The young naturalist W. N. P. Barbellion described this remarkably candid record of living with multiple sclerosis as 'a study in the nude'. It begins as an ambitious teenager's notes on the natural world, and then, following his diagnosis at the age of twenty-six, transforms into a deeply moving account of battling the disease. His prose is full of humour and fierce intelligence, and combines a passion for life with clear-sighted reflections on the nature of death. Barbellion selected and edited this manuscript himself in 1917, adding a fictional editor's note announcing his own demise. This Penguin Classics edition includes 'The Last Diary', which covers the period between submission of the manuscript and Barbellion's actual death in 1919.

The Journal of a Disappointed Man

Literature & Fiction

Barbellion, W.N.P.

Essays & Correspondence

Penguin Classic

Wells, H G. 1866-1946

History

Franklin Classics

Published shortly before the author's death in 1919, The Journal of a Disappointed Man presents a remarkable memoir that addresses struggles with poverty, inadequate education, and the creeping paralysis of multiple sclerosis. Yet author W. N. P. Barbellion manages to write with uplifting eloquence and passion of his love for family, natural history, music, and literature. Told with a thoroughly modern voice, the unjustly overlooked Journal is reprinted here with its posthumous successor, A Last Diary. This edition features a thoughtful Introduction by H. G. Wells, who writes of the book's "exquisite beauty." W. N. P. Barbellion (1889–1919), whose real name was Bruce Frederick Cummings, was a naturalist who worked in the Entomology Department of London's Natural History Museum. Upon attempting to enlist in the British Army during World War I, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The discovery of his disease intensified the tenor of his journal-keeping, and his frank and articulate reflections on coping with a fatal illness remain a powerful testament to his life and struggles.

The Journal of a Disappointed Man: & A Last Diary

Biographies & Memoirs

Professionals & Academics

Dover Publications

The Journal of A Disappointed Man

Wentworth Press

The life of Bruce Frederick Cummings, who wrote under the name of W. N. P. Barbellion, was short, tragically curtailed by multiple sclerosis. He was born in 1889 and died in 1919. Started when he was thirteen, this remarkable journal, described by Ronald Blythe as 'among the most moving diaries ever created', documents the rest of his life. Filled with devastating frankness, keen observation and a sort of stoicism, it is, in the words of the author 'a study in the nude'. One of the last entries can act as his epitaph: 'I am only twenty-eight, but I have telescoped into those few years a tolerably long life: I have loved and married, and have a family; I have wept and enjoyed, struggled and overcome, and when the hour comes I shall be content to die'.

Faber and Faber

Published shortly before the author's death in 1919, The Journal of a Disappointed Man presents a remarkable memoir that addresses struggles with poverty, inadequate education, and the creeping paralysis of multiple sclerosis. Yet author W. N. P. Barbellion manages to write with uplifting eloquence and passion of his love for family, natural history, music, and literature. Told with a thoroughly modern voice, the unjustly overlooked Journal is reprinted here with its posthumous successor, A Last Diary. This edition features a thoughtful Introduction by H. G. Wells, who writes of the book's "exquisite beauty."W. N. P. Barbellion (1889–1919), whose real name was Bruce Frederick Cummings, was a naturalist who worked in the Entomology Department of London's Natural History Museum. Upon attempting to enlist in the British Army during World War I, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The discovery of his disease intensified the tenor of his journal-keeping, and his frank and articulate reflections on coping with a fatal illness remain a powerful testament to his life and struggles.

JOURNAL/DISAPNTD MAN

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Diseases & Physical Ailments

Chatto&Windus

Likened to James Joyce and Franz Kafka, W.N.P. Barbellion's Journal is one of the great diaries and caused a sensation when first published in 1919. Begun when its author was 13 years old, the Journal at first catalogues his misadventures in the Devon countryside - collecting birds' eggs, spying girls through binoculars - but evolves into a deeply moving account of his struggle with multiple sclerosis. Yet, for all its excruciating honesty, W.N.P. Barbellion has an extraordinary lust for life. As Zeppelins loomed above South Kensington, the humor and beauty he found in the world around him - in music, friendship, nature and love - deepens not just the tragedy of his own life, but the millions of lives lost during the First World War. First published 1919 by Chatto & Windus.

Memoirs

Little Toller Books

Enjoying Life, and Other Literary Remains of W.N.P. Barbellion [Pseud.] .... (1920? )

Cornell University Library

A Last Diary

BiblioLife

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