The code: how did Anne Lister write her journal?
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Cover image: the cover of one of Anne Lister's journals. Image courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive.
The code: how did Anne Lister write her journal?
The legacy of Anne Lister’s journals is undoubtedly one of the richest and most detailed up to today. Even though her earliest journalizing (between 1806 and 1816) mainly consisted of notes written on loose sheets, the 24 volumes covering the years between 1817 and 1840 show regular writing practice and habits. In her 7.720 diary pages, Anne wrote about 5 million words, framed in quarto-sized volumes, to which we must add the 14 travel journals that Anne used throughout many of her journeys.
This guide is aimed at helping to read Anne Lister’s journals. For a more specific understanding of her sexual practices and language we invite you to consult the “Anne Lister’s sex guide” on Packed with Potential.
Written by Francesca Raia
Translated in English by Lucia Falzari
Transcripts by Francesca Raia
Design & visuals by Irene Trotta
Published 01/30/2023 • Updated 01/30/2023
15–20 min read
“Wrote 3 pages and the ends (small sheet) to Marian – giving my commissions for Whitley 2 journal books as usual 300 pages at 7/6”
Anne Lister, 11 June 1827.
“Wrote 3 pages and the ends (small sheet) to Marian – giving my commissions for Whitley 2 journal books as usual 300 pages at 7/6”. Anne Lister, 11 June 1827, [SH:7/ML/E/10/0103]. Image courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive.
About a sixth of the personal journals are written in a crypted code invented by Anne herself. Such code reflects Anne’s deep knowledge and interest in both science and literature: letters from the Greek alphabet are mixed with numbers, as well as with algebraic and punctuation symbols, each used by substitution, sometimes also of a couple of letters. Anne used to call this code "crypthand", and she blended it to her plainhand, a more linear writing, but scattered with so many abbreviations that it is often harder to read than the coded parts.
These journals are the vivid and sometimes raw memory of Anne’s daily actions and feelings: her businesses, her fears and thoughts, her encounters, and her loves.
Click image to open it in HD – One-sixth of Anne Lister's diary is written in this encrypted code of her own invention. This code can be classified as a "substitution cipher", i.e. a code in which each letter of its alphabet is replaced with different letters or symbols. Ciphertexts were usually written in blocks of fixed length, omitting punctuation marks and spaces.
History
When Anne Lister died in Georgia in 1841, Ann Walker took back to Shibden Hall the latest volumes of her wife’s journals to, join the ones she had left there. We have no information about what exactly Ann did with them, nor about where she used to keep them until 1848, the year she officially left the property – in which she had inherited a life interest from Anne – and moved into Cliff Hill.
The journals sat waiting behind wood panels at Shibden Hall until 1887, when John Lister of Swansea (whose father had inherited Shibden Hall after Ann Walker’s death) rediscovered them. Being interested in local history and politics, he started reading Anne’s journals and publishing some excerpts in the Halifax newspaper, skipping the code part which was still an enigma at the time. He must have been fascinated though because he sought help from his friend, the Bradford antiquarian Arthur Burrell to crack the code.
The only thin clue the two friends had was a note Anne Lister had left on a loose sheet, a sentence where she mixed code and plainhand “In God is my @op3”: they realized that the first and last letter of this word could be H and E, thus reading “In God is my hope”. Starting from these two letters they could soon put together a first key to the code, which we’re still using today.
"Hope" written in the code invented by Anne Lister.
After discovering what many of the coded parts were about, Burrell remembered suggesting John Lister burn those books, to prevent anyone from reading the “obscenities” hidden in the coded lines: it was a common idea at the time that homosexuality (still a punished offense) could be genetic, thus he didn’t want his friend to be involved. Luckily, John Lister was an antiquarian himself and decided against his friend’s advice, thus after using them for his research he re-placed the journals behind the same wooden panels where he’d found them.
At John Lister’s death in 1933, Shibden Hall with its ground and properties were handed to the town of Halifax.
