 million 42 years 1839–1881 173 journals; 16,800 pages.
Harold L. Ickes 6 million 19 years 1933–1952 "…nearly a hundred volumes of closely-typed copy…"
Ellsworth James 5.9 million 63 years 1944–2007 Word count does not include first year (1944) which was handwritten. 1946-2007 manually typed.
Anne Lister 5.6 million 34 years 1806–1840 She frequently used a cypher or "crypt hand" she had devised herself.
Amos Bronson Alcott 5 million 71 years 1811–1882 …over sixty surviving volumes containing nearly five million words…
Arthur Christopher Benson 5 million 28 years 1897–1925 Author of ‘Land of Hope and Glory.’
Rev. Dr. John Morgans O.B.E. 5 million 52 years 1952–2004 Life as schoolboy, student, and minister in Wales.
Frederic Madden 4 million 54 years 1819–1873 43 volumes.
Leo Tolstoy 4 million 63 years 1847–1910
George Templeton Strong 4 million 40 years 1835–1875 "A monumental diary, in the tradition of Pepys, Evelyn or Sewall…"
John Gadd 4 million 45 years 1975–2020 Started in 1947 but kept consistently from 1975.
Richard Grayson 4 million 32 years 1969–2001 Published diary entries from 1 August 1969 to 20 October 2001
Rev. Dr. Andrew Clark 3 million 5 years 1914–1919 92 volumes.
Harold Nicolson 3 million 34 years 1930–1964 Diplomat, journalist, Member of Parliament, junior minister, writer, critic & broadcaster.
George Cecil Ives 3 million 64 years 1886–1950 "…122 volumes and approximately 3 million words."
John Quincy Adams 3 million 69 years 1779–1848 Nearly 3 million words, 1,400 pages, 51 volumes.
George C. Edler 2.859 million 80 years 1907–1987 Diary from 1 January 1907 to 25 February 1987, the day of his passing.
Philip Hone 2 million 23 years 1828–1851 “…twenty-eight quarto volumes…”
Henry David Thoreau 2 million 25 years 1837–1861 Over 2 million words in 39 notebooks.
Edward Nason Wrench 2 million 56 years 1856–1912 Nearly 2 million words in 57 vols.
Naomi Mitchison 2 million 6 years 1939–1945 Participant in Mass Observation. Diary published forty years after she wrote it.
Beatrice Webb 1.79 million 70 years 1873–1943 Diaries available online.
Chen Xiukang 1.5 million 4 years 2012–2016 Began keeping a diary to cope with his wife's death.
Samuel Pepys 1.25 million 9 years 1660–1669 Written in shorthand. The 1893 edition is available online.
Margaret Elizabeth Fountaine 1 million 61 years 1878–1939 12 volume diary.
Jean Lucey Pratt 1 million 61 years 1925–1986 Over a million words in 45 exercise books.
Ernest Achey Loftus Unknown 92 years 1896–1987 Guinness World Record for longest kept diary.
Evie Riski Unknown 89 years 1936–2025 "A 100-year-old American woman has journalled every day for 90 years… nearly 33,000 entries…" [Actually 89 years or 32,547 days]
Albert Memmi Unknown 83 years 1936–2019 Yale archive has journals to 2019; "…hundreds of school notebooks…"
Robert W. Ramsay Unknown 82 years 1869–1951 Diaries from April 1869 to January 1951. 44 vols. Commenced when he was 8 years old.
Julien Green Unknown 79 years 1919–1998 "…he wrote with an audience in mind…"
Betty from Lancashire Unknown 76 years 1942–2018 "…diaries were meticulously completed every day, and record almost all her everyday activities."
Robert Parry Unknown 74 years 1539–1613 Diary written in Welsh.
Frances Partridge Unknown 74 years 1927–2002 Diary from 31 October 1927 to 15 March 2002, her 102nd birthday.
Anne Perkins Unknown 74 years 1935–2009 American, Quaker, librarian at Swarthmore College. Over one hundred volumes, only 16 were preserved.
Henry Edward Price Unknown 74 years c.1830–1904 Cabinet maker, begins with reminiscence of childhood.
Robert Birrel Unknown 73 years 1532–1605 Burgess of Edinburgh, diary of incidents in Scotland.
