The E-Sylum:  Volume 6, Number 20, May 18, 2003, Article 21

MORE ON MARGINALIA

  Fred Schwan writes:   "I love marginalia (although I did not
  know the word until today).  Sure, there can be ugly and
  distracting writing, marks, drawings, and the like, but very
  often there is useful or at least interesting information.  The
  books that I use the most are full of annotations, corrections,
  supplements, comments, and even questions.

  In fact, I believe in this practice so much that I have
  attempted to influence others in this way. With only a few
  exceptions, books published by BNR Press are printed on
  paper suitable for marginalizing (yikes).   With the
  publication of the fourth edition MPC book, we took the
  idea a step farther by providing space specifically intended
  for note taking and the collectors' edition even included
  planning calendars!

  From the standpoint of a (numismatic) book collector, I still
  find marginalia a good thing. Indeed, I think that the ultimate
  form of a book is the personal marginalized (new meaning to
  an old word) copy. I would certainly love to have Ray Toy
  or Alfred Swail's personal copies of their respective books.
  For that matter I would like to have Neil Shafer's personal
  copy of his Philippine guerrilla or small size paper money
  books. Numismatic books owned and marginalized by
  serious collectors (in my areas of interest) have space waiting
  for them in my library.

  [I would prefer the term "annotated" to "marginalized".  Isn't
  note-taking what interleaved copies are all about?  How
  come no one ever publishes interleaved editions anymore?
  Maybe it's just too expensive, but leaving enough blank space
  in the regular edition seems like a good compromise. -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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