author
Patrick Traherne
1885–1917
Best known for the posthumously published A Schoolmaster’s Diary, this young English schoolmaster wrote with unusual candor about teaching, ambition, and disappointment. His journal feels sharp, personal, and surprisingly modern.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born on July 14, 1885, he was the only son of the Rev. Thomas Traherne of North Darley Vicarage in Derbyshire. Contemporary introductory material to A Schoolmaster’s Diary says he was educated at Rugby and at New College, Oxford, and that he went straight from university into work as a public-school master.
Traherne is remembered for A Schoolmaster’s Diary, a book drawn from his journals and published after his death, selected and edited by S. P. B. Mais in 1918. The diary records the daily strain of school life and the inner life of a thoughtful, often frustrated young teacher, which gives the book much of its lasting interest.
A later summary from Lapham’s Quarterly describes him as a schoolmaster who lost his post after years in the profession for what he called “tactlessness.” Beyond those outlines, confirmed biographical detail is scarce, which makes the surviving diary all the more valuable as a portrait of his mind and experience.