The History Of Literature

It's Episode 500! Jacke shares some thoughts on Meg White's drumming, Boswell and Johnson, and living in Taiwan. Then author Margot Livesey (The Boy in the Field, The Flight of Gemma Hardy) joins Jacke for a discussion of some My Last Books with past guests. Additional listening suggestions: 439 The Poets' Guide to Economics (with John Ramsden) 417 What Happened on Roanoke Island? (with Kimberly Brock) 465 Greek Lit and Game Theory (with Josiah Ober) 463 Friedrich Nietzsche (with Ritchie Robertson) Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jacke talks to author Laura Lee about her new book Wilde Nights and Robber Barons: The Story of Maruice Schwabe, the Man Behind Oscar Wilde's Downfall, Who with a Band of False Aristocrats Swindled the World. LAURA LEE is the author of 21 books including biography, humorous reference, fiction, and children's literature. The San Francisco Chronicle has said of her work, "Lee's dry, humorous tone makes her a charming companion... She has a penchant for wordplay that is irresistible." Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jacke talks to legendary independent filmmaker John Sayles (Lone Star, Passion Fish) about his new novel Jamie MacGillivray: The Renegade's Journey, which tells a sweeping story of romance and revolution in eighteenth century Scotland and the New World. "Film director and novelist Sayles (Yellow Earth) follows in this strong outing the parallel stories of a Scottish rebel and a young Scottish woman pressed into servitude and sent to the Caribbean... he has a knack for bringing his many characters to life, and he makes palpable the raw violence of war and the uncompromising inequality of the period. It’s a worthy epic." -- Publishers Weekly John Sayles is an American independent film director, screenwriter, actor, and novelist. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, for Passion Fish (1992) and Lone Star (1996). He has written seven novels, the most recent being Yellow Earth (2020) and A Moment in the Sun (2011). Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or history

By any measure, the ancient Chinese military treatise The Art of War has had an astonishing literary history, proving itself over two and a half millennia to be one of the world's most essential and enduring books. In this episode, Jacke takes a look at the life and legacy of this classic work, reputedly by a Chinese general named Sun Tzu, to see how it is that something so old and out of date continues to instruct and inspire. Additional listening suggestions: 143 A Soldier's Heart (with Elizabeth Samet) Conflict Literature (with Matt Gallagher) 362 Kurt Vonnegut (with Tom Roston) Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Wife of Bath, arguably the first ordinary and recognizably real woman in English literature, has obsessed readers from Shakespeare to James Joyce, Voltaire to Pasolini, Dryden to Zadie Smith. Few literary characters have led such colorful lives or matched her influence or capacity for reinvention in poetry, drama, fiction, and film. In this episode, Jacke talks to award-winning Chaucer biographer Marion Turner about her new book, The Wife of Bath: A Biography. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do today's masters create their art? In this episode, Jacke talks to Joe Skinner, producer and host of the podcast American Masters: Creative Spark, about the narrative interviews he's conducted with iconic artists about the creation of a single work - and what he's learned about the mysteries of inspired creativity along the way. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a final powerful book, acclaimed literary biographer Robert Richardson told the story of how Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and William James dealt with personal tragedies early in their careers. In this episode, Jacke talks to Pulitzer-prize winner Megan Marshall, who wrote the foreword for the book, about her friend Robert and his look at three great thinkers and the resilience, growth, and creativity that can stem from devastating loss. Additional listening: 491 Elizabeth Bishop (with Megan Marshall) 483 Margaret Fuller (with Megan Marshall) 461 The Peabody Sisters (with Megan Marshall) Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

