Gentleman Jack from Halifax

Elizabeth Mavor

I know my own heart: The Diaries of Anne Lister, 1791-1840 edited by Helena Whitbread
Virago, 370 pp, £7.95, February 1988, ISBN 0 86068 840 2

The keeping of diaries prompts the question why, and for whom? James Boswell at 22, and going to London for the first time, piously hoped that keeping a diary might engender ‘a habit of application and improve me in expression’, possibly even ‘make me more careful to do well’. At all events, 24 pages of this self-imposed devoir were sent off each Tuesday to his friend John Johnston of Grange, a dullish youth of about Boswell’s own age, but one in whose affectionate and uncritical company he felt more at peace than with anyone. Fanny Burney, who commenced a journal at the age of 15, gave as her reason that ‘when the hour arrives at which time is more nimble than memory’ she might have a record of her thoughts, manners, acquaintances and actions. It was to be a journal, moreover, in which she would confess ‘every thought’, ‘open my whole heart’. The only proper recipient for such a treasure, she observed archly, was – Nobody. But in the end she succumbed to writing for a favourite sister and the family friend, Daddy Crisp, so that her journal was, after all, less private than it might have been, and certainly less private than Anne Lister’s.

You are not logged in

If you have already registered then you can login here
If you are a print subscriber using the site for the first time please register here
If you are not yet a subscriber you can subscribe here
If you are a member of a subscribing institution or university library please login here
If you have an institutional print subscription without online access then you can find out about our institutional online subscriptions here

Vol. 10 No. 3 · 4 February 1988 » Elizabeth Mavor » Gentleman Jack from Halifax (print version)
pages 18-19 | 3444 words

Letters

From Miz and Fizz Saral Waldorf

SIR: Come on now – you don’t really think your readers are going to believe that, amazingly, and extraordinarily, 24 volumes of a madcap English lesbian out of the 19th century have just turned up, by Jove! in a West Yorkshire – what – abbey? cemetery? manorial attic? The author Helena Whitbread says modestly it has taken her two years to crack the code in which these diaries were written: ah, I think Ms Whitbread is cracking more than codes here. Is she from Lewes, near where Piltdown man was found?

Miz and Fizz Saral Waldorf
Vestal, New York

From Editer, ‘London Review’

To the best of our knowledge, Gentleman Jack is a straight arrow. But we’re not too sure about Saral Waldorf’s name and address.

Editer, ‘London Review’

From June Wedgwood Benn

SIR: Pace your correspondent sceptical about the authenticity of Anne Lister’s diaries (Letters, 17 March): as a native of Lightcliffe near Halifax I was aware even forty years ago of Anne Lister, who had lived at our nearest ‘hall’ (Shibden, owned and managed by Halifax UDC, now in ‘Calderdale’). I also knew she had been friendly with Caroline Walker of Lightcliffe, and that Anne had built the 1830s addition to the hall. It was several years ago that we heard of the existence of the diaries which were in the keeping of the Calderdale archivist and many of us looked forward to their code being cracked. Only the private sexy bits were encoded. It needed a devoted editor to transcribe them and I have bought and read the Virago edition with great interest. I do wish, however, that Helena Whit-bread hail told us how she cracked the code. It looks exceedingly difficult. But she is to be heartily congratulated on producing a selection of Anne Lister’s diaries, for they might have lain for another 140 years without her patient endeavours. America is not the only country to produce lesbian writers.

June Wedgwood Benn
London SE3