Helen R. Deese discusses the 45 volume diary of Bostonian transcendentalist Caroline Healey Dall, which is perhaps the longest diary written by any American and the most complete account of a nineteenth century woman's life in existence. Bostonian Caroline Healey Dall (1822-1912) was a transcendentalist, early feminist, writer, reformer, and an extremely active diarist. Caroline Healey Dall kept a diary for 75 years that captured the fascinating details of her sometimes agonizing personal life, the major figures who surrounded her, and many facets of nineteenth century Boston.
Helen R. Deese is the Caroline Healey Dall editor for the Massachusetts Historical Society. In nineteenth-century Boston, amidst the popular lecturing of Ralph Waldo Emerson and the discussion groups led by Margaret Fuller, sat a remarkable young woman, Caroline Healey Dall (1822-1912): transcendentalist, early feminist, writer, reformer, and perhaps most importantly, active diarist. During the seventy-five years that Dall kept a diary, she captured all the fascinating details of her sometimes agonizing personal life, and she also wrote about all the major figures who surrounded her.