| Summary: | The twenty five volumes in this series differ in composition between two diary formats: the first format is that of an unbroken narrative of events in the life of the author, Howard Leopold Morry, or of the history of the community in which he was born and raised, Ferryland, Newfoundland; the second format is that of a conventional daily diary reporting on events of the day, including the weather and sea conditions, the ups and downs in the fishery, births, marriages and deaths of family, friends and neighbours, and newsworthy events at the local, national and international level. None of the 25 volumes are actually all of one format or the other. They all contain a larger or smaller component of each form of diary. The current volume is completely different from other volumes in that its source is a lengthy (42 tightly-written pages) letter from Howard to his daughter Jean containing information on his life that is of benefit to the work that they have recently commenced on the Morry family history. The letter does not contain any daily notations as do the other diaries. In this twenty-third volume, the letter transcribed nominally covers the entire life of Howard from 1885 to the present (March 1961), though obviously with more detailed notes on some periods than others. Many details are a repetition of thoughts recorded in earlier diaries. For example, there is one lengthy section dedicated to a selection of Howard’s memories of his time serving in the Newfoundland Regiment, but only that part related to the period of his courtship and marriage to his Scottish bride, Fredris Minty. There is also a detailed section relating the events of his earliest departures from Ferryland to work in the wheat fields of Manitoba and an eclectic range of work in British Columbia. As in previous volumes, in order to provide readers not familiar with the “cast of characters” or the local and international historical events mentioned in the pages of the diary a clue to their identity, an extensive set of endnotes has been ...
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