The History of Literature

587 Byron's Letters (with Andrew Stauffer) | My Last Book with Jonathan van Belle

29 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Few writers have achieved the celebrity of the notorious Romantic poet Lord Byron. But what was he like in private? In this episode, Jacke talks to An...

586 The Czech Manuscripts Hoax (with David Cooper) | My Last Book with Jesse Kavadlo

25 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1817 and 1818, the discovery of two sets of Czech manuscripts helped fuel the Czech National Revival, as promoters of Czech nationalism trumpeted t...

585 Plots and the Modern Novelist (with Pardis Dabashi) | My Last Book with Anne Enright

22 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As far back as Aristotle, plots have been viewed as essential components of long-form narratives. So what happened when Modern novelists like James Jo...

584 A Conversation with James MacManus | My Last Book with Peter K Andersson

18 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

James MacManus was a foreign correspondent for The Guardian during a golden era of covering wars in faroff places. In this episode, Jacke talks to Jam...

583 Margaret Cavendish (with Francesca Peacock) | My Last Book with Patrick Whitmarsh

15 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Philosopher, poet, playwright, science fiction writer, scientist, and celebrity Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673) was a public and publishing sensation. ...

582 Tickets, Please by D.H. Lawrence (with Mike Palindrome) | My Last Book with Myron Tuman

11 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Superguest Mike Palindrome joins Jacke for a reading and discussion of D.H. Lawrence's short story "Tickets, Please" (1918), a "war of the sexes" mode...

581 The Venerable Bede (with Michelle P. Brown) | My Last Book with Adrian Edwards

08 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke talks to author Michelle P. Brown about her new book, Bede and the Theory of Everything, which investigates the life and world of Bede (c. 673-7...

580 Thoreau at Work (with Jonathan van Belle) | My Last Book with Andrew Pettegree

04 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The evidence is clear: Henry David Thoreau was an industrious person who worked hard throughout his life. And yet, he's often viewed as a kind of drea...

579 New Year New You! Conversations with Bethanne Patrick and Aislyn Greene

01 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Happy New Year! Jacke kicks off 2024 with two of his favorite subjects: Books and Travel. First, Bethanne Patrick stops by to talk about the new seaso...

578 Chapters (with Nicholas Dames) | My Last Book (with Hamid Dabashi)

31 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Nicholas Dames (The Chapter: A Segmented History from Antiquity to the Twenty-First Century) started his latest project with a seemingly simple questi...

Life and Art from FT Weekend: Books Books Books!

27 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What books to buy for others? What books to read? In this guest episode from FT Weekend's Life and Art podcast, members of the Financial Times books t...

577 'Twas the Night Before Controversy - The Raging Dispute Over a Classic Christmas Poem | My Last Book (with Marion Turner)

24 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house / Not a creature was stirring, not even a...FRAUD!? In this episode, Jacke dives into the...

576 Love and Art in a Time of Hate - How European Artists and Intellectuals Survived the 1930s (with Florian Illies)

21 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Zelda and Scott, Henry and June and Anaïs, Jean-Paul and Simone, Vladimir and Vera... the names that ring out from the 1930s are those of some of the...

575 A History of the Fool (with Peter Andersson) | My Last Book with Ed Simon

18 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shakespeare helped to make the Fool a common literary character. But what about the real-life fools who served in actual courts? Who were they and wha...

574 The Book at War (with Andrew Pettegree) | My Last Book with Robin Lane Fox

14 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Books are often viewed as the pinnacle of civilization; war, on the other hand, is where civilization breaks down. What happens when these two forces ...

573 A Conversation with Anne Enright, Winner of the Man Booker Prize | My Last Book with Christopher Morash

11 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After taking a look at Emily Dickinson's Poem #269 ("Wild Nights - wild nights!"), Jacke talks to novelist Anne Enright about growing up in Ireland, h...

572 Odour of Chrysanthemums by D.H. Lawrence (with Mike Palindrome)

07 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke reads "Odour of Chrysanthemums," D.H. Lawrence's story about a woman waiting for her husband, a coal miner, to come home. Then Mike Palindrome, ...

571 Shakespeare's White Others (with David Sterling Brown) | My Last Book with Shilpi Suneja

04 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After discussing Emily Dickinson's Poem #259 ("A Clock stopped -"), Jacke talks to author David Sterling Brown about his new book Shakespeare's White ...

