@eldekathleen49.bsky.social
Retired professor living in Boston, MA (USA) area. I love travel and live theatre (and travelling to experience live theatre). Reading a good book is another enjoyment.
Louisa May Alcott, 1 November 1868: "Began the second part of 'Little Women.' ... Girls write to ask who the little women marry, as if that was the only aim and end of a woman's life. I won't marry Jo to Laurie to please any one." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
November 2, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Louisa May Alcott, 1 November 1868: "Began the second part of 'Little Women.' ... Girls write to ask who the little women marry, as if that was the only aim and end of a woman's life. I won't marry Jo to Laurie to please any one." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
Joan Wyndham (aged 19), 31 October 1940: "Mummy is suspicious, because I haven't had the curse for two months ... She's really put the fear of God into me -- it's not so much the thought of having a baby, it's the ghastly maternal fuss ..." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
October 31, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Joan Wyndham (aged 19), 31 October 1940: "Mummy is suspicious, because I haven't had the curse for two months ... She's really put the fear of God into me -- it's not so much the thought of having a baby, it's the ghastly maternal fuss ..." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
Louisa May Alcott, 30 October 1868: "... good news of the book ... First editions gone and more called for ... Pleasant notices and letters arrive, and much interest in my little women, who seem to find friends by their truth to life, as I hoped." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
October 30, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Louisa May Alcott, 30 October 1868: "... good news of the book ... First editions gone and more called for ... Pleasant notices and letters arrive, and much interest in my little women, who seem to find friends by their truth to life, as I hoped." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
Virginia Woolf, 29 October 1922: "The election is beginning to roar in the newspapers. L. [Leonard -- standing as a candidate] has a chance of getting in. We have bitten off a large piece of life -- but why not?" [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
October 29, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Virginia Woolf, 29 October 1922: "The election is beginning to roar in the newspapers. L. [Leonard -- standing as a candidate] has a chance of getting in. We have bitten off a large piece of life -- but why not?" [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
Oona King, 28 October 2004: "I've started doing bloody IVF again. It's the best thing in the world, obviously, the chance to have a baby, but ... it's just tricky trying to do it when you're an MP, with George Galloway on your back ... " [Secret Diaries: A Year of Women's Diaries]
October 28, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Oona King, 28 October 2004: "I've started doing bloody IVF again. It's the best thing in the world, obviously, the chance to have a baby, but ... it's just tricky trying to do it when you're an MP, with George Galloway on your back ... " [Secret Diaries: A Year of Women's Diaries]
Caroline Fox, 26 October 1839: "... J.B. in a ... delirium ... tearing off his clothes ... 'Take away these filthy rags! What should a glorified spirit do with these filthy rags?' On this E. said coaxingly, '... you wouldn't go to heaven stark naked!'" [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
October 26, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Caroline Fox, 26 October 1839: "... J.B. in a ... delirium ... tearing off his clothes ... 'Take away these filthy rags! What should a glorified spirit do with these filthy rags?' On this E. said coaxingly, '... you wouldn't go to heaven stark naked!'" [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
Jane Carlyle, 25 October 1855: "… My heart is very sore to-night, but I have promised myself not to make this journal a ‘miserere’, so I will take a dose of morphia and do the impossible to sleep." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
October 26, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Jane Carlyle, 25 October 1855: "… My heart is very sore to-night, but I have promised myself not to make this journal a ‘miserere’, so I will take a dose of morphia and do the impossible to sleep." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
Caroline Fox, 24 October 1848: "A fine day and all its luxuries." [Secret Diaries: A Year of Women's Diaries]
October 24, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Caroline Fox, 24 October 1848: "A fine day and all its luxuries." [Secret Diaries: A Year of Women's Diaries]
Katherine Mansfield, 23 October 1907: "I thank Heaven that a present, though I am damnable, I am in love with nobody, except myself." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
October 23, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Katherine Mansfield, 23 October 1907: "I thank Heaven that a present, though I am damnable, I am in love with nobody, except myself." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
Fanny Longfellow, 22 October 1848: "... Felt much happier today, i.e. more tranquil and resigned. To be patient is the hardest of all lessons, I find, in either physical or mental pain. Henry has so much more than I!" [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
October 22, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Fanny Longfellow, 22 October 1848: "... Felt much happier today, i.e. more tranquil and resigned. To be patient is the hardest of all lessons, I find, in either physical or mental pain. Henry has so much more than I!" [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
Lady Eleanor Butler, 21 October 1785: "Bought Herrings and Oysters. Loud and violent altercation between [her servant] Mary and the Fisherman. Mary Triumphant." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
October 21, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Lady Eleanor Butler, 21 October 1785: "Bought Herrings and Oysters. Loud and violent altercation between [her servant] Mary and the Fisherman. Mary Triumphant." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
Rachel Roberts, 20 October 1980: "... Acting never was to you, perhaps, quite what it was to Joan Plowright and Maggie Smith. It was perhaps more of a means to an end ... All that is true. It does not enable me to rise above it, however." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
October 20, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Rachel Roberts, 20 October 1980: "... Acting never was to you, perhaps, quite what it was to Joan Plowright and Maggie Smith. It was perhaps more of a means to an end ... All that is true. It does not enable me to rise above it, however." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
Emily Carr, 18 October 1933: "I gave a birthday dinner party. Of the four guests one was a vegetarian, one a diabetic, one treating for biliousness, and the remaining one a straightforward eater. I cooked all afternoon to pacify the vagaries of each ... " [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
October 18, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Emily Carr, 18 October 1933: "I gave a birthday dinner party. Of the four guests one was a vegetarian, one a diabetic, one treating for biliousness, and the remaining one a straightforward eater. I cooked all afternoon to pacify the vagaries of each ... " [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
