Anne Frank Unbound: Media, Imagination, Memory

1. From Diary to Book: Text, Object, Structure

25 1 From Diary to Book: Text, Object, Structure Jeffrey Shandler Most of the many mediations of Anne Frank’s diary—plays, films, artworks , musical compositions, memorials, lesson plans, even jokes—begin with the book: that is, the published diary. To speak of “the diary” as “the book,” though, is to elide the diary’s initial, key mediations. Its transformation from the different notebooks and manuscripts that Anne wrote between June 1942 and August 1944 into a published book, which first appeared almost three years after her last entry, entailed extensive editing by more than one hand, including her own. In published form, Anne’s diary appeared in a series of languages—first the original Dutch in 1947, then French and German translations in 1950 and English in 1952. These were followed by translations into over thirty more languages within another two decades, including three different Yiddish renderings—published in Bucharest, Buenos Aires, and Tel Aviv—all in 1958.1 Additional translations continue to appear, such as renderings into Arabic and Farsi in 2008 issued by the Aladdin Online Library, a Paris-based organization combating Holocaust denial in the Muslim world.2 Some translations attract public attention, hailed for promoting Holocaust awareness and combating anti-Semitism or as a touchstone of human rights. Thus, when the diary appeared in Khmer in 2002, the Dutch ambassador to Cambodia noted that Anne Frank’s ordeal bears resemblance to the personal history of thousands of Cambodians who have suffered a similar fate at the hands of the Khmer Rouge during the regime of Democratic Kampuchea. . . . I hope that many Cambodians will find something of relevance to their own lives and experience in this book and that it can be a source of comfort. Anne Frank died, as 26 Jeffrey Shandler did 1.7 million Cambodians. But their deaths have led to a strong resolve that the international community should do everything to prevent further crime against humanity.3 In the six decades after its initial publication, Anne’s diary has appeared in over sixty different languages and sold more than thirty-one million copies, making it one of the world’s most widely read books.4 Moreover, the diary has been printed in hundreds of editions and in diverse formats: abridged versions; anthologized excerpts, some published with Anne’s other works; teacher’s or student’s editions; limited editions for book collectors (including a 1959 oversize publication in French, with a frontispiece by Marc Chagall, and a 1985 two-volume set in English with etchings by Joseph Goldyne);5 and sound recordings (read in English by Claire Bloom, Julie Harris, and Winona Ryder, among other actresses).6 The published diary has appeared with different redactions of the original text and with various titles, cover designs, introductions, illustrations, and epilogues. Each publication presents a distinct mediation of Anne’s diary. Even as other mediations of the diary proliferate, the act of reading it in book form remains the foundational (if not always initial) encounter , rooted in an authorized, carefully regulated text and seemingly closest to Anne’s own practice of writing. Reading the diary has become a meaningful act in its own right and has been incorporated into other mediations of the diary, including films, fiction, and performance. The book’s wide readership has also fostered interest in the original diary’s materiality. The object of veneration, suspicion, and scholarly scrutiny, Anne’s first diary notebook has become an icon. Its cover or sample pages have been widely reproduced, including in published editions of the diary. Similarly, photographs of Anne and of the building where she hid have appeared in published editions of the diary and hence have become familiar symbols of Anne’s life and work. Examining the diary ’s redaction, publication, and materialization reveals a complex of obscured or easily overlooked mediations between Anne’s original writings and her millions of readers, shaping their encounter with her life and work. From Diary to Book 27 Redactions While Anne Frank’s diary might be regarded as exemplary of the genre, it is an unusual and, in some ways, challenging one. The diary went throughtwomajorphasesofredactionbeforeitwasfirstpublished,each transforming the text substantially, well beyond the usual editing of a diary for publication. Anne began her diary on or shortly after June 12, 1942,herthirteenthbirthday,whenshewasgiventheplaidcloth-covered notebook in which she wrote her first entries. Within weeks after starting her diary, Anne and her family...