This article analyses several World War I Diaries written by soldiers on the Front. Starting with the circumstances of publication and their effects on the text, the article addresses the passage of these very private texts into public life, before turning to the role played by the diaries for the soldiers who write them. Studies of the diary as a genre are used to show how war diaries fit into the more general genre. Finally the article turns to the reception of these works, by studying what part literary distance may play for the soldiers keeping a diary, and by arguing that the task of making sense of these texts has been transferred to present-day readers.