Jeremiah Moseley Unknown 73 years 1803–1876 18 volumes.
John Amphlett Unknown 73 years 1854–1918 42 volumes, extremely full accounts.
Emma Katherine Bigwood Unknown 73 years 1862–1935 "…brief daily entries"
Daniel Times Unknown 72 years 1776–1848 Coroner, medical diary.
Sir Thomas Francis Fremantle Unknown 72 years 1798–1890 51 vols, September 1814–January 1815 and 1837–86.
Sir Arthur Pendarves Vivian Unknown 72 years 1851–1923 64 volumes, personal and travel journals.
Joseph Jeppa Anderson Unknown 72 years 1878–1950 20 volumes.
Thomas Asline Ward Unknown 71 years 1800–1871 Master Cutler of Sheffield in 1816. Some entries in French, Italian or Latin.
Prince George, Duke of Cambridge Unknown 71 years 1832–1903 Enormous and consistent record of his whole life.
Ellen Laetitia Philips Unknown 71 years 1842–1913 48 volumes: 1842, 1850-79, and 1881–1913.
Ethel Rudkin Unknown 71 years 1912–1983 "…filled dozens of notebooks."
William Ewart Gladstone Unknown 70 years 1826–1896 Private diary, 1826 to 1895 or 1896.
Mary Barwick Baker Unknown 70 years 1834–1904 Née Fenwick. Personal notes entered in annual volumes.
Lady Louisa de Rothschild Unknown 70 years 1837–1907 Diary from July 1837 to December 1907 (with gaps).
Lady Anne Noel Blunt Unknown 70 years 1837–1917 Née King. 214 volumes, July 1847 to November 1917.
Violet Bonham Carter Unknown 70 years 1899–1969 Diaries online.
Sir Moses Montefiore Unknown 69 years 1814–1883 85 vols.
William Beaumont Unknown 69 years 1816–1885 British lawyer. Diary April 1816–November 1885 (with gaps): 15 vols. Travel journals 1825–1842.
John Oxley Parker Unknown 69 years 1829–1898 Land-agent: diaries and day-books. High Sheriff of Essex in 1883.
Claude Mauriac Unknown 69 years 1927–1995 Lejeune gives both 68 and 69 years. "We have yet to count the total number of pages, but the journal measures three and a half meters."
Elizabeth Wynne Fremantle Unknown 68 years 1789–1857 41 volumes. Her two sisters also kept diaries.
Fanny Knatchbull Unknown 68 years 1804–1872 Second wife of 9th Bart. Diaries 1804–72 (with gaps). 69 vols.
Colonel John Coke Unknown 68 years 1820–1887 Diaries with gaps, 11 vols.
Frances Russell, Countess Russell Unknown 68 years 1830–1898 Social diary, November 1830–January 1898.
Queen Victoria Unknown 68 years 1832–1901 Over 100 volumes. Her daughter Beatrice copied selected passages from the journals and burned many of the originals.
Angelo Roncalli (Pope John XXIII) Unknown 68 years 1895–1963 Published in 1964 as Journal of a soul.
Rev. Thomas Smith Unknown 67 years 1721–1788 May 1721–May 1788; mostly brief, impersonal notes.
Lady Emily Theophilia Ashbrook Unknown 67 years 1813–1880 Née Metcalfe. Diaries and travel journals, c.1813–1880: 57 vols.
Rev. John Brownlow Unknown 67 years 1816–1883 Diary and memoranda, part recollection.
J. Taylor Unknown 67 years 1826–1893 Diary with gaps, family and local (Sutton-on-Trent) events.
John Burroughs Unknown 67 years 1854–1921 American naturalist & author; March 1857–February 1921.
Charles Whitwell Unknown 67 years 1888–1955 Detailed daily events, January 1888–July 1955; 70 vols.
Alan Withington Unknown 67 years 1931–1998 "Lengthy daily entries with many photographs attached."
Luca Landucci Unknown 66 years 1450–1516 Florentine apothecary.
Sarah Savage Unknown 66 years 1686–1752 Welsh diarist, as was her father Rev. Philip Henry.
John Wesley Unknown 66 years 1725–1791 Daily, even hourly, memoranda were his diaries; the enlarged, fuller versions were his Journal.
