More than 40 years ago, the private libraries built up by kings chulalong korn (1868–1910)and vajiravudh (1910–25) were handed over by King prajadhipok to the National Library of Thailand; and included in the gift were 10 large volumes countaining a typewritten transcript of manuscript diaries of chulalongkorn which had been made for vajiravudh in 1917. After the abolition of the a absolute monarchy in 1932, the Thai Fine Arts Department, created to take charge of the National Library and associated institutions, began to offer to inquirers seeking books to publish for free distribution at the cremations of their relative and friends portions of these diaries, the size of the portion tailored to meet theit budgets for this purpose. The first portion, of 74 printed pages, was distributed to guests at the cremation of Princess Arunawadī, a daughter of King Mongkut, in 1933. Nineteen parts were so published before the second World War, followed by volumes in 1944 and 1946; but it was not until the early 1960's that the project was resumed and the final volumes published, one in 1963 and two in 1965, the twenty-fourth and final volume appearing for the cremation of mm čhao Čhongkonnī Watthanawong, a grand-daughter of king Chulalongkorn.