He loved and he hated. Other than that, not much is known about the life of Catullus, who scandalized the late Roman Republic with his bawdy poems, his aching love for the upper-class married woman he called "Lesbia," and his invective against Julius Caesar and other Roman notables. In this episode, Jacke takes a look at the life and works of Catullus, whose poetry was lost for a thousand years, but which, once recovered, became highly influential among poets for its accomplished technique and urgent intimacy. Additional listening: 93 Robert Frost Finds a Friend Ezra Pound 4 Sappho Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After the October Revolution in 1917, a teenaged Vladimir Nabokov and his family, part of the Russian nobility, sought exile in Western Europe, eventually settling in Berlin, where Vladimir lived for fifteen years. His life then included some politics, some writing and translating, some recreational pursuits - and a lot of trips to the cinema, a burgeoning art form and cultural experience that fascinated him. In this episode, Jacke talks to Luke Parker about this period of Nabokov's life, as explored in Luke's book Nabokov Noir: Cinematic Culture and the Art of Exile. Additional listening suggestions: 318 Lolita (with Jenny Minton Quigley) 112 The Novelist and the Witch-Doctor - Unpacking Nabokov's Case Against Freud (with Joshua Ferris) 96 Dracula, Lolita, and the Power of Volcanoes (with Jim Shepard) Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomer

Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) was one of the twentieth century's most accomplished and celebrated poets. In this episode, Jacke talks to Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Megan Marshall about her personal connection to Bishop, as well as her book Elizabeth Bishop: A Miracle for Breakfast. MEGAN MARSHALL is the winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Biography for Margaret Fuller, and the author of The Peabody Sisters, which won the Francis Parkman Prize, the Mark Lynton History Prize, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2006. She is the Charles Wesley Emerson College Professor and teaches narrative nonfiction and the art of archival research in the MFA program at Emerson College. For more, visit www.meganmarshallauthor.com. Additional listening suggestions: 396 Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes (with Heather Clark) 176 William Carlos Williams (The Use of Force) 306 John Keats (with Anahid Nersessian)  Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literat

Introducing YE GODS from producer-playwright and frequent guest of History of Literature, Scott Carter. We all know that faith and ethics are recurring themes in literature from Greek mythology to Shakespeare, to the great Russian novels, Charles Dickens, Emiliy Dickinson and everything between and after. In this new podcast series, YE GODS WITH SCOTT CARTER takes us on a pilgrimage of sorts, each week he’ll be talking to celebrity guests like historian Ken Burns, actor Susie Essman from HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, Pulitzer Prize nominated playwright Anna Deavere Smith, neuroscientist-philosopher Sam Harris and others.   Follow and subscribe to YE GODS WITH SCOTT CARTER wherever you’re listening to this podcast so you don’t miss new episodes every Wednesday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jacke talks to Edgar Award-winning novelist, Tony Award-winning playwright, and legendary story songwriter Rupert Holmes about writing pop song landmarks ("Escape (The Piña Colada Song))," Broadway whodunit musicals (The Mystery of Edwin Drood), and his new book Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide. RUPERT HOLMES has received two Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, and multiple Tony® and Drama Desk Awards for his Broadway mystery musicals, including the book of Curtains and his sole creation, the Tony® Award–winning Best Musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood. His first novel, Where the Truth Lies, was nominated for a Nero Wolfe award for Best American Mystery Novel, was a Booklist Top Ten Debut Novel, and became a motion picture starring Colin Firth and Kevin Bacon. His second novel, Swing, was the first novel with its own original, clue-bearing musical score. He has adapted Agatha Christie, John Grisham, and R.L. Stine for the Broadway and international stage. His short stories ha

"It is difficult to find happiness within oneself," said the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), "but it is impossible to find it anywhere else." In spite of his pessimism - or perhaps because of it - Schopenhauer, who was virtually unknown until the last few years of his life, went on to influence generations of writers, artists, philosophers, and composers. In this episode, Jacke looks at the life, legacy, and worldview of this darkest of men, including some thoughts on what it feels like to read Schopenhauer today. Additional reading: 463 Friedrich Nietzsche (with Ritchie Robertson) 155 Plato 465 Greek Lit and Game Theory (with Josiah Ober) 164 Karl Marx Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jacke talks to "serial biographer" Carl Rollyson about his new two-volume biography of William Faulkner, The Life of William Faulkner: The Past Is Never Dead, 1897-1934 (Volume 1) and The Life of William Faulkner: This Alarming Paradox, 1935-1962 (Volume 2). CARL ROLLYSON, Professor of Journalism at Baruch College, The City University of New York, has published more than forty books ranging in subject matter from biographies of Marilyn Monroe, Lillian Hellman, Martha Gellhorn, Norman Mailer, Rebecca West, Susan Sontag, and Jill Craigie to studies of American culture, genealogy, children's biography, film, and literary criticism. Additional listening suggestions: William Faulkner - A Rose for Emily William Faulkner - Dry September Baldwin v. Faulkner Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your a

