<p>In early April, writer Jen Miller urged New York Times readers to start a coronavirus diary.</p>
<p>“Who knows,” she wrote, “maybe one day your diary will provide a valuable window into this period.”</p>
<p>During a different pandemic, one 17th-century British naval administrator named Samuel Pepys did just that. He fastidiously kept a diary from 1660 to 1669 – a period of time that included a severe outbreak of the bubonic plague in London. Epidemics have always haunted humans, but rarely do we get such a detailed glimpse into one person’s life during a crisis from so long ago.</p>
