Please send me your best marginalia!
June 5, 2023 8:59 AM Subscribe
A friend has given up print books for e-books (hand issues). She misses the marginalia she used to find in the library and used books she read, something I learned when I told her about a note I I found in a library copy of Ivan Turgenev's First Love. Please help me amuse and divert my lovely, literate friend by sharing your best marginalia discoveries.
(In case you're curious, here's what I found: Next to a passage in which a boy makes a whistle out of a thick stem of cow parsley, someone has written, in ink and very neatly, water hemlock looks like cow parsley. People have poisoned themselves with water hemlock whistles. It is the only marginal note in the whole book, so it was clearly an important concern for the writer, whom I imagine as somewhat of a worrier.)
(In case you're curious, here's what I found: Next to a passage in which a boy makes a whistle out of a thick stem of cow parsley, someone has written, in ink and very neatly, water hemlock looks like cow parsley. People have poisoned themselves with water hemlock whistles. It is the only marginal note in the whole book, so it was clearly an important concern for the writer, whom I imagine as somewhat of a worrier.)
Towards a history of the Manicule
The Book Inscriptions Project
And, of course, Marginalia, by Billy Collins.
posted by zamboni at 10:01 AM on June 5, 2023
The Book Inscriptions Project
And, of course, Marginalia, by Billy Collins.
posted by zamboni at 10:01 AM on June 5, 2023
It isn’t my book, but my best friend at the time gave his poetry-loving girlfriend, who is currently my best friend, a copy of a collection of poems by Rilke featuring the originals and a translation into English.
The book had been owned previously by Theodore Roethke and has some kind of inscription by him claiming it as part of his library.
And it also has in the margins in tiny handwriting, alternate translations into English by Roethke of many of the Rilke poems. As far as I am aware, those translations by Roethke have never been published in any form, and hardly anybody knows they even exist.
posted by jamjam at 10:12 AM on June 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
The book had been owned previously by Theodore Roethke and has some kind of inscription by him claiming it as part of his library.
And it also has in the margins in tiny handwriting, alternate translations into English by Roethke of many of the Rilke poems. As far as I am aware, those translations by Roethke have never been published in any form, and hardly anybody knows they even exist.
posted by jamjam at 10:12 AM on June 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
You can browse lots of marginalia by Herman Melville here. (Not in books he wrote, but in books he read, in case that was not clear.)
posted by beagle at 10:14 AM on June 5, 2023
posted by beagle at 10:14 AM on June 5, 2023
Scholars recently appear to have identified John Milton's copy of Shakespeare's First Folio. The first clue was the handwriting of the marginal notes, which someone recognized as John Milton's. The contents of some of the notes were later linked to Milton's writing.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 10:38 AM on June 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by Winnie the Proust at 10:38 AM on June 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
I used to work in bookstores. Not marginalia, but I found an errata slip on the floor of the travel section: Correction; Hitchhiking is not a good way to cross the Sahara. We decided it must have been a prank.
posted by theora55 at 10:51 AM on June 5, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by theora55 at 10:51 AM on June 5, 2023 [4 favorites]
My grad school copy of The Great Gatsby had previously been owned by an undergraduate (or high schooler?) who annotated it in pink glitter gel pen. My second favorite example was a mention of Gatsby's car having a lot of gloveboxes, next to which she had written confidently "like hatboxes." My favorite was at the part about how Meyer Wolfsheim doesn't answer his phone, where she wrote "well duh, he's wanted by the po-pos!" It almost felt like performance art but I choose to believe it was real.
posted by babelfish at 11:19 AM on June 5, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by babelfish at 11:19 AM on June 5, 2023 [3 favorites]
Marginalia
Sometimes the notes are ferocious,
skirmishes against the author
raging along the borders of every page
in tiny black script.
If I could just get my hands on you,
Kierkegaard, or Conor Cruise O’Brien,
they seem to say,
I would bolt the door and beat some logic into your head.
Other comments are more offhand, dismissive –
“Nonsense.” “Please!” “HA!!” –
that kind of thing.
I remember once looking up from my reading,
my thumb as a bookmark,
trying to imagine what the person must look like
who wrote “Don’t be a ninny”
alongside a paragraph in The Life of Emily Dickinson.
Students are more modest
needing to leave only their splayed footprints
along the shore of the page.
One scrawls “Metaphor” next to a stanza of Eliot’s.