The only two known persons who dealt with the journals in these years were Muriel Green – the daughter of a Halifax librarian, and after about 20 years Phyllis Ramsden. However, both women only focused on the letters, despite having received the key to the code (or because of that).
It was 1983 when Helena Whitbread ran into Anne Lister’s journals while searching for something interesting for her post-grad. An employee of the Halifax archive suggested she should give a chance to those volumes, and provided her with the key to the code. And the rest is now history. It took Helena five years to transcribe enough material to publish her first book I know my own heart, followed in 1993 by “No priest but love”, which covered the years 1824-1826 including Anne’s days in Paris.
Anne Lister's signature. The letter looking like an “f” is actually an “s". [SH:7/ML/E/1/0002]. Image courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive.
The journal's main features
Anne Lister was extremely methodical in her journaling. Although her writing habits slightly evolved during the many years covered by the volumes, we can see that some elements remained, and nearly unchanged.
Date and Time
Anne Lister numbered each journal page on top, then came the year, and she used to start every entry by writing month, weekday and date, the hour she woke up, and when she went to bed:
Page number 1. year: 1817, month: March, day: Friday 21. Woke up at 8.50 and went to sleep at 12 ¼. Anne Lister, 21 March 1817. [SH:7/ML/E/1/0002]. Image courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive.
Readings
Many of the earlier entries begin with the progress of Anne’s scientific or classics studies:
“R[ea]d fr[om] p. 167 to 182, the end of Demosth[enes] de Coron[a] and fr[om] p. 322 to 336, end of Leland’s Translat[io]n.” - Anne Lister, 27 May 1817, [SH:7/ML/E/1/0014]. Image courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive.
BB. Before Breakfast
As shown in the January 1818 pages, rather than writing “Bef[ore] Breakf[a]st” Anne abbreviates it as BB:
Temperatures and weather
Wherever she was, Anne meticulously noted details about the weather and climatic events, sometimes also using many different units.
As an example, we can see the entry of November 28, 1832, when Anne was in Halifax, engaged in her estate and coal businesses, and in the blooming love liaison with Ann Walker.
Damp rainy windy wild morn[in]g F48° at 7 ¼” – Anne Lister, 28 November 1832, [SH:7/ML/E/15/0156]. Image courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive.
While she was in Paris with her aunt (covering the years 1826-1831), Anne Lister for some time would also write, on the left margin, the temperatures at different hours of the same day:
Symbols
Beyond her writing standard, Anne also regularly used many symbols, abbreviations and notes on the page margins.
Cross: masturbation
An “X” is the symbol Anne used to note on the margin when she masturbated, followed in the entry text by the coded passage “incurred a cross”.
This “X” must not be mistaken as a “+”, which is the symbol Anne used to note her readings.
Cousin/Monsieur: menstruation
Anne Lister regularly noted her periods next to the date by using two dots written next to each other horizontally, as you can see in the image. In the relevant entry, she would write it down in code, calling it "cousin" (e.g. “my cousin came gently” ).
Beyond her own menstruation, Anne used to note also her partner’s. Referring to Ann Walker’s period she used a symbol very similar to her own: two dots, but written like a colon, next to the date (although at an earlier stage, she used to write them in the same way as for herself).
“Monsieur” could be the way Ann Walker would use for her period or another way Anne found to refer to it.
“Monsieur came to her this afternoon” - Anne Lister, 14 December 1837, [SH:7/ML/E/21/0014]. Image courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive.
Kiss: the orgasm
This is the symbol Anne used for what she called a “kiss”, that is the orgasm following sexual intercourse with another woman.
Sometimes Anne would also add how good the kiss had been, by adding as many dots next to the symbol.
In the earlier loose pages of Anne Lister’s journals we also read the word "Felix" (happy in Latin), probably a way to indicate the “kiss” that she only used with Eliza Raine. We can find the same word in Eliza’s diary when she was with Anne.
