The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Page 863

Samuel Johnson on Writing and Creative Doggedness
Samuel Johnson on Writing and Creative Doggedness

“Composition is for the most part an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance, to which the mind is dragged by necessity or resolution, and from which the attention is every moment starting to more delightful amusements.”

read article

How the Nobel Prize Was Born: A Surprising Story of Bad Journalism, Existential Guilt, and Dynamite
How the Nobel Prize Was Born: A Surprising Story of Bad Journalism, Existential Guilt, and Dynamite

How a deplored “tradesman of death” brought to life the highest accolade of human achievement.

read article

Famous Writers on New York: Timeless Private Reflections from Diaries, Letters and Personal Essays
Famous Writers on New York: Timeless Private Reflections from Diaries, Letters and Personal Essays

Mark Twain, Susan Sontag, Simone de Beauvoir, E. B. White, Washington Irving, Anaïs Nin, Italo Calvino, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Joyce Carol Oates, and more.

read article

Edgar Allan Poe on the Joy of Marginalia and What Handwriting Reveals about Character
Edgar Allan Poe on the Joy of Marginalia and What Handwriting Reveals about Character

“In the marginalia … we talk only to ourselves; we therefore talk freshly — boldly — originally — with abandonment — without conceit.”

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.)