Tagebuch einer Verlorenen

Who is Tagebuch einer Verlorenen?

Tagebuch einer Verlorenen is a book by the German author Margarete Böhme. It purportedly tells the true-life story of Thymian, a young woman forced by circumstance into a life of prostitution. When first published in 1905, the book was said to be a genuine diary, though speculation quickly arose as to its authorship.

Due in part to its sensational subject matter, the book proved extremely popular. By the end of the Twenties, it had sold more than 1,200,000 copies, ranking it among the bestselling books of its time. One contemporary scholar has called it “Perhaps the most notorious and certainly the commercially most successful autobiographical narrative of the early twentieth century.”