Aug 08, 2003  |  By: MARK REILLEY  | COMMENTS     

books,” the first diaries written by Japanese women in the 10th century royal court. Since then, diaries written by historical and cultural figures ranging from Christopher Columbus, Harry S. Truman, Virginia Woolf, and Andy Warhol have been discovered and discussed.

When Harry Truman’s 1947 diary was recently found, library director Michael Devine said, “We are able to hear that strong personal voice that Truman almost always projected in his writings. We learn something new both about his presidency and about him, as a person.”

Like Truman, contemporary public figures express themselves through their own diaries, though theirs are online. Last month almost a quarter of a million people visited the blog of conservative political and social commentator Andrew Sullivan. His regularly updated journal (www.andrewsullivan.com) includes observations on faith, culture and politics and letters from his readers.

Sullivan, who is gay and lives in Washington, D.C., suggests the expanding blogosphere will have a formidable impact on the literary world because, “a writer no longer needs a wealthy proprietor to get his message across to readers. Younger or more talented writers can bypass [the established newspaper market] and write directly to an audience.”

Though blogs have reached critical mass, Sullivan thinks it is too soon to tell if blogs are part of a true media revolution or are just a passing fad, especially since only about 60 percent of them are updated more than once a month.

www.vividblurry.com

Author, activist and blogger Keith Boykin, the former executive director of the National Black Lesbian & Gay Leadership Forum, updates his journal (www.keithboykin.com) almost 300 times a year. He says he writes about whatever is “not being said in the news or in the world” — anything from politics and sex to meditation and the X-men.

Boykin, who lives in New York City, says he draws the line at friends and family because,