Another notes the presence of “Irony”
fifty times outside the paragraphs of A Modest Proposal.
Or they are fans who cheer from the empty bleachers,
hands cupped around their mouths.
“Absolutely,” they shout
to Duns Scotus and James Baldwin.
“Yes.” “Bull’s-eye.” “My man!”
Check marks, asterisks, and exclamation points
rain down along the sidelines.
And if you have managed to graduate from college
without ever having written “Man vs. Nature”
in a margin, perhaps now
is the time to take one step forward.
We have all seized the white perimeter as our own
and reached for a pen if only to show
we did not just laze in an armchair turning pages;
we pressed a thought into the wayside,
planted an impression along the verge.
Even Irish monks in their cold scriptoria
jotted along the borders of the Gospels
brief asides about the pains of copying,
a bird singing near their window,
or the sunlight that illuminated their page–
anonymous men catching a ride into the future
on a vessel more lasting than themselves.
And you have not read Joshua Reynolds,
they say, until you have read him
enwreathed with Blake’s furious scribbling.
Yet the one I think of most often,
the one that dangles from me like a locket,
was written in the copy of Catcher in the Rye
I borrowed from the local library
one slow, hot summer.
I was just beginning high school then,
reading books on a davenport in my parents’ living room,
and I cannot tell you
how vastly my loneliness was deepened,
how poignant and amplified the world before me seemed,
when I found on one page
a few greasy looking smears
and next to them, written in soft pencil–
by a beautiful girl, I could tell,
whom I would never meet–
“Pardon the egg salad stains, but I’m in love.”
~Billy Collins
posted by ottereroticist at 11:24 AM on June 5, 2023 [4 favorites]
Sometimes the notes are ferocious,
skirmishes against the author
raging along the borders of every page
in tiny black script.
If I could just get my hands on you,
Kierkegaard, or Conor Cruise O’Brien,
they seem to say,
I would bolt the door and beat some logic into your head.
Other comments are more offhand, dismissive –
“Nonsense.” “Please!” “HA!!” –
that kind of thing.
I remember once looking up from my reading,
my thumb as a bookmark,
trying to imagine what the person must look like
who wrote “Don’t be a ninny”
alongside a paragraph in The Life of Emily Dickinson.
Students are more modest
needing to leave only their splayed footprints
along the shore of the page.
One scrawls “Metaphor” next to a stanza of Eliot’s.
Another notes the presence of “Irony”
fifty times outside the paragraphs of A Modest Proposal.
Or they are fans who cheer from the empty bleachers,
hands cupped around their mouths.
“Absolutely,” they shout
to Duns Scotus and James Baldwin.
“Yes.” “Bull’s-eye.” “My man!”
Check marks, asterisks, and exclamation points
rain down along the sidelines.
And if you have managed to graduate from college
without ever having written “Man vs. Nature”
in a margin, perhaps now
is the time to take one step forward.
We have all seized the white perimeter as our own
and reached for a pen if only to show
we did not just laze in an armchair turning pages;
we pressed a thought into the wayside,
planted an impression along the verge.
Even Irish monks in their cold scriptoria
jotted along the borders of the Gospels
brief asides about the pains of copying,
a bird singing near their window,
or the sunlight that illuminated their page–
anonymous men catching a ride into the future
on a vessel more lasting than themselves.
And you have not read Joshua Reynolds,
they say, until you have read him
enwreathed with Blake’s furious scribbling.
Yet the one I think of most often,
the one that dangles from me like a locket,
was written in the copy of Catcher in the Rye
I borrowed from the local library
one slow, hot summer.
I was just beginning high school then,
reading books on a davenport in my parents’ living room,
and I cannot tell you
how vastly my loneliness was deepened,
how poignant and amplified the world before me seemed,
when I found on one page
a few greasy looking smears
and next to them, written in soft pencil–
by a beautiful girl, I could tell,
whom I would never meet–
“Pardon the egg salad stains, but I’m in love.”
~Billy Collins
posted by ottereroticist at 11:24 AM on June 5, 2023 [4 favorites]
Best answer: I was paging through a book about UFOs when, next to a passage about someone's close encounter with a flying saucer, someone had written "This is what happened to me."
posted by synecdoche at 11:45 AM on June 5, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by synecdoche at 11:45 AM on June 5, 2023 [4 favorites]
Thanks for making me feel better about the few scrawls I have left behind in library books, out of urgent necessity to alert the next reader, which I now cannot remember any.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 12:47 PM on June 5, 2023
posted by St. Peepsburg at 12:47 PM on June 5, 2023
This twitter thread about some marginalia in a book of Bukowski's poems is glorious.
