New Escapologist
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New Escapologist is a UK-based lifestyle magazine. It originally ran between 2007 and 2017, returning to print in 2023 and currently still active.
The magazine takes the stance that work has too central a position in modern western life and that work, consumerism and the pursuit of social status too often take precedence over happiness, liberty, and unstructured leisure. Simple living, creativity and Epicureanism are offered as solutions to the problems of overwork and overconsumption.
History
New Escapologist was founded in 2007. Speaking at a public event together in 2009, Robert Wringham told Tom Hodgkinson that he started New Escapologist after reading Hodgkinson's book How to be Free alongside a biography of Houdini and Among the Bohemians: experiments in living by Virginia Nicholson.
A pilot issue was printed in 2007, a first canonical issue in 2008, and a launch party was held at the Glasgow CCA in 2009.
In 2011, New Escapologist organized a zine fair in support of the student occupation of Heatherington House at the University of Glasgow. The same year saw the launch of a fifth issue at The Arches theatre and nightclub, and a sixth issue at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
In 2014, around the time of the magazine's tenth issue, a spin-off book written by Wringham was announced. Following a successful crowdfunding campaign, the book was published by Unbound on 28 January 2016 followed by a German edition published by Heyne Verlag later that same year.
In 2017, it was announced that the magazine would close after a decade but would continue online as a subscription essay series mediated by Patreon. The first of these essays went live in April 2017. A New Escapologist newsletter also began in December 2022.
New Escapologist returned to print in 2023 after a successful crowdfunding campaign.
Production
The magazine's distinct typography, according to a colophon printed in the back of each issue, was achieved using Donald Knuth's TeX typesetting system with a layout based on an ancient Ge'ez liturgical text seen at the Matenadaran Manuscripts Museum in Armenia.
The magazine's logo, featured prominently in the masthead of early issues and at the magazine's website is the ISO standard "running man" symbol usually seen on exit signs.
Notable contributors
| Alain de Botton, philosopher Luke Rhinehart, author of The Dice Man Ewan Morrison, author of Tales from the Mall Richard Herring, comedian Tom Hodgkinson, author and editor of The Idler Dave Thompson, comedian and tellytubby Joshua Glenn, author of The Wage Slave's Glossary Judith Levine, journalist and NWU founder Ian Macpherson, comedian Dickon Edwards, musician and diarist Jacob Lund Fisker, blogger Aislínn Clarke, movie and theater director Landis Blair, illustrator and comic artist | Seth, cartoonist and book designer Leo Babauta, blogger and author of Zen Habits Stanley Cohen, London School of Economics-based Sociologist Mr. Money Mustache, financial blogger Lord Whimsy, designer and dandy Caitlin Doughty, author and mortician David Cain, blogger Steven Rainey, BBC Radio Ulster DJ Ellie Harrison, artist and political activist Joseph Heath, University of Toronto philosopher and economics writer Laura Gonzalez, GSA lecturer and artist LD Beghtol, musician The Iceman |
Further reading
- Jacob Lund Fisker (2010) Early Retirement Extreme: A philosophical and practical guide to financial independence, ISBN 978-1453601211
- Robert Wringham (2016) Escape Everything! ISBN 978-1783521333
Robert Wringham (2021) I'm Out: How to Make an Exit (retitled paperback edition) ISBN 9781783529599
- Robert Wringham (2020) The Good Life for Wage Slaves ISBN 978-1910631010