The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “biography”

The Outsider with the Public Voice: How Joan Didion Mirrored Us Back to Ourselves
The Outsider with the Public Voice: How Joan Didion Mirrored Us Back to Ourselves

“From the first, her work insisted that a single life contained the life of our times.”

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Beatrix Potter, Mycologist: The Beloved Children’s Book Author’s Little-Known Scientific Studies and Illustrations of Mushrooms
Beatrix Potter, Mycologist: The Beloved Children’s Book Author’s Little-Known Scientific Studies and Illustrations of Mushrooms

“Imagination is the precursor to policy, the precondition to action. Imagination, like wonder, allows us to value something.”

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Peanuts and the Quiet Pain of Childhood: How Charles M. Schulz Made an Art of Difficult Emotions
Peanuts and the Quiet Pain of Childhood: How Charles M. Schulz Made an Art of Difficult Emotions

“[Charlie Brown] reminded people, as no other cartoon character had, of what it was to be vulnerable, to be small and alone in the universe, to be human — both little and big at the same time.”

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A Burst of Delight and Recognition: E.E. Cummings, the Art of Noticing, and the Spirit of Rebellion
A Burst of Delight and Recognition: E.E. Cummings, the Art of Noticing, and the Spirit of Rebellion

“Cummings despised fear, and his life was lived in defiance of all who ruled by it.”

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The Adulterous Society: How John Updike Made Suburban Sex Sexy
The Adulterous Society: How John Updike Made Suburban Sex Sexy

“There is no such thing as static happiness. Happiness is a mixed thing, a thing compounded of sacrifices, and losses, and betrayals.”

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Alexander von Humboldt and the Invention of Nature: How One of the Last True Polymaths Pioneered the Cosmos of Connections
Alexander von Humboldt and the Invention of Nature: How One of the Last True Polymaths Pioneered the Cosmos of Connections

“In this great chain of causes and effects, no single fact can be considered in isolation.”

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Roald Dahl on How Illness Emboldens Creativity: A Moving Letter to His Bedridden Mentor
Roald Dahl on How Illness Emboldens Creativity: A Moving Letter to His Bedridden Mentor

“I doubt I would have written a line … unless some minor tragedy had sort of twisted my mind out of the normal rut.”

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The Best Biographies, Memoirs, and History Books of 2014
The Best Biographies, Memoirs, and History Books of 2014

Nabokov’s love letters, Shackleton’s courageous journey, the unsung heroes behind creative icons, Joni Mitchell unbound, and more.

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How Susan Sontag Possessed New York and Subverted Sexual Stereotypes
How Susan Sontag Possessed New York and Subverted Sexual Stereotypes

“Sontag seemed to exude an irresistible mixture of intelligence, hipness, sex, and beauty.”

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Duke Ellington’s Artistry and Artifice: How the Jazz Icon Engineered His Own Image
Duke Ellington’s Artistry and Artifice: How the Jazz Icon Engineered His Own Image

“Ellington [was] a combination of Sir Galahad, Scrooge, Don Quixote, and God knows what other saints and sinners that were apt to pop out of his ever-changing personality.”

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