The Diary of John Evelyn

A three-volume 1906 edition of the memoirs and diary of Stuart writer John Evelyn, up to his death in 1706.

The Stuart writer John Evelyn kept a diary from the age of eleven, and in the 1680s began to compile this memoir from his records. In this three-volume 1906 edition, Volume 1 begins with Evelyn's early life: regular entries commence at Oxford in 1637, and end in 1646 in France.The Stuart writer and gardener John Evelyn (1620–1706), whose two-volume Sylva is also reissued in this series, kept a diary from the age of eleven, and in the 1680s began to compile this memoir from his records. It was first published in 1818 in an edition by the antiquarian William Bray; this three-volume version of 1906 was edited by Austin Dobson (1840–1921), the author and poet who also wrote the volume on Henry Fielding in the 'English Men of Letters' series, among many other literary biographies. In an extensive preface, Dobson explains his reasons for revisiting a work which had already received much editorial attention, and his introduction gives a short biography of its author. Volume 1 begins with Evelyn's own memoir of his early life: regular entries commence in 1637, when he was a student at Oxford, and end in France in 1646.