Diary of Willard Smith Niles for April through August 1832. Volume is a twenty-leaf unlined writing book published by Knowlton & Rice, Booksellers & Stationers, Watertown, New York. The front cover gives the title "Writing Book," beneath which is printed a woodcut vignette of military accoutrements. The border is of alternating bunches of grapes and roses, with two small houses and a tree at top center and two manicules at lower center. The back cover features a similar border with fleurons at the corners and a dog at lower center. It features an advertisement for Knowlton & Rice's paper and blank books, as well as other items they stock and/or publish.

This diary, densely written across the first nineteen leaves, covers the period in which Niles taught school at Greene, Chenango County, New York, ending just after his return home in August 1832. It recounts his travel from his home in Madison County to Greene via Smyrna, Norwich, and Oxford, his views of the school and its students, frequent comments on the weather, his homesickness, people he meets, ministers he hears preach, etc. He has quite an acerbic wit, at times. He mentions on April 30 that a company of navigators left Greene to try and reach Philadelphia by river. Around May 23 he makes a rare reference to politics, noting the many turmoils of the Jackson administration but adding "politics is not my business." Beginning in June he frequently mentions the cholera epidemic of that year. The last entry, dated August 1, is a long entry about the death and funeral of a friend or relative named Julia.

A partial, basic transcription of the diary provided by the bookseller is included.

Laid in at the rear is a small partial sheet of paper: on one side is a receipt for $25 from W.H. Miller to Niles as payment on a contract; on the reverse is a recipe for "custard without eggs."