A Complete List of Henry Darger’s Writings

Henry Joseph Darger (American, 1892–1973) 

1910–1912: Darger begins writing The Story of the Vivian Girls in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion (henceforth referred to as In the Realms of the Unreal) in longhand. Some of his early drafts were lost, but other examples can be found within numerous planning journals. 

1910–1938:  He uses numerous planning journals to draft episodes of his In the Realms of the Unreal novel in longhand. (The following list of journals was excerpted from The Writings of Henry J. Darger: A Catalogue Raisonné and Reader’s Guide, prepared by John MacGregor and Betsey Farber for the American Folk Art Museum [2001]). 

• Battle of Eva Sainte Claire, a small handwritten ​“Compositions” notebook, which is broken in half (To judge by the beautiful penmanship in this journal, it is most likely a very early draft, written before Darger’s handwriting became less elegant.) 

• Please Return this Book to its Proper Place. This means you Henry D., a several-hundred-page planning journal with a broken binding 

• Time Book Monthly, a small bound book containing handwritten ​“Predictions” used in In the Realms of the Unreal 

• An unbound 328-page book with the cover missing containing handwritten material later typed into the manuscript 

• A second unbound 320-page book with the cover missing containing handwritten material later typed into the manuscript 

• A bound, gray cloth-covered 138-page notebook containing handwritten material later typed into the manuscript 

• A second bound, gray cloth-covered 136-page notebook containing handwritten material later typed into the manuscript 

• A set of 839 ring-binder pages tied together with string containing handwritten related material, but it is not clear how much was used 

• A small ring-binder notebook continuing the handwritten material from the previous string-tied manuscript for another 117 pages, followed by blank pages 

• No. One, a bound notebook with a 46-page fragment of handwritten material 

• Property of Henry Jos. Dargarius (Hendro), a notebook containing handwritten lists of 

Darger’s favorite songs and Abbieannian song titles, plus copied religious texts 

• A very large, heavy bound 474-page notebook containing handwritten material later typed into In the Realms of the Unreal and Further Adventures in Chicago 

1912–1916: He starts typing In the Realms of the Unreal (1912, according to a fragment from Darger’s writing journal.

1932: He binds by hand the first seven volumes of In the Realms of the Unreal. 

1938–1939: Darger finishes typing his saga (some 15,000 pages) but does not bind the remaining seven or so volumes, left as loose pages or tied in bundles. 

1939: He begins writing in longhand Further Adventures in Chicago (8,500 pages), reprising characters such as the Vivian sisters and Penrod from In the Realms of the Unreal. 

1939–1965?:  Darger creates No. Two, a second fragment (see No. One above) with 93 pages of handwritten material possibly intended for Further Adventures in Chicago. 

He creates two additional manuscript fragments intended for Further Adventures in Chicago. 

1957–1967: He writes six weather journals from daily observations. 

1966: He begins writing The History of My Life (5,000 pages). The first 200 pages reflect Darger’s life, but the remaining 4,800 pages obsess over a fictional tornado called Sweetie Pie and the damage it does. 

He writes thousands of loose manuscript pages that seem to be associated with The History of My Life.