author
Patrick Traherne
1885–1917
A young English schoolmaster left behind journals so vivid and honest that they were published after his death. His writing turns everyday school life into something intimate, funny, and quietly heartbreaking.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born on July 14, 1885, in Derbyshire, Patrick Traherne was the son of the Rev. Thomas Traherne. He was educated at Rugby and later at New College, Oxford, then went straight into work as a public-school master.
Traherne is remembered for A Schoolmaster's Diary, a posthumously published selection from his journals edited by Stuart P. B. Mais. The book grew out of diaries he kept during his years teaching, and it captures both the routines of school life and the strain of trying to live up to an ideal of teaching that the system around him often made difficult.
Accounts published with the diary say that he lost his position after years at school and later entrusted several volumes of his journals to Mais, asking him to use what he thought best. The result is a strikingly personal portrait of an intelligent, sensitive young teacher whose voice still feels fresh more than a century later.