Comments on: The things people write in books!

By: john

john — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 15:59:39 +0000

Not marginalia, but an inscription, found in a used book store, north side of Chicago, ca. 1989; but, lacking the requisite four bucks, not bought; and, when I went back a few days later cash in hand, sad to see it already sold — Louis Ginsberg’s “Collected Poems,” inscription paraphrased from memory:
“Dear Mr. Algren, My father wanted me to give you a copy of his book, with his compliments, since I was coming to Chicago. Yours, Allen.”

By: Brent Cunningham

Brent Cunningham — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 19:05:45 +0000

For anybody who wants to read further on this topic, especially about markings in books way before Coleridge, I glimpsed an interesting-looking new book from Penn Press the other day. It’s called USED BOOKS: MARKING READERS IN RENAISSANCE ENGLAND by William H. Sherman. Here’s part of the publisher’s description: “Based on a survey of thousands of early printed books, Used Books describes what readers wrote in and around their books and what we can learn from these marks by using the tools of archaeologists as well as historians and literary critics. The chapters address the place of book-marking in schools and churches, the use of the “manicule” (hand-with-pointing-finger symbol), the role played by women in information management, the extraordinary commonplace book used for nearly sixty years by Renaissance England’s greatest lawyer-statesman, and the attitudes toward annotated books among collectors and librarians from the Middle Ages to the present.”
yrs,
Brent Cunningham

By: Jane

Jane — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:23:35 +0000

I have been charmed by marginalia ever since I worked in the rare books room of one of the least-of-the-Big-Ten schools. While leafing through a t15th cent. reatise on herbalism, I discovered in Latin the words “bonum” and “malum” scriblled every so often next to remedies. This was the begining of clinical trials I suppose.
Recently Hitler’s marginalia was discovered in some of his treacly religious tomes- I believe teh LIbrary of Congress has those.