Lately, I've really gotten interested in reading diaries/journals.  I got Sylvia Plath's unabridged journals from the bookstore and have been reading entries in those sporadically, whenever I'm between books. I also recently got one of Madeleine L'Engle's Crosswicks journals through PBS, and am probably going to start on those once I finish the book I'm reading now.  

Does anyone have any other suggestions as to any other good published diaries or journals to look for? I'm interested in writers mostly, but would also welcome suggestions of any other interesting historical figures.

Sara

A Midwife's Tale by Laurel Thatcher Elrich is great, if you're interested in women in early America.

This is a little diffrent it is the diary of a young girl growing up in the South. In a well ajusted family. It takes place during the 70's and was a refreshing bit of youth,What Boy should I like, If I pray hard enough will I develope faster, Just a book I think alot of us girls growing up in a small town in the 70's can relate to.

You might like "The Diary of Emma LaConte" it is a diary she kept during the Civil War. I found it to be very interesting and enjoyed it alot. I posted it after I finished reading it and someone requested it right off so I don't have a copy of it but someone else might.

Any of Anais Nin's diarys are amazing...I'm currently reading Henry and June, and have volume one of her her diary on my wishlist. Simone de Beavoir is supposed to be wonderful as well. :-)

IT's fiction but it's good, The Perks of being a wallflower by stephen chbosky.  a really good non fiction one is Go Ask Alice can't remember the author.

Well, May Sarton's books are interesting, and not just because of her unusual sexual orientation.  Also, Annie Dillard's An American Childhood and Pilgrim at Tinker Creek are looks into the mind and dheart of a very interesting and reflective woman.   I can't remember the titles, but some of the journals of the women who went West in the prairie schooners are quite interesting.  Thank goodness, someone's granddaughter found those old manuscripts in an attic in Kansas, as was the case with one of those books.

A book I believe you might enjoy reading is A Home-Concealed Woman: The Diaries of Magnolia Wynn LeGuin 1901-1913, edited by the diarist's grandson Charles A. LeGuin (and with a foreword by by well-known author Ursula K. LeGuin, also in the family -- by marriage, I think). These are the day-to-day journal reflections (along with some other material, such as a few recipes) of a Georgia farm woman, from young womanhood on into years as a wife and mother -- not "literary" in a high-flung way, but an interesting look into her time and place, and often poignant. The book's on my "keeper" list so I won't be posting it, but the ISBN is 0-8203-1236-3, if you care to hunt for it.