The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky

by Vaslav Nijinsky
Introduction by Joan Acocella

The unexpurgated version of Nijinsky's six week diary, originally published in 1936 by his wife, Romola, though in a heavily edited form. This is commonly accepted as the only autobiographical text to exist documenting a descent into madness, as it was occurring, by any one of note. As the diary progresses, Nijinsky slips deeper and deeper toward megalomania (repeatedly calling himself God), delusions of grandeur, and schizophrenia. Nijinsky lived another thirty years, mostly in asylums, after he wrote these pages.