Diaries and Notebooks

This series contains an incomplete series of appointment diaries owned by Ramsay MacDonald, and several notebooks in which notes are made on various topics and events. The diary for 1917 has not been used as such, but contains 8 pages of closely written notes; 1921 has had all but a few pages removed; the diaries for 1922 & 1924 each contain a small newspaper cutting, the first about Major Edwards standing for Aberavon and the second concerning RMD and communism. The notebooks describe a trip to Geneva in 1923 and an undated trip to Canada [1929-31]; the other two can be dated to 1914-15 and contain notes, poems ("The Hills in Wartime") and drafts ("The ILP and the War"). Perhaps the most interesting item in this series is a notebook kept by RMD during the International Economic and Monetary Conference of 1933 (RMD/2/28), which gives physical and character descriptions of the main players, such as Litvinoff who was "Stout and perspiring. Boldly inaccurate and began by saying no wage cuts and no unemployment in Russia. It took one's breath away!". The entries continue from 15 June to the 19 July.