The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “history”

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.”

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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.”

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Mark Twain on Intelligence vs. Morality
Mark Twain on Intelligence vs. Morality

“If intellect is welcome anywhere in the other world, it is in hell, not heaven.”

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Rent Is Too Damn High, Vonnegut Edition: The Beloved Author’s Housing Woes
Rent Is Too Damn High, Vonnegut Edition: The Beloved Author’s Housing Woes

“You wonder what creates beatniks? Landlords!”

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Adrienne Rich on Love, Loss, Public vs. Private Happiness, and the Creative Process
Adrienne Rich on Love, Loss, Public vs. Private Happiness, and the Creative Process

“No one’s fated or doomed to love anyone. The accidents happen.”

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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.”

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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.

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5½ Favorite Food Books of 2012
5½ Favorite Food Books of 2012

From Thomas Jefferson to the secret history of coffee, by way of urban farming and Downton Abbey.

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The Best Graphic Novels and Graphic Nonfiction of 2012
The Best Graphic Novels and Graphic Nonfiction of 2012

From music history to war trials by way of Hunter S. Thompson and Steve Jobs, with a side of Ancient China.

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Montaigne on Death and the Art of Living
Montaigne on Death and the Art of Living

“To lament that we shall not be alive a hundred years hence, is the same folly as to be sorry we were not alive a hundred years ago.”

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