THIS IS THE DIARY JUNCTION - DATA AND LINKS FOR OVER 500 HISTORICAL AND LITERARY DIARISTS
PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT ALSO TO LOOK AT KIP FENN, A MAJOR NOVEL ABOUT THE 21st CENTURY
- freely available on this site
Ruskin, John ___ 1819-1900 ___ British
___ writer
BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Ruskin, who is now considered by
some as the greatest art and social commentator of the Victorian period
in Britain, was the son of a wine merchant. The family moved to Herne Hill
when Ruskin was four, and to Dulwich when he was 20. In 1836, he began studying
at Christ Church, Oxford University, and, while still in his early 20s,
travelled with his parents to Italy and Switzerland. Thanks to funding by
his father, Ruskin was able to indulge a passion for collecting art, in
particular the paintings of Turner. Aged 24, his first volume of 'Famous
Painters' was published, a book which trumpeted Turner's achievements. After
more trips to Italy, he published a second volume in 1846. Two years later
he married Euphemia Chalmers Gray, the daughter of friends of his parents,
but the marriage did not last long. In the early 1850s, Ruskin became involved
with the Pre-Raphaelites, one of whom, John Everett Millais, married Euphemia
(after her marriage with Ruskin was annulled on the grounds that it had
not been consummated). Ruskin went on to write many important and influential
books, such as 'The Seven Lamps of Architecture' and further volumes of
'Famous Painters'. He became a great advocate for the Gothic style, and
an opponent of the debasing effects of the industrial revolution. In the
1860s, he had a further calamitous affair with a very young Irish girl,
Rose La Touche, which dragged on until she died in 1875. In 1869, he was
elected the first Slade Professor of Art at Oxford University, and achieved
some success as a lecturer. He resigned his post after ten years, and, thereafter,
was subject to more frequent bouts of the mental illness that had beset
him through much of his life. After his parents had died, and for the last
30 years of his life, Ruskin's main residence was in the Lake District,
which is where he died a few days after the start of the 20th century.
One
biography link
DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1830 1835-1889 ___ literary travel
art health weather society love/sex self people
WEB TEXT LINKS
several
extracts (search site with Google)
ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
The
Ruskin Library, Lancaster University
___ 29 volumes, 1835-1888
SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
The Diaries of John Ruskin
A Tour to the Lakes in Cumberland
The Brantwood Diary of John Ruskin
May 2005
THIS IS THE DIARY JUNCTION - DATA AND LINKS FOR OVER 500 HISTORICAL AND LITERARY DIARISTS
Please
email if you have any corrections, additions or comments. |
IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS:
1) The first line of basic information
may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different
names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or
uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown,
or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British'
a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was
compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts
were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if
they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates
and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with
caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are
only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies.
4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges,
and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising.
I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some
variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited
myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their
original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the
titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries. |