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At the heart of the House Papers is the diary which Colonel House kept from 1912-1926, supplemented by his "Reminiscences" and "Memories." House began to keep his daily record in September of 1912 during the presidential campaign and continued almost without interruption until the end of 1921. After concluding the regular entries in December of that year with a discussion of the Wilson administration and its legacy of idealism, he made sporadic entries through November of 1926. House augmented the record of his life before and after the diary with the writing of "Reminiscences" in 1916 and "Memories" about 1928. These are included in the microfilm publication of the diary.
The publication of the diary in its entirety has been long awaited. Extracts appeared in the Intimate Papers of Colonel House, published in 1926 (volumes I and II) and in 1928 (volumes III and IV), less than a decade after most of the events described. [Sections selected for publication are marked in the diary by brackets.] This work is remarkable for its revelation of House's frank and personal assessments of the personalities and projects of the era. He had hoped that the complete diary would be edited and published by his editor, historian Charles Seymour of Yale University, who deemed the diary "a personal document such as the biographer dreams of and seldom discovers." Seymour began teaching history at Yale after receiving his doctorate from the university in 1911. During World War One he served on The Inquiry, an organization of experts gathered together by Colonel House, in charge of the division studying questions relating to Austria-Hungary and Italy. After the armistice, Seymour was selected as one of the representatives of The Inquiry to accompany the American delegation to the Paris Peace Conference where he formed a friendship with Colonel House. Back in America, Seymour assisted House in editing a series of lectures by the American delegates to the Peace Conference which were published in 1921 with the title What Really Happened At Paris. Deeming Seymour the ideal editor and collaborator, House invited him to prepare The Intimate Papers and decided to donate his papers to the Yale University Library. In 1923, Seymour was appointed Curator of the Edward M. House Collection, a vast archive comprised of correspondence with leading world figures and countless minor personalities, all of House's writings, minutes of interviews, state documents, special subject files, photographs, memorabilia, maps, and House's personal library. The acquisition and processing of the collection continued through the 1930s, but the appointment of Seymour as president of the university in 1937, and the added responsibility of leading Yale through the wartime emergency intervened. After retiring from the presidency in 1950, Seymour devoted full time to his former position of Curator of the House Collection in the Yale University Library, and he continued to work on the editing of the diaries until his death in 1963. Now, on the occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, the complete diary, as transcribed and typed by his confidential secretary Miss Frances Denton, with Colonel House's handwritten annotations, is published for the first time.
Miss Denton was for over fifty years Colonel House's personal secretary and confidante. Virtually a member of the House family, her father had been a close personal friend of Colonel House, and her mother was a friend and distant relative of Mrs. House. "Miss Fanny," as she was known was credited with the very existence of the House diary. She learned to take shorthand, and transcribed the daily dictations on the typewriter. Denton accompanied House on all of his diplomatic trips to make sure he kept the diary faithfully, and according to Seymour "in true Texas style protected his papers en route with a small revolver that she carried with her in her reticule." She was one of only four people, together with Seymour, Gordon Auchincloss, and Sir William Wiseman, privileged to discuss and analyze the contents of the diary with the Colonel himself. As one biographer of House wrote: "I am indebted to Miss Fanny Denton, the confidential secretary of Colonel House, who wrote his diaries and knew more state secrets than the State Department."
Later, in a memorandum on the future publication of the diary written on February 3, 1932, House stipulated that the edition "be dedicated to Frances B. Denton, whose tireless devotion made possible the recording of the Diary."
By reading the House diary, one becomes a witness to one of the most exciting periods in history. To Colonel House, the election of President Wilson heralded the dawn of a new age of progress and reform. The advent of World War One brought a halt to his domestic program, but enlarged House's sphere of observation and contacts. Peacemaking brought him into contact with the leaders of virtually every country in the world. Kings, presidents, and leaders of new movements come vividly to life with House's words. The uncertainty with which the greatest minds of the century wrestled with plans for peace is simply told in House's entry the day after the signing of the Peace Treaty on June 28, 1919: "I am leaving Paris after eight fateful months, with conflicting emotions. Looking at the Conference in retrospect there is much to approve and much to regret. It is easy to say what should have been done, but more difficult to have found a way for doing it....The greater part of civilization had been shattered and history could guide us but little in the making of this peace."
In regard to the manner in which the diary was kept, House provides this statement on June 28, 1918: "I want to remark that this diary, good or bad, prophetic or unprophetic, stands as it is written from day to day. I do not go back and make changes after happenings have proved that either my judgments or prophecies have been at fault. When Miss Denton writes a certain number of pages I correct them, and they are then placed in a sealed package in the safe deposit box and are not disturbed afterward." The letters and various documents cited by House in the text of the diary that he intended to insert to complete the record were not added to the diary and remain in the House Papers.
The diary entries for December 31, 1921 and November 25, 1926, written when House brought the diary to closures provide important personal assessments of the purpose of the diary and its major subjects. In 1921, House wrote: "One of the things which has been impressed on me since this diary began is the tremendous power of the President of the United States....No one can ever know how high my hopes have been, or with what anxious eyes I have watched him on his way toward the goal upon which I had set my heart....With Wilson's advent to the Presidency, idealism, for the first time, had its opportunity in government. That it did not wholly succeed was not due to its lack of merit.... At least it has been shown what can be done. With vision tempered by wisdom; with firmness and courage softened with conciliation and humility, success may be brought about. When the right man leads the people will follow and our mighty Republic will be lifted from the low estate into which it has fallen, and we may yet reach that lofty height to gain which Wilson gave his life." In his final entry written in 1926, House reflected that "the one truth which came to me early and for which I am grateful," is "that the subordination of the self, as far as it is possible in the struggle for existence, is the wisest policy and the one most conducive to an interesting and happy life..."
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![[DIARY, REMINISCENCES, AND MEMORIES OF COLONEL EDWARD M. HOUSE]](banner.gif)
