Series 1 - Diaries, reading journals and day planners

34 cm of textual material (4549 p.)

Series consists of 29 diaries, dated reading journals and day planners created and preserved by Watson during her adult life. These materials contain fragments of her creative writing; drawings in graphite, coloured pencil and ink; reading notes and language exercies; collected ephemera; recordings of her daily activities and financial transactions; and reflections on her experiences, emotions, relationships and surroundings.
In general Watson kept confessional and reflective diaries from 1954/55 to about 1957. When she moved to Toronto in 1956 to persue her doctoral studies, Watson began to keep what can be best described as reading journals, dated notes pertaining to books she was reading interspersed with short diary entries regarding her correspondence, her observations of her surroundings and her academic experiences. After she moved to Edmonton to teach at the University of Alberta, and upon her retirement in Nanaimo, Watson's recorded thoughts become more infrequent. In her later life, Watson appears to have purchased commercial day planners to record her daily activities and financial translations.
It is apparent that Watson kept journals during her early teaching career in Cariboo Country in British Columbia. However, it seems she destroyed these at a later period.

Access to some diaries is restricted. A detailed inventory of the ephemera found in Watson's diaries and reading journals can be found in an appendix to the official Sheila Watson Fonds Finding Guide. No publication of this material, in whole or in part, without the permission of the Literary Executor.