Wide margins and pictorial embellishment

H/T drizzz!

The idea of publishing a book is terrible; no military reputation could stand it; we, who of all things seek distinction, should be most careful how we mingle with the vulgar herd of— bookmakers! But if some kind friend should ever introduce thus my unamended scribblings [1857: scribblings unamended] to the world, I warn him not to trust them only to letter press [1857: I warn him to trust them only to an artist of the press]; let one art help out another; not one one in a thousand can venture in the guise of the "cheap literature" of the day; unless indeed, it be a newspaper extra (subscribed for in advance). There is virtue in fair wide margins, and pictorial embellishment.
--Scenes Beyond the Western Border, June 1851 and (slightly revised) in
Scenes and Adventures in the Army

"But one could not but be struck by a tragical occurrence, which the page very briefly recounted ; as well, as by a noteworthy pictorial illustration of the event in the margin of the text. . . ."

" . . . From this unwonted embellishment of the text, I was led to infer, that the designer, at one time or other, must have been engaged in the vocation of whaling. For, in India ink, the logs of certain whalemen are decorated by somewhat similar illustrations."  --Mardi, What they lighted upon . . .

"With the hope of inspiring good will, I now unfolded a roll of printed cotton, and spreading it before the priest, directed his attention to the pictorial embellishments thereon, representing some hundreds of sailor boys simultaneously ascending some hundreds of uniform sections of a ship’s rigging." --Mardi, A Fray

"In short, to the Spaniard's black-letter text, it was best, for awhile, to leave open margin." --Benito Cereno

In May 2012, Melville scholar Wyn Kelley spoke at the MIT Unbound symposium in a panel on Unbinding the Book. Her presentation “Leaving an Open Margin: the Example of Herman Melville" examines "the margin as a creative space for writers, critics, and artists."

Related posts:

• Washington Irving's very fluid text 
  https://dragooned.blogspot.com/2014/09/washington-irvings-very-fluid-text.html

• More on margins
  https://dragooned.blogspot.com/2014/10/more-on-margins-above-and-below.html