When reading about The diary of Anne Frank, most people assume that a single

diary is all there is. But in reality, Anne's work comprises much more. Here you can
read what Anne wrote and how it all merged into the book you can now find in the
bookstore.
When does Anne get her diary?

On 12 June 1942, Anne was given a diary for her thirteenth birthday. It was
something she really wanted. Her parents let her to pick one out herself in a
bookshop.

When does Anne start writing?

On her birthday, Anne only wrote that she hoped that she would be able to entrust
everything to her diary and that it would be a great support. The actual writing started
two days after her birthday, on 14 June 1942.

In which language does Anne write?

Anne wrote in Dutch. On occasion, she used German or English words.

The diary Anne receives for her 13th birthday.

‘The finest thing of all is that I can at least write down what I think and feel, otherwise I
would suffocate completely.’
Anne Frank, 16 March 1944
Anne addresses her diary letters to Kitty. Who was Kitty?

Kitty was the fictional character Anne eventually addressed all her diary letters to.
The name Kitty came from a series of books Anne had read, by Dutch author Cissy
van Marxveldt. These books were about Joop, a girl who had all kinds of adventures
with her group of friends.

One of the books from this series was partly written in the form of letters. This
inspired Anne to do the same: from 21 September 1942 onwards, she pretended to
send letters to Joop’s circle of friends.

Kitty Francken was one of the characters from that group. Anne preferred to write to
'her'. The Kitty character in the Cissy van Marxveldt books was ‘bright', cheerful, and
funny. And so, Kitty became the imaginary friend Anne confided in.
So, who is 'Dear Kitty'?

What happens when Anne has filled up the diary she had been given?

Anne took her diary with her when she went into hiding. It was one of the first items
she packed.

 The last entry is dated 5 December 1942. By then, she had been in hiding in
the Secret Annex for five months. The diary was not completely filled, there
still were several empty pages.
  Anne added some texts at later dates, for instance on 2 May 1943 and on 22
January 1944.
 Anne apparently considered the diary to be full and continued to write in
notebooks. She would receive these notebooks from her sister Margot and
the helpers.
 The 1943 notebooks have not survived (see below). The two notebooks from
1944 have: one covers the period from 22 December 1943 - 17 April 1944
and the other from 18 April 1944 - 1 August 1944.

What is the date of Anne’s last entry?

Anne's last diary letter is dated 1 August 1944, three days before the arrest.´

Does Anne only write in her diary?

No, Anne wrote much more:

1. Tales. Anne wrote 34 tales. About her schooldays, things that happened in
the Secret Annex, or fairytales she invented herself.
2. The Book of Beautiful Sentences. These were not her own texts, but
sentences and passages she copied from books she read in the hiding place.
Her father inspired her to do so.
3. Cady’s Life. This is the title of the novel Anne attempted to write. She quit
after a few chapters.
4. Het Achterhuis (The Secret Annex). This was the title Anne had in mind for a
book about her time in the Secret Annex. She used the texts of her diary as a
basis. We therefore have two versions of some of the diary letters: Anne’s
original diary letter and her rewritten version.

Anne Frank’s Tales Book.

A page from Anne Frank’s Book of Beautiful Sentences, 2 July 1944, with a section from An
Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde.
What inspires Anne to write a book about her time in the Secret Annex?

On 28 March 1944, the people in hiding in the Secret Annex heard an appeal on the
radio from Dutch minister Bolkestein, who had fled to London because of the war. He
asked the Dutch to hang on to important documents, so that it would be clear after
the war what they all had experienced during the German occupation.

He inspired Anne: she planned after the war to publish a book about her time in
hiding. She also came up with a title: Het Achterhuis, or The Secret Annex. She
started working on this project on 20 May 1944. Anne rewrote a large part of her
diary, omitted some texts and added many new ones. She wrote the new texts on
separate sheets of paper. She describes the period from 12 June 1942 to 29 March
1944. Anne worked hard: in a those few months, she wrote around 50,000 words,
filling more than 215 sheets of paper.

The speech by Minister Gerrit Bolkestein calling on the Dutch to hold on to their personal
documents from the war (28 March 1944).
What are the main differences between Anne's diary and The Secret Annex?

15-year-old Anne looked very critically at the texts written by 13-year-old Anne. She
gave to the texts written during the first six months in hiding an especially thorough
going-over. There, the differences between the original diary and Anne's rewritten
version are the greatest. Since the original diary letters from 1943 have not survived,
we do not know anything about them. It is noteworthy that in The Secret Annex,
Anne left out her notes about her love for Peter and her vicious remarks about her
mother, such as 'my mother is in most things an example to me, but then an example
of precisely how I shouldn’t do things.'

What does writing mean to Anne?

Writing meant a great deal to Anne. It was her way to vent.

The nicest part is being able to write down all my thoughts and feelings;
otherwise, I'd absolutely suffocate. (Anne Frank, 16 March 1944.)

She hoped one day to become a famous writer or journalist. Although she doubted
from time to time whether she was talented enough, Anne wanted to write anyway.