When I was in grad school, I borrowed Susan Sontag's Against Interpretation from the university library. Much to my surprise, it had been heavily and vehemently annotated by someone with a felt tip pen and a lot of opinions. My favorite (though the underline here should be triple): "This is interpretation, Susan!!"
posted by dizziest at 1:36 PM on June 5, 2023 [7 favorites]
When I was in grad school, I borrowed Susan Sontag's Against Interpretation from the university library. Much to my surprise, it had been heavily and vehemently annotated by someone with a felt tip pen and a lot of opinions. My favorite (though the underline here should be triple): "This is interpretation, Susan!!"
posted by dizziest at 1:36 PM on June 5, 2023 [7 favorites]
Not exactly a discovery, but I was introduced to D&D through hand-me-down books from my cousins and his friends, and the DMG was full of little notes and also doodles, funny captions on all the pictures, googly eyes, etc. Loved that old thing.
posted by The otter lady at 2:54 PM on June 5, 2023
posted by The otter lady at 2:54 PM on June 5, 2023
George Whalley wrote an entire PhD thesis on the marginalia that Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote in his own works and the works of others.
[Full disclosure: I am a friend of his extended family.]
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 9:15 PM on June 5, 2023
[Full disclosure: I am a friend of his extended family.]
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 9:15 PM on June 5, 2023
Back in the 1970s, we came across, not marginalia, but a letter, sealed, stamped, and ready to mail back in the 1920s. It was on hotel stationary. We opened it and read it. It was from a young man to a friend and mentioned going to Yale. Also the he and his girl were "still going like shit through a tin horn."
More on the marginalia topic, many libraries stamped book on a "secret page" so they could easily identify if a book was one of theirs.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:10 AM on June 6, 2023
More on the marginalia topic, many libraries stamped book on a "secret page" so they could easily identify if a book was one of theirs.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:10 AM on June 6, 2023
An old friend was in a coffee shop when an older acid casualty friend of hers walked in, slammed a copy of Thus Spoke Zarathustra on her table, shouted, "Susan, read it and weep!", and walked out. When Susan opened it, she saw that he had scrawled "Read it and Weep!" in huge letters on every page.
posted by Furnace of Doubt at 7:28 AM on June 6, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Furnace of Doubt at 7:28 AM on June 6, 2023 [3 favorites]
When Susan opened it, she saw that he had scrawled "Read it and Weep!" in huge letters on every page.
And Stanley Kubrick just happened to be sitting at the next table . . .
posted by jamjam at 8:09 AM on June 6, 2023
And Stanley Kubrick just happened to be sitting at the next table . . .
posted by jamjam at 8:09 AM on June 6, 2023
Best answer: Toronto Public Library had (I hope still has) a copy of Ralph Nader's Unsafe at Any Speed. It looked like a first edition, and from memory, it had previously belonged to Oshawa Public Library.
Oshawa, for those outside Ontario, is GM Canada's HQ. The would have been unimaginably large when the book came out, and the idea of the auto industry being wrong there would have been a tough sell. Partially erased, but still clearly readable, are the tiny, enraged but still impossibly neat comments from someone who could only have been a GM manager. There were lots of double-underlined "Wrong!"s and a few "Does this man know nothing about how autos work?". It was quite delightful, as most of the comments were clustered around the bits where Nader turned out to be vindicated.
posted by scruss at 3:01 PM on June 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
Oshawa, for those outside Ontario, is GM Canada's HQ. The would have been unimaginably large when the book came out, and the idea of the auto industry being wrong there would have been a tough sell. Partially erased, but still clearly readable, are the tiny, enraged but still impossibly neat comments from someone who could only have been a GM manager. There were lots of double-underlined "Wrong!"s and a few "Does this man know nothing about how autos work?". It was quite delightful, as most of the comments were clustered around the bits where Nader turned out to be vindicated.