Vide: see
From the Latin vĭdēre, “to see”, Anne would use the abbreviation "Vid[e]" both as a memo and as a reference to another specific part of her own journal.
Other symbols
The status of Anne’s venereal disease: the number of dots would specify the discharge amount and the treatments/medications
Occasionally used to introduce an explanation, as “therefore” or just instead of “that is”
Recurring phrases
There are some other coded words and expressions more or less recurring in Anne’s journals.
Amoroso/Amorosa
Go/Going to Italy
“Go to Italy” or “Going to Italy”: depending on the context, it could be read in its plain meaning, given the interest Anne nurtured for Italy, but in some circumstances (as suggested by Helena Whitbread) also as a metaphor, hinting to having sexual intercourse with a woman (an option Anne used with Catherine Maria Barlow).
Grubble/Grubbling
Queer
Moustaches
"Moustaches" (in code): the female genitalia, like “queer”. Anne used this euphemism with Madame de Rosny (her lover at the end of 1827).
Partner names
Anne would often use specific abbreviations and symbols to hint at her partner names, both in plainhand and in crypthand.
Other recurring names
As you can see, in Miss Hobart's case Anne used the symbol “Miss” and the coded “H” to indicate Miss Hobart. When a symbol or a code letter have a hyphen on top they stand for the initial of someone’s name (or last name).
Indexes
Letter index
At the beginning of some journals Anne Lister created a chart where she noted the letters she received and sent, according the following order: year, day, to and from.
Next to the year 1825 (top left) the table is divided into 3 columns: the first dedicated to the date; the second dedicated to the recipient (to) and the third to the sender (from). Anne uses the entire page to save space (placing her continuation next to the first table two more times). Anne Lister, Letter Index, [SH:7/ML/E/9/0003]. Image courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive.
General Index and Literary Index
Some of the journals would also show an index of the daily entries and a literary index, both written in the last pages, overturning the volume (that is starting to write it from its other side).
In the General Index Anne would specify the year, month and day followed by a brief summary of the relevant entry, while in the Literary Index she would note the page number on the left and the title of the book, text or article on the right
General Index and Literary Index side by side on the same page. Anne Lister, General Index and Literary Index, [SH:7/ML/E/9/0188]. Image courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive.
Underlining
Starting from 1828 the journals show different underlinings, both in plainhand and crypthand.
Anne most frequently used a single underlining, especially for the pages of the books she read, the letters she wrote or sent, the calls she paid to or from specific persons, or any other useful and significant information she wanted to remember.
Example of single underlining. Anne Lister, 1 December 1834, [SH:7/ML/E/17/0116]. Image courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive.
To the same purpose Anne sometimes also used a double underlining or a dotted one.
Example of double underlining. Anne Lister, 1 December 1834, [SH:7/ML/E/17/0116]. Image courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive.
Example of dotted underlining. Anne Lister, 23 November 1835 [SH:7/ML/E/18/0132]. Image courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive.
Repetitions
The coded entries show further particular underlinings. Sometimes, like in the entry you see below for example, the underlined word must be repeated when reading/transcribing.
“I thanked her again and again”. Anne Lister, 19 October 1824, [SH:7/ML/E/8/0061]. Image courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive.
The repetition is also applicable to single code letters when they show an underlying dot.
“Oh he said it was…”. Anne Lister, 29 November 1824, [SH:7/ML/E/8/0089]. Image courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive.
How to cite this article
Francesca Raia, Irene Trotta, Lucia Falzari, 2023. “The code: how did Anne Lister write her diary?”, Anne Lister Italia (accessed: month day, year)
Sources:
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Acknowledgments:
Thanks to Helena Whitbread, Anne Choma and Jill Liddington for the information useful in reconstructing the history of Anne Lister's diaries.
Thanks to the West Yorkshire Archive Service for Anne Lister's diaries from which we have extracted the symbols and various passages given here.
Thanks to Packed with Potential for the invaluable tools and transcription expertise they make available through their website.