Hi Vickie,
A welcome to the forum from me. It's great that you are studying for yourself, and I must say that I'm rather surprised as the lady's reaction. Keep at it!
If by 'journals' you mean Nelson's letters and correspondence, then yes, these have been published, or I believe a large proportion have been. These, both public and private, are largely the key to understanding Nelson himself, and may be looked on as almost 'required' reading!
Perhaps a good place to start is the seven-volume 'Dispatches and Letters of Lord Nelson', produced by Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas between 1844–47. A former naval officer himself he set himself the enormous task of accumulating, editing and putting into print, a large proportion of Nelson's correspondence, which covers his career from 1777 (soon after passing his examination for lieutenant), until just prior to his death at Trafalgar. It begins with Nelson's own 'Sketch of My Life'. However, even though extensive, it is not all embracing, as Nicolas chose to omit, or edit, much correspondence to do with Lady Hamilton and others subjects that he believed were rather sensative topics. This was perhaps both due to the sensabilities of the age, and the fact that he may have been attempting to protect the reputation of Nelson's daughter, Horatia. The seven volumes were originally reproduced in facsimile in 1999 by Chatham Publishing, but I believe they are now available through other publishers. You'd probably have to google around for a good deal on all seven and, annoyingly, most on line traders never appear to have the full set!
The other book I would recommend, as a follow up to Nicolas, is 'The New Letters' by the late Colin White, who sadly died a few years ago. He was for many devotees 'the' authority on Nelson, and had been dubbed 'Nelson's representative on earth'! Anyway, he set himself the task of hunting down a large number of letters that Nicolas had either missed or supressed. There are over 500 in the book, which was published by the Boydell Press in 2005, on the 200th Anniversary of Trafalgar. It is currently available from the publishers at £14.99.
You can probably find Nicolas on line but, like most of us, I imagine you would rather have the book! I hope this helps.
_________________ Kester.
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