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
Tolstoy, Leo ___ 1828-1910 ___ Russian
___ writer
BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Tolstoy was born at Yasnya Polyana,
in Tula Province, Russia. The youngest of four sons, he was orphaned at
the age of nine and subsequently brought up by one aunt and then another,
both of whom lived in high society. He was educated by tutors, and then
at Kazan University, although he dropped out to join his brother in the
army. He served as a second lieutenant during the Crimean War, and the experience
led not only to the publication of his 'Sevastapol Sketches' but to a lifelong
belief in pacifism. He left the army in 1856, and spent some time in St
Petersburg, where he became increasingly interested in education. He also
travelled to Europe, visiting schools in France and Germany for example.
And then, on his return to Yasnya Polyana, he set up a progressive school
for peasant children. In 1862, he married Sofya Andreyevna Bers who was
only 18. Subsequently, Tolstoy seems to have given up his educational activities
to concentrate on family life (he had a very large family) and his writing.
His great novels - 'War and Peace' and 'Anna Karenina' - were written in
the 1860s and 1970s respectively. In 1876, Tolstoy underwent a spiritual
conversion; and issues of social reform then underpinned his later plays
and novels. The conversion also affected the way of his life. He dressed
in homespun clothes, ate only vegetables, renounced liquor and tobacco,
and did manual work. He became increasingly difficult and unhappy, and,
in the last days of his life, left home in the middle of winter in search
of a simpler life, only to die at a railway station.
One
biography link
DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1846-1910 ___ domestic literary
military social religious family love/sex self education
WEB TEXT LINKS
ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
State
Historical Museum, Moscow
SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
The Diaries of Leo Tolstoy. Youth,
1847-1852
The Journal of Leo Tolstoy; First Volume, 1895-1899
Tolstoy's Diaries
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. |