A NOTE ON THE TEXT

A DIGITAL EDITION

So far, this digital edition contains one finalized transcription from Kezia’s manuscript diary: April 1911. However, I have completed the initial transcription drafts for May to December 1911. I have provided my working finalized texts for May and June of 1911, albeit the annotations and footnotes are still a work in progress—May and June can be found by visiting the Finalized Text page. The way I have organized my transcriptions has no claim to authorial sanction; nevertheless, keeping the entries in their original sequence and original organization by date and year maintains the author’s original intent

You will find the style guide for the finalized text on the left-hand side.
The style guide sticks as you scroll down the text so that you can refer
as you go.

Below, you can find my discussion on editorial emendations:

EDITORAL EMENDATIONS

Edits for Textual Clarity

First, I have added day of the week before each entry as a heading listed above the text so that the transcription accurately reflects the line/sentence length of each original entry.

Second, I have bolded each date to help define between date and the start of the entry.

Last, I include page numbers that denote the shift to a new within the diary. The page numbers are enclosed with square brackets and I have added a black space before and after to allow white space for easy transition.

Verb Tense

First, I’ve silently emended one particular verb tense error of “to come.” While the digital edition only provides one finalized text, April 1911, I have completed initial transcription drafts up to December 1911. Up to this point, Kezia practiced inconsistent verb usage for the irregular verb “to come.” Instead of employing simple past tense, she used simple present tense. This emendation was made to make the text readable and prevent distraction while engaging with the finalized text.

AAny other verb tense errors are denoted inORANGE and emended to the correct verb tense. In these instances, I have provide footnotes for the reader that provide the original text alongside my change.

Subscript

In addition, ORANGE denotes subscript errors. Due to the nature of the work, niceties to date subscripts were written without great attention. There are many cases where Kezia writes, for example, “th” instead of “st” for the first day of the month.

Capitalization

II have capitalized the first letter of the first word of a new sentence, which reflects Kezia’s practice elsewhere. However, to denote my edit from her original work, I denote my emendations in BLUE.

Punctuation

For the most part, I have left punctuation and other mechanism exactly as they appear in the manuscript diary with two classes of exceptions in which ultimately reflects Kezia’s practice elsewhere: obvious missing punctuation and honorifics, and apostrophes.

Thus, all emendations concerning punctuation denoted in BLUE.

Additions

Any words that Kezia adds later, for example a word squeezed in between two other words I use ^ color coded in BLUE.

[Questionable Readings]

Questionable readings of words or letters are also square-bracketed; however, in this case they denoted in [BRIGHT PURPLE]. Further, questionable readings usually occurred when Kezia wrote in pencil, and due to old age, the finalized text includes my interpretation. Nevertheless, for most cases I provide annotations with an image of questionable text from the original entry so that readers have access and ability to transcribe themselves to see if they can decipher.

Spelling

Rather than correcting obvious misspellings in order to reflect the true nature of the work and its author, instead I have denote them in PINK. I also offer annotations with an image of the text and a footnote with the correct spelling.

Line Structure

There are various places in the text where Kezia uses the space below the last ruled line of the page to finalize her thoughts. This occurrence is denoted with in PURPLE.

[Word Interpolation]

When a word or letter(s) of word is obviously missing in the entry, I have interpolated the most likely choice, enclosing it with square brackets. I provide annotations with an image of the likely missing text to offer readers a chance to determine for themselves.