570 Pirates! (with Katharine Howe)

30 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke talks to bestselling author Katharine Howe (editor of The Penguin Book of Pirates) about her new novel, A True Account: Hannah Masury's Sojourn ...

569 The Man with a Passion for Medieval Manuscripts (with Christopher de Hamel) | My Last Book with Maaheen Ahmed

27 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke talks to British academic librarian Christopher de Hamel about his passion for medieval manuscripts and his new book The Manuscripts Club: The P...

568 The Tempest (with Laurie Frankel)

22 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke celebrates autumn with a look at Shakespeare's Sonnet #73 ("That time of year thou mayst in me behold"), then welcomes novelist Laurie Frankel (...

567 Your Dream Guest: Jessica Kirzane on Translating Yiddish Literature | My Last Book with Jack Zipes

20 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Your wish is our command! Jacke talks to listener-nominated "dream guest" Dr. Jessica Kirzane about her work with Yiddish literature, including her re...

566 Shakespeare's First Folio - The Facsimile Edition (with Adrian Edwards)

16 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke talks to Adrian Edwards, the lead curator of the British Library's Printed Heritage Collections, about the new book Shakespeare's First Folio: 4...

565 The Roman Empire's Golden Age (with Tom Holland) | My Last Book with Honor Cargill-Martin

13 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It was an era known as the Golden Age of Rome, when the republic-turned-empire became the wealthiest and most formidable state in the history of human...

564 H.D. (with Lara Vetter)

09 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke talks to scholar and biographer Lara Vetter (H.D. (Hilda Doolittle)) about the life and works of modernist poet and avant-garde woman Hilda Doli...

563 Sylvia Plath (with Carl Rollyson)

06 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke talks to "serial biographer" Carl Rollyson (The Last Days of Sylvia Plath, The Life of William Faulkner) about his new book, Sylvia Plath: Day b...

562 Literature Later in Life (with Myron Tuman)

02 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke starts the show with a listener email and a look at Emily Dickinson's Poem #238 ("How many times these low feet staggered - "). THEN author Myro...

561 Homer and His Iliad (with Robin Lane Fox) | A Quick Hit of Witches (with Katherine Howe)

30 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Who was Homer? And why, all these years later, do we still read his Iliad? In this episode, Jacke talks to author Robin Lane Fox (Homer and His Iliad)...

560 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

26 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's the early nineteenth century, and the moon is bright, the Hudson Valley forests are full of shadows, and a lonely schoolteacher heads home on his...

559 Washington Irving | My Last Book with Joe Skinner

23 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke takes a look at "America's first Man of Letters," Washington Irving (1783-1859), most famous for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"...

558 Black Nature Writing (with Erin Sharkey)

19 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How do we humans experience nature? And how might we experience nature differently from one another? In this episode, Jacke talks to writer, film prod...

557 Somerset Maugham (with Tan Twan Eng)

16 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The English novelist, playwright, and short story writer Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) lived a life as eventful as his prodigious literary output. In t...

556 The Story Behind a Children's Classic - Anna Sewell and the Writing of 'Black Beauty' (with Celia Brayfield)

12 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Born in 1820, the devout Quaker Anna Sewell was in her fifties - and terminally ill - when she decided to write a book that would change the way the p...

555 What Was Shakespeare Really Like? (with Sir Stanley Wells) | My Last Book with David Ellis

09 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shakespeare's plays and poetry are some of the most towering achievements in the history of humankind. What was Shakespeare the person like? How did h...

554 John Ashbery (with Jess Cotton) | My Last Book with David van den Berg

05 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Poetry! Poetry! Poetry! After taking a look at Emily Dickinson's Poem #1 94 ("Title divine - is mine!"), Jacke talks to Cambridge University's Jess Co...

553 A Haunted House by Virginia Woolf | My Last Book with Max Saunders

02 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke takes a look at "A Haunted House," Virginia Woolf's modernist ghost story. PLUS Ford Madox Ford biographer Max Saunders (Ford Madox Ford: A Crit...

552 Writing after Rushdie (with Shilpi Suneja)

28 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke talks to novelist Shilpi Suneja about her childhood in India, her discovery of Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, and her new novel House of ...

551 Charlotte Lennox and The Female Quixote (Forgotten Women of Literature 8) | My Last Book with Laura Marris and Alice Kaplan

25 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke takes a look at the life and works of eighteenth-century novelist Charlotte Lennox, whose poetry, plays, novels, and criticism earned her the ap...

