"Arranged chronologically, this book traces the compelling history of the diary, from ancient times to the present. You'll go inside the pages of the world's greatest diaries, journals, notebooks, and letters. Discover what it was like to build a pyramid, travel deep into the heart of Africa, or serve on the Western Front. Find out how writers and artists planned their masterpieces, and how scientists developed their groundbreaking theories."--adapted...

"Many of the heralded writers of the 20th century--including Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and William Faulkner--first made their mark in the 1920s, while established authors like Willa Cather and Sinclair Lewis produced some of their most important works during this period. Classic novels such as The Sun Also Rises, The Great Gatsby, Elmer Gantry, and The Sound and the Fury not only mark prodigious advances in American fiction,...