{"id":30262,"date":"2012-04-24T14:30:27","date_gmt":"2012-04-24T18:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=30262"},"modified":"2012-04-24T16:15:31","modified_gmt":"2012-04-24T20:15:31","slug":"mapping-markson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/04\/24\/mapping-markson\/","title":{"rendered":"Mapping Markson"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>When modernist novelist David Markson<\/a> died in 2010, the West Villager\u2019s personal library ended up, by his request, at his old haunt, the Strand bookstore<\/a>. Word quickly spread, and bibliophiles and readers tried to snatch up as many of the annotated books\u2014many of which figured in Markson\u2019s own work\u2014as possible. (Alex Abramovich describes<\/a> buying up three shopping bags\u2019 worth of classics, complete with notes and marginalia.) The books were, typically, signed: either Markson<\/em>, David M. Markson<\/em>, Markson NYC<\/em>, or Markson London<\/em>. It\u2019s an archive worthy of a university but preserved, instead, in bits and pieces on bookshelves all over New York and beyond.<\/p>\n

Now, a tumblr, Reading Markson Reading<\/a>, has dedicated itself to, as the author puts it, \u201cExploring the mind, method and masterpieces of David Markson through the marginalia found on the pages of the books in his personal library.\u201d An intimate glimpse into the writer\u2019s thoughts, for all readers to share.<\/p>\n

Watch Markson reminisce at the Strand in 2007.