posted by scruss at 3:01 PM on June 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
Best answer: My freshman physics book said "if there wasn't friction, you wouldn't be able to write your homework," and someone wrote in the margin "thanks a lot, friction"
posted by tiburon at 6:26 PM on June 6, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by tiburon at 6:26 PM on June 6, 2023 [3 favorites]
It's not quite the same, but the Oakland Library has a page of the things they find in returned books.
posted by oneirodynia at 9:34 PM on June 6, 2023
posted by oneirodynia at 9:34 PM on June 6, 2023
I work as a preservation librarian and for the first few years I built up a large collection of marginalia, thinking it would be worth study someday. I went to buy a book on the topic (this one) and noticed that they had a new copy and a used one with significant marginalia. I bought both thinking it would be interesting to compare. It turned out that it was published with a lot of sample marginalia and someone discounted the quality of the used copy, not noticing it was supposed to be there.
So, I have a second copy if anyone wants one.
posted by yamel at 9:00 AM on June 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
So, I have a second copy if anyone wants one.
posted by yamel at 9:00 AM on June 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
Recently I started making note of scanned Internet Archive books signed by their authors. Only the first one is probably someone you have heard of, but I think as a set it is interesting, especially as it grows.
Gelett Burgess
https://archive.org/details/areyoubromideors00burg/page/n1/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/bromide00burguoft/page/n1/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/maximsofnoahderi00burgrich/page/n3/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/burgessunabridge00burg_1/page/n1/mode/2up
My Life and Loves
Frank Harris
https://archive.org/details/mylifeloves01harrrich/page/n3/mode/2up
Spur Line
Thad Stem
https://archive.org/details/spurline0000stem/page/n1/mode/2up
Le français au-delà des mots un cheminement linguistique
Aimé Gagné
https://archive.org/details/lefrancaisaudela0000gagn/page/n1/mode/2up
Deep Six My Heart: A Geologist and the Sea
Vernon, James W.
https://archive.org/details/deepsixmyheartge0000vern/page/n3/mode/2up
The Scottish National Dictionary
David D. Murison, an editor
https://archive.org/details/scottishnational0005will
A Short Dictionary of Furniture
Gloag, John, 1896-1981
https://archive.org/details/shortdictionaryo0000gloa_n8r5/page/n1/mode/2up
Así Hablaba Cuba
Luis Pérez López
https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780965407021/page/n1/mode/2up
Medicalese, A Humorous Medical Dictionary
Peter Meyer
https://archive.org/details/medicalesehumoro0000meye/page/n1/mode/2up
A Short Dictionary of Furniture
John Gloag
https://archive.org/details/shortdictionaryo0000gloa_n8r5/page/n1/mode/2up
posted by Mo Nickels at 8:41 PM on August 14, 2023
Gelett Burgess
https://archive.org/details/areyoubromideors00burg/page/n1/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/bromide00burguoft/page/n1/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/maximsofnoahderi00burgrich/page/n3/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/burgessunabridge00burg_1/page/n1/mode/2up
My Life and Loves
Frank Harris
https://archive.org/details/mylifeloves01harrrich/page/n3/mode/2up
Spur Line
Thad Stem
https://archive.org/details/spurline0000stem/page/n1/mode/2up
Le français au-delà des mots un cheminement linguistique
Aimé Gagné
https://archive.org/details/lefrancaisaudela0000gagn/page/n1/mode/2up
Deep Six My Heart: A Geologist and the Sea
Vernon, James W.
https://archive.org/details/deepsixmyheartge0000vern/page/n3/mode/2up
The Scottish National Dictionary
David D. Murison, an editor
https://archive.org/details/scottishnational0005will
A Short Dictionary of Furniture
Gloag, John, 1896-1981
https://archive.org/details/shortdictionaryo0000gloa_n8r5/page/n1/mode/2up
Así Hablaba Cuba
Luis Pérez López
https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780965407021/page/n1/mode/2up
Medicalese, A Humorous Medical Dictionary
Peter Meyer
https://archive.org/details/medicalesehumoro0000meye/page/n1/mode/2up
A Short Dictionary of Furniture
John Gloag
https://archive.org/details/shortdictionaryo0000gloa_n8r5/page/n1/mode/2up
posted by Mo Nickels at 8:41 PM on August 14, 2023
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This marginal note went on to alter the course of the history of mathematics. Most mathematicians and historians now assume he either had a flawed proof (or was maybe playing a bit of a game), more detail at the link above.
posted by SaltySalticid at 9:39 AM on June 5, 2023 [3 favorites]