Samuel Pepys Englishman Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) (pronounced "peeps") rose from modest origins to become a leading political figure as well as the friend to nearly every great scholar of his time, including mathematician Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727). He was the first secretary of the admiralty as well as a member of Parliament. But his most enduring work was the diary that he kept between the ages of seventeen and thirty-six, after which his eyesight grew too poor to continue. More than just a record of personal thoughts and activities, it details daily life in London with a richness and insight that had never been done before. But having the characteristic Renaissance appetite for unflinching truth, he did not neglect recording his own frailties, including his infidelities, vanity, and pettiness. As such, his diary symbolized the Renaissance man and woman's striving to achieve spiritual and...