Capt. James Stackpole Unknown 66 years 1755–1821 "Diary, with journal of 1790–1821."
Jacob Nagle Unknown 66 years 1775–1841 American Sailor, at sea for forty-five years.
Stephen Terry Unknown 66 years 1795–1861 Sporting diaries and reminiscences.
Katherine Arundel Unknown 66 years 1804–1870 Meetings with French emigrés, tours and pilgrimages.
Charles Cardale Babington Unknown 66 years 1825–1891 Botanical diary, brief entries.
Richard Thomas Lloyd Unknown 66 years 1832–1898 Family matters; tour of the Continent in 1838.
Jane Edmunds Unknown 66 years 1834–1900 Diary with gaps, 1 vol.
Edward George Percy Littleton Unknown 66 years 1864–1930 3rd. Lord Hatherton. Diaries with gaps, 3 vols. Brief entries, military career.
Frederick Augustus Dixey Unknown 66 years 1869–1935 Distinguished entomologist. 20 vols.
William Henry Hallam Unknown 66 years 1886–1952 63 volumes, broken only twice between 1894 and 1897.
Richard Meinertzhagen Unknown 66 years 1899–1965 British soldier, intelligence officer, and ornithologist: 76 vols.
Rev. Ivory Hovey Unknown 65 years 1738–1803 Written mostly in shorthand: nine octavo volumes, about 7000 pages.
Rev. John Mill Unknown 65 years 1738–1803 Parish work in Shetland and North Hebrides.
Frances Burney Unknown 65 years 1768–1833 March 1768–March 1833; diary, memoirs and letters.
Mary Berry Unknown 65 years 1783–1848 Author. Diary from May 1783–August 1848, regularly from 1807.
William Darling Unknown 65 years 1795–1860 Lighthouse-keeper, father of Grace Darling. Private diary, April 1795–October 1860.
Sir Ernest Mason Satow Unknown 65 years 1861–1926 39 volumes, November 1861–December 1926 (with considerable gaps).
Sir Sydney Cockerell Unknown 65 years 1886–c.1951 Museum curator and collector. Diary from January 1886 to c.1951.
Rt. Rev. Gwynne Unknown 65 years 1888–1953 Missionary in the Sudan. Diaries, papers, sermons etc.
Hester Thrale Unknown 64 years 1757–1821
General William Dyott Unknown 64 years 1781–1845
Sir Rowland Hill Unknown 64 years 1813–1877 Eleven volumes.
William Robson Unknown 64 years 1817–1881
Rev. Andrew Bonar Unknown 64 years 1828–1892 Written in shorthand.
Anaïs Nin Unknown 64 years 1913–1977 Published diaries extend to 1974.
Rev. Samuel Fairclough Unknown 63 years 1614–1677 Written in Greek and Latin.
Thomas Gardiner Unknown 63 years 1661–1724 Brief notes.
Elizabeth Laugher Unknown 63 years 1731–1794 Née Mascall.
Susanna Holyoke Ward Unknown 63 years 1793–1856
Joseph Hunter Unknown 63 years 1797–1860 Much of it is in shorthand.
Ellen A. Hall Unknown 63 years 1838–1901 Has gaps. 22 vols.
Emily Mary Hall Unknown 63 years 1838–1901 Has gaps. 23 vols.
Leo Tolstoy Unknown 63 years 1847–1910
Reginald Charles Edward Abbot Unknown 63 years 1856–1919 Has gaps. 54 vols.
Dr. Michael Thomas Sadler Unknown 63 years 1860–1923 Medicine, science, travels, reading, Gilbert and Sullivan.
Annette Susannah Beveridge Unknown 63 years 1865–1928 Née Ackroyd; 62 vols.
Paul Léautaud Unknown 63 years 1893–1956
Sanjōnishi Sanetaka Unknown 62 years 1455–1537 His Sanetaka Kōki is also given a duration of 63 years.
William Lyon Mackenzie King Unknown 57 years 1893–1950 Word count not stated; the manuscript exceeds 50,000 pages.

William Matthews, in his British diaries: An annotated bibliography of British diaries written between 1442 and 1942 (University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1950) lists 400 diaries with a duration of 30 years or more.

Wikipedia has a list of books on diaries and journals.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.