The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads from 2012

Vintage Holiday Cover Designs for Radio Times Magazine
Vintage Holiday Cover Designs for Radio Times Magazine

Vibrant visual mementos of cultural obsolescence.

read article

100 Diagrams That Changed the World
100 Diagrams That Changed the World

A visual history of human sensemaking, from cave paintings to the world wide web.

read article

How to Write Letters: A 19th-Century Guide to the Lost Art of Epistolary Etiquette
How to Write Letters: A 19th-Century Guide to the Lost Art of Epistolary Etiquette

“A letter should be regarded not merely as a medium for the communication of intelligence, but also as a work of art.”

read article

Simone de Beauvoir on Vitality, the Measure of Intelligence, and What Freedom Really Means
Simone de Beauvoir on Vitality, the Measure of Intelligence, and What Freedom Really Means

“There is vitality only by means of free generosity. Intelligence supposes good will… Sensitivity is nothing else but the presence which is attentive to the world and to itself.”

read article

In Defense of the Fluid Self: Why Anaïs Nin Turned Down a Harper’s Bazaar Profile
In Defense of the Fluid Self: Why Anaïs Nin Turned Down a Harper’s Bazaar Profile

“I am more interested in human beings than in writing, more interested in lovemaking than in writing, more interested in living than in writing.”

read article

Eleanor Roosevelt’s Little-Known Children’s Book About Christmas and Hope Amid Humanity’s Darkest Hour
Eleanor Roosevelt’s Little-Known Children’s Book About Christmas and Hope Amid Humanity’s Darkest Hour

“The times are so serious that even children should be made to understand that there are vital differences in people’s beliefs which lead to differences in behavior.”

read article

The Best Music Books of 2012
The Best Music Books of 2012

From the neuroscience of talent to the illustrated Beatles, by way of Zen Buddhism and how creativity works.

read article

Illustrated Alphabetic Drop Cap Covers of Literary Classics by Jessica Hische
Illustrated Alphabetic Drop Cap Covers of Literary Classics by Jessica Hische

Austen, Brönte, Cather, Dickens, Eliot, Flaubert.

read article

How to Give a Great Presentation: Timeless Advice from a Legendary Adman, 1981
How to Give a Great Presentation: Timeless Advice from a Legendary Adman, 1981

“No speech was ever too short.”

read article

All the 2012 Best-of Reading Lists, Together at Last
All the 2012 Best-of Reading Lists, Together at Last

The year’s finest reading, organized by subject.

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.)