550 F Scott Fitzgerald (with Arthur Krystal) | My Last Book with Jed Rasula

21 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Just who was F. Scott Fitzgerald? How do we make sense of his many different sides? In this episode, Jacke talks to biographer Arthur Krystal about hi...

549 Forgotten Women of Literature 7 - Ursula Parrott (with Marsha Gordon)

18 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Hardly anyone knows Ursula Parrott today, but not long ago she was close to being a household name. As a bestselling novelist of the Roaring Twenties ...

548 Shakespeare in a Divided America (with James Shapiro)

14 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke talks to Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro about his new book, Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us About Our Past and Futur...

547 Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality (with William Egginton)

11 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke talks to author William Egginton about his new book Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality, which uses the examples of thr...

546 The Cambridge Companion to Comics (with Maaheen Ahmed) | My Last Book with Elizabeth Winkler

07 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke talks to Professor Maaheen Ahmed, editor of The Cambridge Companion to Comics, about the popular, multifaceted, and dynamic art form of manga, g...

545 Milton's Paradise Lost - A Personal Journey (with Ed Simon)

04 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke talks to author Ed Simon about his new book Heaven, Hell, and Paradise Lost, which considers Paradise Lost within the scope of Simon's alcoholis...

544 Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee (with Mike Palindrome)

31 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, Jacke and Mike discuss Disgrace, J.M. Coetzee's stunning 1999 novel about sex, violence, salvation, and ruin in post-apartheid South ...

543 A Philosopher's Guide to Rome (with Scott Samuelson)

28 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Rome! The Eternal City! It's a place for celebrating lives both present and past - and in addition to all the art and culture and architecture and foo...

542 The Altar of the Dead by Henry James (Pt 2)

24 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke begins with a look at Emily Dickinson's poem #122, then continues (and concludes) his reading and analysis of the Henry James masterpiece, "The ...

541 The Altar of the Dead by Henry James

21 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

During a horrible period of grief, literary failure, and general bewilderment, Henry James turned to art - and created some of his greatest masterpiec...

540 A Black Queen in Exile (with Vanessa Riley) | My Last Book with Jolene Hubbs

17 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke kicks things off with a look at Emily Dickinson's Poem #90, then welcomes author Vanessa Riley for a discussion of her new historical novel Quee...

539 Tender Is the Night by F Scott Fitzgerald (with Mike Palindrome)

14 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke and Mike take a look at the stormy Fitzgerald marriage and F. Scott Fitzgerald's fourth novel, Tender Is the Night, which many consider to be hi...

538 Writing Our Extinction (with Patrick Whitmarsh) | My Last Book with Christina Jarvis

10 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke continues his Emily Dickinson series with a reading of Poem #32. Then Professor Patrick Whitmarsh stops by for a discussion of his new book Writ...

537 The Persian Prince (with Hamid Dabashi)

07 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke talks to Professor Hamid Dabashi about his new book The Persian Prince: The Rise and Resurrection of an Imperial Archetype, which replaces Machi...

536 Literary New Orleans (with TR Johnson) | My Last Book with Len Webb and Vincent Williams

03 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's a trip to the Big Easy! The city of New Orleans is so famous for its music, its food, and its Mardi Gras mentality that it's sometimes overlooked...

535 The Australian Novelist Who Writes History Through Women's Eyes (with Pip Williams)

31 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Australia! After promising listeners an episode about Australia for years, Jacke FINALLY gets his act together - and luckily he has the perfect guest ...

534 Dostoevsky and "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man"

27 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The hits keep coming at the History of Literature Podcast! In this episode, Jacke follows up on last week's episode on Crime and Punishment with a loo...

533 Langston Hughes in Context (with Vera Kutzinski and Anthony Reed) | My Last Book with Melissa Homestead

24 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's another packed episode! First, Jacke talks to Langston Hughes scholars Vera Kutzinski and Anthony Reed about their new book, Langston Hughes in C...

532 Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

20 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"It is directly obvious," said Virginia Woolf after reading Crime and Punishment, "that [Dostoevsky] is the greatest writer ever born." In this episod...

530 Martin Amis RIP (with Mike Palindrome)

13 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke and Mike discuss the life and works of novelist Martin Amis (1949-2023), who recently died of esophageal cancer. The son of writer Kingsley Amis...

529 Ten Thousand Things and the Asian American Experience (with Shin Yu Pai) | My Last Book with Ross Benjamin

10 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke talks to Shin Yu Pai, currently the Civic Poet of Seattle, about her career as an artist and her podcast Ten Thousand Things, which explores a c...

528 Literary Dublin (with Chris Morash) | A Poem by Shin Yu Pai | My Last Book with John Higgs

06 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"The words of its writers are part of the texture of Dublin, an invisible counterpart to the bricks and pavement we see around us." Exploring this syn...

527 Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies (with Elizabeth Winkler) | My Last Book with Megan Marshall

03 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 2019, journalist Elizabeth Winkler wrote an article for the Atlantic, in which she asked whether Shakespeare's plays might have been written by som...

526 "The Wife of His Youth" by Charles Chesnutt

29 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932) was an American author who was, by his reckoning, seven-eighths white, though he identified as black. Rejecting the op...

525 Don DeLillo (with Jesse Kavadlo)

26 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Don DeLillo (White Noise, Underworld) is a writer's writer's writer. Often called one of the most important novelists of the late twentieth and early ...

524 Growing Old with The Graduate - Mike Nichols, Roger Ebert, Charles Webb, and Me

22 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Graduate, a 1967 film directed by Mike Nichols and based on a novel by Charles Webb, introduced the world to actor Dustin Hoffman and became one o...

523 Geoffrey Chaucer (with Marion Turner) | A New Podcast About the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike (with AFSCME President Lee Saunders)

19 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Thanks mostly to the achievement and success of his Canterbury Tales, poet Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340s-1400) has been called "the Father of English lit...

522 Class, Whiteness, and Southern Literature (with Jolene Hubbs) | My Last Book with Mark Cirino

15 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the late nineteenth century, a popular magazine ran a cartoon with what it called "a race problem." Tensions between black and white Americans in t...

521 The Empress Messalina (with Honor Cargill-Martin) | My Last Book with Robert Chandler

12 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The empress Messalina, third wife of the Roman emperor Claudius, was a ruthless, sexually insatiable schemer - or was she? But while the stories about...

520 "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce

08 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. called it, simply, the greatest American short story. In this episode, Jacke takes a look at Ambrose Bierce and his masterpiece, "An...

519 Shakespeare's First Folio (with Emma Smith) | My Last Book with Luke Parker

05 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The compilation of Shakespeare's plays known as the First Folio is one of the most important books in the history of literature. In this episode, Jack...

518 The Curse of the Marquis de Sade - A Notorious Scoundrel, a Mythical Manuscript, and the Biggest Scandal in Literary History (with Joel Warner) | My Last Book with Diane Rayor

01 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Not even imprisonment could stop the Marquis de Sade from writing his insanely intense, unrelenting erotica - and not even Sade's eventual death could...

517 The Marquis de Sade

29 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Marquis de Sade (1740-1814) was more than just a rake or a cad - based on his egregious conduct, he clearly belonged in prison, and one sympathize...

516 Sappho (with Diane Rayor)

25 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Diane Rayor was in college, a professor recommended a work by a 2600-year-old poet that changed her life. Now, after years of studying and transl...

515 The Plague by Albert Camus (with Alice Kaplan and Laura Marris) | My Last Book with Alison Strayer

22 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What were you doing when the pandemic arose? And did you turn to The Plague by Albert Camus to help you make sense of it all? For two Camus scholars, ...

514 Southern Gothic (with David van den Berg) | My Last Book with Jason Feifer

18 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the aftermath of a Civil War loss that shattered the region and exposed the moral and cultural fault lines in the populace, writers in the American...

513 The Writers of Northern Ireland (with Alexander Poots) | My Last Book with Laura Lee

15 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The literary world has long celebrated the incredible contributions of Ireland and its writers, with a special focus on Dublin-centric writers like Ja...

512 Hannah Arendt (with Samantha Rose Hill) | My Last Book with Scott Carter

11 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Born to a German-Jewish family in 1906, Hannah Arendt became one of the most renowned political thinkers of the twentieth century. Her works, includin...

511 Annie Ernaux, Winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize for Literature (with Alison Strayer) | My Last Book with Bob Blaisdell

08 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke talks to Alison Strayer, translator of several books by French author Annie Ernaux, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2022. PLUS he talk...

