Marginalia

The word marginalia was one employed by Samuel Coleridge, to describe the etchings one would place within the margin of a book whilst reading. From the outset many disregard this practise as simply bad etiquette, saying “didn’t your mommy ever tell you, never to write in books?” Others may articulate that writing in a margin is just bad practice, defacing and devaluing the book.

Mortimer Adler however argues that “reading a book should be a conversation between you and the author,” what better way to do this than to converse within the margins of each page. Thus, marginalia does neither deface nor devalue, but on the contrary, ascribes value to both the book and its author. Writing within the margin shows that you are engaging with the text, attempting to ascent its ideas, forming conclusions and critiques as you read. Billy Collins exhorts us in his poem, not to be those who merely laze in the armchair turning pages, but instead those who press a thought into the wayside, planting an impression along the verge.

Marginalia is also an historic and stylistic tradition, which has attracted in particular the scholarly work of Dr. H. Jackson (University of Toronto). Jackson traces the consistent practice of well known authors such as Alexander Poe, William Blake and Samuel Coleridge himself. Thus it is clear, to write within margins is to write upon the very pages of history itself, continuing in the tradition of these many great authors, leaving behind a fleeting thought, a cutting critique or perhaps just a hearty ‘Amen.’