Marks in the margin: reading Benjamin reading Baudelaire

In 1986, Bruce Gardiner lent me his copy of Walter Benjamin’s Charles Baudelaire: A Lyric Poet in the Era of High Capitalism. From memory, it was the 1983 Verso paperback edition, a reprint of the 1973 translation by Harry Zohn, featuring Étienne Carjat’s 1862 photographic portrait of Baudelaire on the cover. I remember that Bruce wrote my name and the title of the volume in a slim book he kept in his office drawer. It was an act that struck me with fear, as if the prospect that I might not return the book was a reality. I could see but did not recognise the names of other students written in this ledger. I assumed they were doctoral candidates, but I wasn’t sure. In any case, it felt like an initiation.