510 The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James (Part 2)

04 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Does a famous author's body of work contain a hidden meaning? Part Two of Jacke's look at the classic Henry James novella, "The Figure in the Carpet."...

509 The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James (Part 1)

01 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Does a famous author's body of work contain a hidden meaning? With an assist from Jorge Luis Borges, Jacke explores the classic Henry James novella, "...

508 Byron (with David Ellis) | My Last Book with Ariel Lawhon, Susan Meissner, and Kristina McMorris

27 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The poet Lord Byron is well known as a passionate revolutionary and a brooding hero who harbors dark secrets. But what about his playful sense of humo...

507 The Class of 1989 - A Special Year in Black Cinema (with Len Webb and Vincent Williams)

24 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For years, pop culture critics Len Webb and Vincent Williams have hosted the podcast The Micheaux Mission, which aims to watch and review every Black ...

506 Black Shakespeare (with Ian Smith) | My Last Book with David Castillo and William Egginton

20 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For centuries, Shakespeare's works have been scrutinized by scholars and fans eager to engage with and learn from the texts. And yet, in spite of the ...

505 Ford Madox Ford (with Max Saunders) | My Last Book with Bethanne Patrick

17 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ford Madox Ford lived a fascinating life, surrounded by some of the most famous writers of the era: Joseph Conrad, H.G. Wells, Henry James, Stephen Cr...

504 Persuasion (Book Two) (with Mike Palindrome) | My Last Book with Juliette Bretan

13 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Persuaded by the well-meaning Lady Russell, Anne Elliot turns down prospective suitor Frederick Wentworth. Will life give her a second chance at love?...

503 Persuasion (Book One) (with Gina Buonaguro)

13 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What happens when we let opportunities slip past us? And what if we let others talk us out of what looks like our best chance at love? In this episode...

502 Persuasion by Jane Austen | My Last Book with Stephen Dobranski

10 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Harold Bloom called Persuasion "the perfect novel." Virginia Woolf said "In Persuasion, Jane Austen is beginning to discover that the world is larger,...

501 The Naked World (with Irina Mashinski)

06 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Irina Mashinski is a bilingual Russophone American writer, poet, essayist, teacher, and translator, whose works include Giornata and eleven books of p...

500 Episode 500! Meg White, Listener Emails, Johnson and Boswell, and More! (with Margot Livesey)

03 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 i...

499 Wilde Nights and Robber Barons (with Laura Lee)

30 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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...

498 A New Novel by a Legendary Independent Filmmaker (with John Sayles)

27 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke talks to legendary independent filmmaker John Sayles (Lone Star, Passion Fish) about his new novel Jamie MacGillivray: The Renegade's Journey, w...

497 The Art of War by Sun Tzu

23 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 mille...

496 The Wife of Bath (with Marion Turner)

20 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Wife of Bath, arguably the first ordinary and recognizably real woman in English literature, has obsessed readers from Shakespeare to James Joyce,...

495 The Creative Spark (with Joe Skinner)

16 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 Spar...

494 Three Roads Back - How Emerson, Thoreau, and William James Responded to the Greatest Losses of Their Lives (with Megan Marshall)

13 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In a final powerful book, acclaimed literary biographer Robert Richardson told the story of how Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and William ...

493 Catullus - The Poet of Love and Hate

09 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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, hi...

492 Nabokov Noir (with Luke Parker)

06 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After the October Revolution in 1917, a teenaged Vladimir Nabokov and his family, part of the Russian nobility, sought exile in Western Europe, eventu...

491 Elizabeth Bishop (with Megan Marshall)

02 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) was one of the twentieth century's most accomplished and celebrated poets. In this episode, Jacke talks to Pulitzer Prize...

Introducing YE GODS WITH SCOTT CARTER

01 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Introducing YE GODS from producer-playwright and frequent guest of History of Literature, Scott Carter. We all know that faith and ethics are recurri...

490 Writing Hit Songs, Rewriting Charles Dickens, and Murdering Your Employer (with Rupert Holmes)

27 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke talks to Edgar Award-winning novelist, Tony Award-winning playwright, and legendary story songwriter Rupert Holmes about writing pop song landma...

489 Schopenhauer (aka The Tunnel and The Hole)

23 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"It is difficult to find happiness within oneself," said the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), "but it is impossible to find it anyw...