Margins
The Diary of Frida Kahlo book cover
The Diary of Frida Kahlo
An Intimate Self-Portrait
1995
First Published
3.89
Average Rating
296
Number of Pages

“A visual document, engaging the eye with a volcanic profusion of penned-and-painted imagery.” — New York Times Published in its entirety, Frida Kahlo’s amazing, illustrated journal documents the last 10 years of her turbulent life. These passionate, often surprising, intimate records, kept under lock and key for some 40 years in Mexico, reveal many new dimensions in the complex personal life of this remarkable Mexican artist. The 170-page journal contains the artist’s thoughts, poems, and dreams—many reflecting her stormy relationship with her husband, artist Diego Rivera—along with 70 mesmerizing watercolor illustrations. Her views of love, politics, and more come into sharp focus in a kaleidoscope of creativity and thought. In his introduction, Carlos Fuentes, one of Mexico’s most important writers and critics, ties Kahlo’s images of pain, loss, mutilation, and transcendence to Mexico’s historic cycles of revolution and reaction. Her diary is sprinkled with irony, black humor, even gaiety, and augmented with translations of the diary entries plus commentaries and photographs, this volume stands as a reminder of not only Kahlo’s formidable talent, but also her resilience and courage. The text entries, written In Frida’s round, full script in brightly colored inks, make the journal as captivating to look at as it is to read. Her writing reveals the artist’s political sensibilities, recollections of her childhood, and her enormous courage in the face of more than 35 operations to correct injuries she had sustained in an accident at the age of 18. This intimate portal into her life is sure to fascinate fans of the artist, art historians, and women’s culturalists alike.

Avg Rating
3.89
Number of Ratings
50,084
5 STARS
44%
4 STARS
25%
3 STARS
16%
2 STARS
7%
1 STARS
8%
goodreads

Author

Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo
Author · 14 books

Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo Calderón was a Mexican painter, who has achieved great international popularity. She painted using vibrant colors in a style that was influenced by indigenous cultures of México as well as by European influences that include Realism, Symbolism, and Surrealism. Many of her works are self-portraits that symbolically express her own pain and sexuality. In 1929 Kahlo married the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. They shared political views, and he encouraged her artistic endeavors. Although she has long been recognized as an important painter, public awareness of her work has become more widespread since the 1970. Her "Blue" house in Coyoacán, México City is a museum, donated by Diego Rivera upon his death in 1957.

548 Market St PMB 65688, San Francisco California 94104-5401 USA
© 2026 Paratext Inc. All rights reserved