On October 5, 1962, two items were released, hardly newsworthy at the time. One was Dr. No, the first James Bond film, and the other was Love Me Do, the first Beatles recording. Over the next sixty years, both Bond and the Beatles would become cultural juggernauts, with a reach and influence so vast that they can be hard to fathom. What have those twin phenomena meant to the British psyche? And what have they meant for the rest of the world? In this episode, Jacke talks to author John Higgs about his book Love and Let Die: Bond, the Beatles, and the British Psyche. Additional listening suggestions: 416 William Blake vs. the World (with John Higgs) 380 Ian Fleming | PLUS The Black James Bond 444 Thrillers on the Eve of War - Spy Novels in the 1930s (with Juliette Bretan) Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Lea

What was Willa Cather's life really like? Was she - as is often thought - a solitary artist, painstakingly crafting her novels about the Great Plains? Or did she actually have a robust creative partnership with another woman, Edith Lewis, which was downplayed at the time and for decades afterward? In this episode, Jacke talks to Melissa J. Homestead about her book, The Only Wonderful Things: The Creative Partnership of Willa Cather & Edith Lewis, which sheds new light on the life and works of a great twentieth century novelist. Additional listening suggestions: 316 Willa Cather (with Lauren Marino) 317 My Antonía by Willa Cather 308 New Westerns (with Anna North) Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"In the early United States, a Black person committed an act of resistance simply by reading and writing. Yet we overlook that these activities also brought pleasure." In this episode, Jacke talks to Dr. Tara A. Bynum about her new book, Reading Pleasures: Everyday Black Living in Early America, which finds the "joyous, if messy, humanity" in the lives and works of four canonical Black writers from the 18th and early 19th centuries. Additional listening suggestions: The Trials of Phillis Wheatley 358 The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature (with Farah Jasmine Griffin) 291 The Book of Firsts (with Ulrich Baer and Smaran Dayal) Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Milton is often regarded as second only to Shakespeare in the history of English verse - and his epic poem, Paradise Lost, is viewed by many as second to none. His literary achievements are all the more remarkable when one considers the formidable political and personal obstacles Milton faced. In this episode, Jacke talks to Professor Stephen Dobranski about his new book, Reading John Milton: How to Persist in Troubled Times. Additional listening: 154 John Milton 376 Why John Milton? (with Joe Moshenska) 91 In Which John Donne Decides to Write a Poem About a Flea Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In her lifetime, Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) was widely acknowledged as the best read person - male or female - in New England. Her landmark work, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, is considered the first full-length treatment of women's rights in North America. After finding success as an author, scholar, educator, editor, translator, journalist, and host of a famous series of "conversations," she tragically died at the age of 40 in a sea accident off the coast of Fire Island, New York. In this episode, Jacke talks to Pulitzer-prize winning biographer Megan Marshall about her book, Margaret Fuller: A New American Life. Additional listening: 461 The Peabody Sisters (with Megan Marshall) 351 Mary Wollstonecraft (with Samantha Silva) 356 Louisa May Alcott 111 Ralph Waldo Emerson Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliteratur

Is Moby-Dick truly the Great American Novel? How did contemporary critics miss it? When (and how) was the book rediscovered? Jacke goes through all this and more, as he continues the countdown of Top 10 Essential Questions about Herman Melville's 1851 masterpiece. Additional listening: 481 Moby Dick - 10 Essential Questions (Part One) 474 Herman Melville 159 Herman Melville (with Mike Palindrome and Cristina Negrón) Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices