In the current digital era, where every self-bloating site and social-media platform has made the lives of the painfully average into a constant news blast, it seems the stories of the truly remarkable among us have become overshadowed by the mundane. With those more worthy of memoir and memory in his mind, editor Patrick Grant — British fashion designer and creative director at Norton & Sons tailoring — has compiled a book dedicated to men with stories that stand apart from the everyman who has demanded our attention. Original Man: The Tautz Compendium of Less Ordinary Gentleman gazes back to before the dawn of the yawn era that is the look-at-me-being-boring culture of the Internet. Original Man not only documents the accomplishments and lifestyles of great men, but it excels in demonstrating each subject’s vastly different passions, accomplishments and personalities, their stories spanning from history’s modern martyrs to art’s zaniest eccentrics. Jimi Hendrix, Ozzie Osbourne, Iggy Pop, Yves Saint-Laurent, Andy Warhol and Malcolm X make just a short list of the exemplary figures who have led lives worthy of this 240-page hardcover. Pick up Gestalten’s go-to reference of the richly interesting for $40 when available.

More men of greatness after the Jump…