Alfred's Diaries & Day-Books

Alfred began keeping a diary as a teenager in Oakland (California), a habit he continued until the day he died.  However, there are gaps in the diaries and entire years are missing.  We have found traces of pages that were removed, which suggests someone edited the diaries.  We can only speculate who the editor was, but it could have been Alfred himself.  Regardless, his diaries and day-books provide us an impressive record of his doings and that of the family.  He recorded the family's arduous journey to Argentina, his many trips hunting and travelling about the world, and his more mundane daily activities.  His estancia day-books from Laguna Yacaré & Los Palmares are at first glance a boring daily record of who worked, rain (or lack of), indian troubles, and cattle movements — but as you read an image emerges of life as it was then, lived at the speed of a horse.

We provide the diaries verbatim, without any intentional corrections.  To aid the reader with Spanglish terminology and unfamiliar names, at the top of each diary we have added links to a Glossary of Spanglish terms and/or the appropriate List of People and Place Names, with maps & relevant web-sites.

¡Thank you!

Special thanks are due to Stuart Pryor for providing us Uncle Alfred's diaries, Susan Horner for lending us Auntie Olga's photo album, and lastly, those who transcribed the diaries — for the long tedious task of deciphering Uncle Alfred's scrawl: Jane Baggott, Michael Mohr-Bell, and René Benitz.