Lizzie Borden Society Forum

Does anybody know if Lizzie kept a diary(journal)? And if so, is there copies around? I just wanted to see and read what she was thinking at the time of the murders and thru her trial.

If such a thing existed we would have all wrestled for it and I would have won....

I am a tough girl... Really.

...and it is a fight I'd pay good money to see!!

If somebody did find one they would have it on auction on Ebay.

There's no record of Lizzie having kept one, but I can't believe no one in Fall River that knew Lizzie didn't keep one. Somewhere in some attic .......

She read a lot. And there was a piece in the newspaper when she was alive that she was writing a play - probably more rumor than "news". She did correspond a bit and very few letters have surfaced. Like Harry says, some day in some attic(s) things will trickle out. She liked to have her picture taken, and how many have we seen? Very few. I'll bet there's pictures of her with friends and with pets. Maybe even Lizzie on a home movie. She was known to be one of the first to get hold of some new fangled thing.

Even so, she did not discuss the murders with anybody - at least that's the word we have today. The closest I've seen is when someone was interviewed after Lizzie's death and they said she was told by her friend, "Why don't you leave Fall River?" And Lizzie replied that she wanted to be there because some day they would catch the real murderer and then they'd all see ... Something like that.

snokkums @ Sun Jan 09, 2005 1:43 pm wrote: Does anybody know if Lizzie kept a diary(journal)? And if so, is there copies around? I just wanted to see and read what she was thinking at the time of the murders and thru her trial.

I can see the entry:

"Dear diary,

Today, I woke up after a restless night's sleep. I'm so excited w/ anticipation! I've been practicing a new ax swing technique so it will provide both crushing and hacking damage... I really hope all my efforts are not in vain!... Anyway, gotta' go kill mommy and daddy! I'll write again soon!"

Trainwreck @ Wed Jun 08, 2005 1:17 pm wrote:

snokkums @ Sun Jan 09, 2005 1:43 pm wrote: Does anybody know if Lizzie kept a diary(journal)? And if so, is there copies around? I just wanted to see and read what she was thinking at the time of the murders and thru her trial.

I can see the entry:

"Dear diary,

Today, I woke up after a restless night's sleep. I'm so excited w/ anticipation! I've been practicing a new ax swing technique so it will provide both crushing and hacking damage... I really hope all my efforts are not in vain!... Anyway, gotta' go kill mommy and daddy! I'll write again soon!"

That was very good, I can just see that.

I hate to raise an issue like this, because I don't have a source for it and haven't been able to find a reference. However, when I was posting on another Borden board several years ago, someone mentioned a special exhibit concerning Lizzie Borden that had been set up in a public building (possibly a library). It wasn't in Fall River nor connected to the FRHS. Anyway, this exhibit, which consisted of a few items related to Lizzie, supposedly contained a journal that Lizzie kept during her European trip. I believe there was a link to a picture of the actual exhibit. Does anyone else recall anything about this? If I remember correctly, I didn't see the item until the exhibit was already over, and I was unable to find out whom to contact for more information. This raises the possibility that Lizzie did keep a journal during at least part of her life. It also raises the possibility that the item on display was bogus. (I have an autograph book from the 1880s that belonged to someone called "Lizzie." Some of her friends had names like "Alice," "Isabel" and "Anna." However, the book came from Ohio and definitely didn't belong to Lizzie Borden.)

You have a great memory and luckily I was filing articles on my desktop this week. I looked at eveything and remembered this display once you brought it up.
Here is a desktop photo of it.
I wrote at the top from where it came, because I can't provide the link as this is a "stored" web page at my end.(HTML)
It certainly does mention a "travel book"- but I don't know if that means a study of the country or a journal? It looks like the book in the picture might say "Diary", but I can't quite read it under magnification.
Thanks Edisto!
[Notice of edits within a couple of minutes of first posting]

please click on pic

I found a link to the original page: http://www.hoover.archives.gov/exhibits ... orden.html

Interesting, its says: TRAVEL BOOK, with inscription, taken with Lizzie on a trip to Italy after the trial (emphasis on after is mine). Could Lizzie have taken another trip to Europe or are they mistaken about the time? And, could the book possibly be titled "Italy"? I found this searching, a book on Germany and England that allegedly belonged to Lizzie.

Click on link: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl= ... D%26sa%3DN

Thanks Susan! It was in some papers prematurely that Lizzie was going to go to Europe after her trial, as she was getting out of jail and lying low in Fall River. Yet she was busy in Chicago at the Expostition and looking at houses to buy!
Maybe that book does say "Italy" and is a "Travel Book" in the sense that it's a book about what to do and see in Italy?

You guys are good! Isn't that lemonade glass at the FRHS? -- which may mean that all those items in that first list are on loan from there. So then the "travel" book would still be at the FRHS?

I seem to remember coveting that lemonade glass when I was in the Borden room at the Historical Society but I could be totally off-base about that.

Anyone else remember the items in the glass case on the wall to the right of the entrance as you go into that room at the FRHS? I remember the lunch pail ...

Look a little bit closer at that description of the Travel Book.

It says "Travel Book with inscription, taken with Lizzie on a trip to Italy AFTER the trial.

Maybe they just misunderstood when the trip to Europe was made.

Or did she ever make another trip? Read somewhere that she did but there was no source for the information.

Rebello, 20:
Taunton Daily Gazette, Monday, August 8, 1892: 4.

"Miss Lizzie Borden has made two trips to Europe, each time in the company of a Taunton woman."


263:

"Our Folks and Other Folks," Fall River Evening News, June 24, 1893: 8.

"Miss Lizzie Borden has not contemplated a European trip, nor re-employment of Bridget Sullivan, nor many other things that have been reported. She has no plans for the immediate future, but would very much appreciate a brief period of rest, which her health demands, and freedom from senseless and unfounded gossip. There is no reason why she should continue to be hounded or treated differently from any other citizen."

and:
" 'Minor Items: Acquitted / Lizzie, Emma and Bridget to Europe,' Country Gentleman, vol. LVIII, Friday, June 29, 1893: 513 col. 1."

Yes, that's what I remember reading but there is no indication that a second trip was ever made.

So I'm guesing whoever wrote the description for the display had it wrong.

Yikes! Turns out we had this same discussion in January 2004. And our William even mentioned at that time that he'd contacted Dennis Binette at the FRHS about the travel book in 1998.....

We've got to stop meeting like this!

http://www.lizzieandrewborden.com/Archi ... ertrip.htm

Oh Edisto will LOVE this!
Hi Edisto!

You guys are so smart!