The Validity of The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer

 

In David Bushman's Conversations with Mark Frost, Mr. Frost reveals that The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer 'moved' Lynch to make Fire Walk With Me. Fans have debated if Lynch read the novel, often wanting to dismiss the book because of an unfounded belief that that Lynch has not read it. 

Jennifer Lynch seems to elude to her father reading some of the diary. From The Blue Rose Magazine #2, "I'm still not sure my father's read the entire diary. I know that he trusted me, that he looked at it, and I know he felt that."

Mr. Frost seems to indicate Lynch is not only aware of its content but is partially responsible for some of what is found in the diary. 

David Bushman
How involved were you and David in those books - The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer,  The Autobiography of F.B.I Special Agent Dale Cooper, and Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town?

Mark Frost
Lynch wasn't really involved in those, aside from The Secret Diary, which his daughter [Jennifer Lynch} wrote. She did a great job, and that moved him to make Fire Walk With Me.

David Bushman
How did Jen Lynch come to be the author of that book?

Mark Frost
Lynch suggested her. He thought she'd be the right person to write it, and he was right. It was her first book. It was at times a struggle for her, as her first publishing gig, but in the end, she nailed it. I created an outline for Jennifer to use, and she really made that story come to life. People really responded to it.

David Bushman
What About the other books?

Mark Frost
I don't think he had any input into those. The Cooper book is a different form, the transcripts of his tapes. At times, it takes Cooper into more jokey character territory than we had originally conceived, but it still provides some solid backstory.

In response to another user's question regarding My Life, My Tapes, I once asked Mark Frost if he equally contributed to The Secret Diary.

On his recent interview with Eric Grissom of Meanwhile: a Twin Peaks Podcast, Frost repeated that he created the story that Jennifer Lynch filled in. 

The very fact that Lynch wrote a forward for the 2011 edition of The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer should be some indication of its worth.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and The Return contain the second to last entry of Laura's diary, almost making one think it was included at Lynch's request.

Sheryl Lee has said many times over the years that, while filming Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, she used The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer as a bible. She was constantly reading from it.

The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer is not without its faults, its discrepancies with the series, but the series itself contains contradictions within its own canon. Jennifer Lynch's work is not the same as fanfiction. It is Laura Palmer's story.