Drawing on feminist theory, literary history, biography, and personal anecdotes, this work argues that the diary is a subversive space for women writers. It details how Virginia Woolf, Antonia White, Elizabeth Smart and Anais Nin wrote their diaries under the pretence that they were private, while always intending them to be published.

"Daily Modernism" contributes to the ongoing feminist revision of literary history and, in its disruption of traditional concepts of 'major' and 'minor' literary forms, paves the way for a much needed reconsideration of the diary as a valid literary achievement.