The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “history”

The Phaidon Archive of Graphic Design
The Phaidon Archive of Graphic Design

Six centuries of seminal design history, condensed into a stunning artifact.

read article

How to Raise a Child: 10 Rules from Young Susan Sontag
How to Raise a Child: 10 Rules from Young Susan Sontag

Be consistent. Always speak well of his pop. Do not discourage childish fantasies.

read article

A Breakup Letter from Simone de Beauvoir
A Breakup Letter from Simone de Beauvoir

“I can still feel warm and happy and harshly grateful when I look at you inside me.”

read article

No Dream-Laden Adolescent: Anaïs Nin Meets Young Gore Vidal, 1945
No Dream-Laden Adolescent: Anaïs Nin Meets Young Gore Vidal, 1945

“Like all writers, he dreams of total acceptance, unanimous love. A dream.”

read article

Happy Birthday, Voyager 1: An Animated Adaptation of Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot
Happy Birthday, Voyager 1: An Animated Adaptation of Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot

“The aggregate of our joy and suffering…every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization…every young couple in love…lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”

read article

On “Pure Design” and What Beauty Really Means
On “Pure Design” and What Beauty Really Means

“Pure Design appeals to the eye just as absolute Music appeals to the ear.”

read article

This Is Water: David Foster Wallace on Life
This Is Water: David Foster Wallace on Life

Revisiting the tragic literary hero’s only public insights on life.

read article

The First Ads for Famous Books
The First Ads for Famous Books

Because even genius needs share of voice to succeed.

read article

Advice to Lovers: Century-Old Poetic Wisdom from Robert Graves
Advice to Lovers: Century-Old Poetic Wisdom from Robert Graves

“Love is not kindly nor yet grim / But does to you as you to him.”

read article

Age of Power and Wonder: Vintage Science Infographics from 1930s Cigarette Cards
Age of Power and Wonder: Vintage Science Infographics from 1930s Cigarette Cards

What metal diver suits have to do with electricity generation and the sound spectrum.

read article

View Full Site

The Marginalian participates in the Bookshop.org and Amazon.com affiliate programs, designed to provide a means for sites to earn commissions by linking to books. In more human terms, this means that whenever you buy a book from a link here, I receive a small percentage of its price, which goes straight back into my own colossal biblioexpenses. Privacy policy. (TLDR: You're safe — there are no nefarious "third parties" lurking on my watch or shedding crumbs of the "cookies" the rest of the internet uses.)