Title: I Know My Own Heart
Subtitle: The Diaries of Anne Lister, 1791-1840
First published: 1988
Description: When this volume of Anne Lister's diaries was first published in 1988, it was hailed as a vital piece of lost lesbian history. The editor, Helena Whitbread, had spent years painstakingly researching and transcribing Lister's extensive journals, much of which were written in an elaborate code - what Lister called her 'crypthand', which allowed her to record her life in intimate, and at times, explicit, detail. Until then, Anne Lister's lesbianism had been surpressed or hinted at; this was the first time her story had been told. Anne Lister defied the role of nineteenth-century womanhood: she was bold, fiercely independent, a landowner, industrialist, traveler and lesbian - a woman who lived her life on her own terms.

"The Lister diaries are the Dead Sea Scrolls of lesbian history; they changed everything. By resurrecting them and editing them with such loving attention and intelligence, Helena Whitbread has earned the gratitude of a whole generation" -- Emma Donoghue
Subjects: Lesbians, Biography, Diaries, Social life and customs, Lesbians, biography, Self-knowledge, theory of, LGBTQ diaries
Places: West Yorkshire, England, Halifax, West Yorkshire (England)
People: Anne Lister (1791-1840)