The Inman Diary: A Public and Private Confession - Hardcover

Inman, Arthur C.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674454456 ISBN 13: 9780674454453

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1985

Synopsis

Between 1919 and his death by suicide in 1963, Arthur Crew Inman wrote what is surely one of the fullest diaries ever kept by any American. Convinced that his bid for immortality required complete candor, he held nothing back. This abridgment of the original 155 volumes is at once autobiography, social chronicle, and an apologia addressed to unborn readers.

Into this fascinating record Inman poured memories of a privileged Atlanta childhood, disastrous prep-school years, a nervous collapse in college followed by a bizarre life of self-diagnosed invalidism. Confined to a darkened room in his Boston apartment, he lived vicariously: through newspaper advertisements he hired “talkers” to tell him the stories of their lives, and he wove their strange histories into the diary. Young women in particular fascinated him. He studied their moods, bought them clothes, fondled them, and counseled them on their love affairs. His marriage in 1923 to Evelyn Yates, the heroine of the diary, survived a series of melodramatic episodes. While reflecting on national politics, waifs and revolutions, Inman speaks directly about his fears, compulsions, fantasies, and nightmares, coaxing the reader into intimacy with him. Despite his shocking self-disclosures he emerges as an oddly impressive figure.

This compelling work is many things: a case history of a deeply troubled man; the story of a transplanted and self-conscious southerner; a historical overview of Boston illuminated with striking cityscapes; an odd sort of American social history. But chiefly it is, as Inman himself came to see, a gigantic nonfiction novel, a new literary form. As it moves inexorably toward a powerful denouement, The Inman Diary is an addictive narrative.

About this title

About the Author:

Daniel Aaron was Victor S. Thomas Professor of English and American Literature, Emeritus, Harvard University.

From Library Journal:

Inman (1895-1963), a sensitive would-be poet from a moneyed family, virtually withdrew from normal existence after a breakdown in early manhood. With necessities seen to by wife and staff, he concentrated on his immense diary, which filled 155 volumes at his death. He recorded not only striking descriptions of contemporary Georgia and New England, but a wild assortment of bigotries and fantasies. He kept in touch by reading and through ``talkers'' paid to discuss their lives in his darkened sickroom (females were required to go considerably beyond talking). Their stories, too, became part of the diary, abridged here to a hefty sampling of Inman's peculiar mind and habits. An unusual mix of social history and case study. For large collections. Starr E. Smith, Georgetown Univ. Lib., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1985
• ISBN 10: 0674454456
• ISBN 13: 9780674454453
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 1600
• Editor: Aaron Daniel