SMALL VOICES

by Josef & Dorothy Berger ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 4, 1966

The spontaneous confiding of a young mind, unmotivated except to spill itself,"" takes up the interest and concern of the Bergers in this collection of diary excerpts from children, some famous, some known only for their journals, some expressing the life of the past, some that of the present day, many that of the always contemporary inner person. Anais Nin feels ""different from everybody,"" Maggie Owen finds it ""hard to be a noble character,"" Marie Bashkirtseff considers herself ""made for triumphs."" Theodore Roosevelt at ten on a European jaunt places his head on the fateful block in the Tower of London; Mary Garfield records the death of her father, the assassinated President. Dirk van der Heide writes of the bombing of Rotterdam, Catherine Elizabeth Havens of New York when Fifth Avenue was ""very muddy above 18th Street."" Today's schoolgirls and boys write: in Levittown Susan Robben ""made blood sisters""; Howard T. Bissell brings ""pomes"" and ""probrums"" to his principal. And there is a long piece of what the authors believe to be Nathaniel Hawthorne's boyhood diary, with supportive indications. In the case of each author, there is a brief biography, which acquaints the reader with him and often his fate (a number died young). The anthology concludes with the diary of a young Viennese girl which was pure gold to the then pioneering Freud. Often affective, always interesting.

Pub Date: Nov. 4, 1966

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Paul S. Eriksson

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1966

Categories: NONFICTION