Inspiration for the Holidays
It is the diaries that speak the loudest in the empty library at night.
— Susan Snyder
Diarist, Susan Snyder, has compiled a moving and engrossing collection of diaries in Beyond Words: 200 Years of Illustrated Diaries. The featured diarists recorded their thoughts, secret wishes, To Do lists and illustrations in diaries they referred to as their “journals”, “field notes” and “logs”. The unknown writers provide an insider’s perspective of significant world events and invaluable insight into what nature looked like during their lifetimes.
Most of the diaries in this book are from the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley where Snyder works as a librarian and researcher. The diaries in this book are not all by famous people, although you may recognize the products they created and the organizations they established. The featured diarists were (and are) travelers, mothers, inventors, explorers, naturalists, children, poets and soldiers — including a 16 year-old soldier of the Mexican-American War whose interest in botany was greater than his interest in fighting.
In Beyond Words, you will find journals written between 1776 and 1981. With each turn of the page, years pass, journal pages become less fragile, penmanship becomes more modern, and advances in technology (think typewriter) and advances in photography become evident.
Each 24″-wide, two-page spread allows the reader to view each diarists’ words and illustration up close. These visual treats and the warm colors, eye-pleasing fonts and clean layout of each page create a soothing reading experience for readers.
Heyday Books has provided us an opportunity to view pages inside this wonderful new book. 
Click on the image to peek into the diaries of John Muir and others.
Beyond Words: 200 Years of Illustrated Diaries
Order this book online from your local independent bookstore.
ArtPlantae Today 