Scope and arrangement
John Baxter Black (1924-2014) kept a diary from 1936 until October 2014. This collection contains Black's diaries, letters, and a two-volume family history he wrote, as well as diaries and letters of his uncles John Baxter Black (died 1923) and Donald Black.
Black's diaries, dating from 1936 to 2014, contain inserted material such as letters (incoming and outgoing), clippings, and photographs. In addition to his 70 complete diaries, there are two small diaries from 1933 and 1934 that represent his early attempts at regular diary-keeping. Black wrote a 39-page "Autobiographical Sketch" to accompany this collection. The sketch offers an overview of the major phases of Black's life until the 1990s, and describes his childhood before he began keeping diaries. The collection also contains Black's appointment books (1964-2014), and letters Black wrote while in the army in World War II.
The consistent topics of the diaries are Black's active social life; his relationships and sex life; books, movies, theater, and music; and politics and current events. Black's social circles contained prominent scholars and academics, especially historians, and people working in literature and the arts. Friends whose names appear frequently in the diaries include Peter Barnes, Marion Coughlin, Frederick English, Bentley Gilbert, Jerome Kohn, Ivan Morris, John Sandoe, Werner Vortriede, William Weaver (Bill), Lulie Westfeldt, and Leslie Workman. Researchers can refer to Black's autobiographical sketch for further context for many of his relationships. Black traveled regularly, and each volume after 1957 contains a breakdown of how many days Black spent in each location that year.
Entries for the 1930s and early 1940s, set primarily in Mansfield, Ohio and at Putney School, contain factual accounts of Black's activities, and brief comments on books, film, American politics, and the oncoming war. Black's diaries of 1943 to January 1946 are a record of his feelings, anecdotes, and observations about day-to-day life in the army.
Entries for Black's first four years in New York, 1950 to 1954, record his efforts to write a novel and his struggle to become heterosexual, in part through regular sessions with the Jungian psychoanalyst Frances Wickes. Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery, and Allen Ginsberg make appearances, along with other New York-based writers and artists of the period. Diaries of the late 1950s and the 1960s are of interest in part for accounts of the London social scene: the diaries include mentions of gay clubs in Chelsea and cocktail parties with London literati.
After 1970, one recurring theme in the diaries is the sale of the family home, Woodside, to Mickey Rupp, and the subsequent tension between Black and his parents. Black's interest in genealogy and family history is increasingly apparent in later entries. Diaries for the years leading up to Black's father's death in 1973 and his mother's death in 1988 give accounts of his parents' illnesses and the challenges and difficulties arising around caretaking. Diaries of the 2010s include many entries about his brother Peter, who suffered from Alzheimer's Disease.
Black created typed transcripts of many of the diary entries, some of which he lightly edited. Diaries from 1936 to 1948 have been fully transcribed, with the exception of a small notebook in which Black made occasional notes from 1943 to 1946. Later diaries are transcribed only in part, or not at all.
Black's uncle and namesake, John Baxter Black, attended Princeton and went to France in 1917 with the "Princeton Unit" to volunteer for the American Field Service, though he ultimately volunteered with the French Camion Service instead. The collection contains two of his diaries (1914-1917) and transcripts of his letters home (1917-1918). There are also transcripts of letters home from another uncle, Donald Black, written while Donald was on a trip around the world in 1926 and 1927.