Novelist, Playwright, Sex Machine

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Selections from A Celtic Temperament, Robertson Davies as Diarist, edited by Jennifer Surridge and Ramsay Derry and published by McClelland & Stewart in 2015. 

Comment below if you have any suggestions for what "h.t.d." stands for.

1958

Wednesday, December 31
H.t.d.—admirable—and spent the afternoon in bed with Brenda, naked, happy, and warm


1959

Saturday, March 28
Splendid h.t.d. on floor in bedroom: this improves with time though frequency inevitably less

Tuesday, November 10
H.t.d. in sunroom, best in many months

Friday, November 13
After lunch h.t.d., unforeseen and delightful

Wednesday, November 25
To bed early and just in process of h.t.d. when Judy calls… h.t.d. resumed with added gusto and quite wonderful

Thursday, December 31
H.t.d., 79 times in ’59, being absent one month


1960

Monday, January 11
Wonderful h.t.d. with both of us laughing uproariously

Friday, February 12
Very jolly h.t.d

Monday, March 21
An excellent and restorative h.t.d., but wake in night terrified by dream in which Mother appears as a baby guarded by ghosts

Thursday, March 24
H.t.d. on waking, which dispels fatigue

Friday, July 15
Gay h.t.d.


1961

Saturday, January 14
Meant to work on lecture in the afternoon but slept, then h.t.d., vastly more humanizing

Friday, February 3
H.t.d. by fireside; most refreshing

Friday, March 10
Home, h.t.d. after dinner

Sunday, April 2, Easter Sunday
H.t.d. 18 to date

Saturday, October 28
Early to bed and h.t.d. twice, very jolly

Wednesday, December 6
Chat with Brenda in the evening and unusually fine h.t.d. and early to sleep

Sunday, December 31
We are both clearly middle-aged and our sexual life is not so active as it was—74 times in 1961—but I think we take a deeper pleasure in it than ever


1962

Friday, February 16
At bedtime attempt h.t.d.: no go; back too painful; all humiliations and pain of February

Thursday, September 27
Return to Hawthorne Gardens. H.t.d. in library

Wednesday, November 14
Return to the Park Plaza and exciting h.t.d.

Friday, December 14
H.t.d. on waking: like rejoining the human race

Sunday December 30
H.t.d. 56 in 1962; Brenda absent five weeks


1963

Saturday, September 7, Stratford
Rest at the motel and h.t.d.

Tuesday, December 31
H.t.d. 67 in 1963