In addition to his numerous works in prose and poetry for both children and adults Daniil Kharms 190542 one of the founders of Russias ampampquotlost literature of the absurdampampquot wrote notebooks and a diary for most of his adult life. Published for the first time in recent years in Russian these notebooks provide an intimate look at the daily life and struggles of one of the central figures of the literary avantgarde in PostRevolutionary Leningrad. While Kharmss stories have been translated and published in English these diaries represents an invaluable source for Englishlanguage readers who having already discovered Kharms in translation desire to learn about the life and times of an avantgarde writer in the first decades of Soviet power.