Julia Newberry (aged 17) 17 October 1871: "Yes the whole North Side [of Chicago] is in ashes, literally in ashes, & every memory connected with my home is gone, every association, every link; never never to be again, irreparably & irrevocably gone." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
October 17, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Julia Newberry (aged 17) 17 October 1871: "Yes the whole North Side [of Chicago] is in ashes, literally in ashes, & every memory connected with my home is gone, every association, every link; never never to be again, irreparably & irrevocably gone." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
L. M. Montgomery, 15 October 1908: "It seems that 'Anne' is a big success ... But that success has also evoked much petty malice, spite and jealousy. It does not hurt me ... But at times it has given me a sort of nausea with human nature." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
October 15, 2025 at 12:55 PM
L. M. Montgomery, 15 October 1908: "It seems that 'Anne' is a big success ... But that success has also evoked much petty malice, spite and jealousy. It does not hurt me ... But at times it has given me a sort of nausea with human nature." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
Sylvia Townsend Warner, 12 October 1930 & 1970: "My last day and our first. It was a bridal of earth and sky, and we spent the morning lying in ..." & "... I suddenly knew that our 12th October 1930 was real and abiding: far beyond any reality of today." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
October 12, 2025 at 9:11 AM
Sylvia Townsend Warner, 12 October 1930 & 1970: "My last day and our first. It was a bridal of earth and sky, and we spent the morning lying in ..." & "... I suddenly knew that our 12th October 1930 was real and abiding: far beyond any reality of today." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
Elizabeth Barrett (Browning), 11 October 1831: "love of solitude is growing ... I am inclined to shun the acquaintance of those whom I do not like & love–on account of the ennui; & the acquaintances of those whom I might like & love–on account of the pain!" [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
October 11, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Elizabeth Barrett (Browning), 11 October 1831: "love of solitude is growing ... I am inclined to shun the acquaintance of those whom I do not like & love–on account of the ennui; & the acquaintances of those whom I might like & love–on account of the pain!" [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
Barbara Pym, 10 October 1954:"Today finished my fourth novel, about anthropologists ... Typed from 10.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. sustained by ... a cup of milky Nescafé, a gin and French, cold beef, baked potato, tomato and grated cheese, rice pudding and plums." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
October 10, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Barbara Pym, 10 October 1954:"Today finished my fourth novel, about anthropologists ... Typed from 10.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. sustained by ... a cup of milky Nescafé, a gin and French, cold beef, baked potato, tomato and grated cheese, rice pudding and plums." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
Virginia Woolf, 9 October 1917: "We had a horrid shock. L.[eonard] came in so unreasonably cheerful that I guessed a disaster. He has been called up. It was piteous to see him shivering ... if one could wake to find it untrue, it would be a mercy." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
October 9, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Virginia Woolf, 9 October 1917: "We had a horrid shock. L.[eonard] came in so unreasonably cheerful that I guessed a disaster. He has been called up. It was piteous to see him shivering ... if one could wake to find it untrue, it would be a mercy." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
Louisa May Alcott, 8 October 1868: "Marmee's birthday, sixty-eight ... each year will add to the change which is going on, as time alters the energetic, enthusiastic home-mother into a gentle, feeble old woman, to be cherished and helped tenderly ..." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
October 8, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Louisa May Alcott, 8 October 1868: "Marmee's birthday, sixty-eight ... each year will add to the change which is going on, as time alters the energetic, enthusiastic home-mother into a gentle, feeble old woman, to be cherished and helped tenderly ..." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
Lady Cynthia Asquith, 7 October 1918: "... the prospect of peace. I think it will require more courage than anything that has gone before ... one will at last fully recognise that the dead are not only dead for the duration of the war." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
October 7, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Lady Cynthia Asquith, 7 October 1918: "... the prospect of peace. I think it will require more courage than anything that has gone before ... one will at last fully recognise that the dead are not only dead for the duration of the war." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
Beatrice Webb, 6 October 1941: "... I asked Sidney: 'Do you wish to go on living?' He sat silent, surprised at the question, then slowly said 'No' ... he resents not being able to think and express his thoughts, and thus help the world he lives in." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
October 6, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Beatrice Webb, 6 October 1941: "... I asked Sidney: 'Do you wish to go on living?' He sat silent, surprised at the question, then slowly said 'No' ... he resents not being able to think and express his thoughts, and thus help the world he lives in." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
Katherine Mansfield, 5 October 1920: "I dare not keep a journal. I should always be trying to tell the truth ... I dare not tell the truth ... The only way to exist is to go on and try to lose oneself ... Once I can do that, all will be well." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
October 5, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Katherine Mansfield, 5 October 1920: "I dare not keep a journal. I should always be trying to tell the truth ... I dare not tell the truth ... The only way to exist is to go on and try to lose oneself ... Once I can do that, all will be well." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
Alice Walker, 4 October 1996: "My gray hair is very noticeable now. Sometimes I think it's glorious. Sometimes I'm not sure. Mostly I console myself it is natural & therefore honest and that I love both ... In fact, practicing both is my religion." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
October 4, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Alice Walker, 4 October 1996: "My gray hair is very noticeable now. Sometimes I think it's glorious. Sometimes I'm not sure. Mostly I console myself it is natural & therefore honest and that I love both ... In fact, practicing both is my religion." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
Alice Walker, 3 October 1977: "... call from B. He thinks he can come East even sooner ... I am thrilled. But calmly. It is always momentous whenever I see him, but now I see it is possible to live without him – though I do not choose that option ..." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]
October 3, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Alice Walker, 3 October 1977: "... call from B. He thinks he can come East even sooner ... I am thrilled. But calmly. It is always momentous whenever I see him, but now I see it is possible to live without him – though I do not choose that option ..." [Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries]