diary = 'chronological memoir; personal chronicle'

[Jonathan Lighter]

Perhaps some tweaking of the definition is in order, but this is another one
of those more or less intentionally misleading commercial terms that are
becoming accepted as normal. At least in the world of commerce.

1978  Richard M. McMurray in _Journal of Southern History_ XLIV (Aug.)
470: _Soldiering: The Civil War Diary of Rice C. Bull._...Edited by K. Jack
Bauer....The propriety of calling this work a "diary" must be questioned.
Although Bull clearly based what he wrote in 1913 on his wartime journal,
the fact is that the published version was taken from a typescript written
in 1913. Bauer does not inform the reader...if the original diary is extant.

I have seen more recent exx., esp. in the Vietnam War memoir genre, though I
can't call them to mind at the moment. If such works differ from ordinary
memoirs in any way, it is solely because they appear to be scrupulous about
the precise dates of events.

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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