Anne Clifford: Writing for Oneself, Writing for Others

Both Anne Clifford's early diaries and her later summary diaries involve an elaborate process of re-annotating and contextualizing. The audience Clifford had in mind when she wrote extends from herself to her immediate family and then to a posterity that would bear witness to her rightful inheritance of her estates. In order to understand this process it is necessary to pay careful attention to examples of Clifford's writing practice and to her intended audience. The subtle differences between the three sets of Great Books lodged at the Cumbria records office in Kendal need to be examined in detail; here a few instances are explored.