The History of Literature

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...

488 William Faulkner (with Carl Rollyson)

20 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke talks to "serial biographer" Carl Rollyson about his new two-volume biography of William Faulkner, The Life of William Faulkner: The Past Is Nev...

487 Bond, the Beatles, and the British Psyche (with John Higgs)

16 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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, t...

486 The Creative Partnership of Willa Cather & Edith Lewis (with Melissa J. Homestead)

13 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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?...

485 Reading Pleasures - Everyday Black Living in Early America (with Dr Tara Bynum)

09 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"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 b...

484 Reading John Milton (with Stephen Dobranski)

06 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 s...

483 Margaret Fuller (with Megan Marshall)

02 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In her lifetime, Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) was widely acknowledged as the best read person - male or female - in New England. Her landmark work, Wom...

482 Moby Dick - 10 Essential Questions (Part Two)

30 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

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 th...

481 Moby Dick - 10 Essential Questions (Part One)

26 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Here we go! Moby-Dick; or, the Whale (1851) by Herman Melville is one of the greatest - and strangest - novels you will ever read. Call it what you wi...

480 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (with Ritchie Robertson)

23 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1878, critic Matthew Arnold wrote, "Goethe is the greatest poet of modern times... because having a very considerable gift for poetry, he was at th...

479 Auden and the Muse of History (with Susannah Young-ah Gottlieb)

19 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

W.H. Auden (1907-1973) was one of the twentieth-century's greatest poets - and also one of the most engaged. As he struggled to make sense of the rise...

478 The Diaries of Franz Kafka (with Ross Benjamin)

16 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Kafka! The avatar of anxiety! He's long been one of our favorites here at the History of Literature Podcast. In this episode, Jacke talks to translato...

477 Does Edith Wharton Hate You? (Part 2 - "The Vice of Reading")

12 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Does Edith Wharton hate us? That's a provocative question - but perhaps one that Wharton herself provoked, with her essay on the readers who damaged l...

476 Does Edith Wharton Hate You? (Part 1 - "Xingu")

12 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Does Edith Wharton hate us? That's a provocative question - but perhaps one that Wharton herself provoked, with her essay on the readers who damaged l...

475 Portable Magic - A History of Books and Their Readers (with Emma Smith)

09 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As we all know, the text of a book can possess incredible powers, transporting readers across time and space. But what about the books themselves? In ...

474 Herman Melville

05 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, Jacke takes a look at the life of Herman Melville, author of Moby-Dick and many other works. Melville experienced ups and downs, from...

473 A Hemingway Short Story (with Mark Cirino)

02 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke is joined by Professor Mark Cirino, host of the One True Podcast and editor of One True Sentence: Writers & Readers on Hemingway's Art, for a di...

472 The Art of Not Knowing

29 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this special episode, Jacke pays tribute to a friend, including a consideration of endings and beginnings, mystery and grace, and two powerful work...

471 Angels of War (with Ariel Lawhon, Kristina McMorris, and Susan Meissner

26 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, Jacke talks to three bestselling authors - Susan Meissner, Kristina McMorris, and Ariel Lawhon - who came together to write When We H...

470 Two Christmas Days - A Holiday Story by Ida B. Wells

22 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Legendary anti-lynching crusader and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) is best known for her diligent research and brave and compelling j...

469 A Room with a View by E.M. Forster (with Gina Buonaguro)

19 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Since its publication in 1908, E.M. Forster's classic novel A Room with a View, which tells the story of a young Englishwoman who finds a romantic adv...

468 Chekhov Becomes Chekhov (with Bob Blaisdell)

15 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 1886, the twenty-six-year-old Anton Chekhov was practicing medicine, supporting his family, falling in and out love, writing pieces for newspapers ...

467 TS Eliot and The Waste Land (with Jed Rasula)

12 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 2022, T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land turned 100 years old - and it's hard to imagine a poem with a more explosive impact or a more enduring influence....

466 Kurt Vonnegut, Planetary Citizen (with Christina Jarvis)

08 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When novelist Kurt Vonnegut died in 2007, the planet lost one of its most creative and compelling voices. In this episode, Jacke talks to Vonnegut sch...

465 Greek Lit and Game Theory (with Professor Josiah Ober)

05 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Game theory as a mathematical discipline has been around since the Cold War, but as Professor Josiah Ober (The Greeks and the Rational: The Discovery ...

464 Percy Bysshe Shelley - The Mature Years

01 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Following up on Episode 446 Percy Bysshe Shelley - The Early Years, Jacke takes a look at the final five years of Percy Bysshe Shelley's life, from 18...

463 Friedrich Nietzsche (with Ritchie Robertson)

28 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sigmund Freud once said of the philosopher and cultural critic Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) that "he had a more penetrating knowledge of himself th...

462 My Last Book (with Laurie Frankel)

23 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The question stopped Jacke in his tracks. "Dear Jacke," said the emailer. "What do you want your "last book" to be? This will be the last book you wil...

461 The Peabody Sisters (with Megan Marshall)

21 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Pulitzer-Prize-winning literary biographer Megan Marshall joins Jacke to discuss the book that was twenty years in the making: The Peabody Sisters: Th...

460 Rabindranath Tagore

17 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, Jacke takes a look at the life and works of the legendary Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). Central to what became know...

459 Eve Bites Back! An Alternative History of English Literature (with Anna Beer)

14 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke talks to author Anna Beer about her new book Eve Bites Back! An Alternative History of English Literature, which tells the stories of eight wome...

458 Alexander Pushkin (with Robert Chandler)

10 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For many Russian writers and readers, Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) holds a special place: his position in Russian literature is often compared to Sha...

457 The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson's Editor (The Thomas Wentworth Higginson Story) | PLUS Making (Book) Dreams Come True (with Eve Yohalem and Julie Sternberg)

07 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823-1911) has become famous as the man who in 1862 encouraged young contributors to submit to his magazine - and who rece...

456 Maya Angelou

03 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Best known for her autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), Maya Angelou (1928-2014) was a woman of many talents and accomplishments. In ...

455 Gustave Flaubert

31 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Perhaps contemporary critic James Wood put it best: "Novelists," he wrote, "should thank Flaubert the way poets thank spring." In this episode, Jacke ...

454 Emma's Pick - A Victorian Ghost Story

27 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Happy Halloween! In this episode, producer Emma selects a classic Victorian ghost story for Jacke to read: "Eveline's Visitant" by the publishing powe...

453 The Autobiography of Malcolm X (with Dr Rae Wynn-Grant)

24 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke talks to Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant about her journey to becoming a wildlife ecologist and two classic works from the 1960s that helped inspire her: The...

452 Charles and Mary Lamb | A Letter To My Transgender Daughter (with Carolyn Hays)

20 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, Jacke takes a look at two topics. First, the story of Charles and Mary Lamb, whose children's book Tales from Shakespeare (1807) was ...

451 Mary Shelley

17 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For more than two centuries, the author Mary Shelley (1797-1851) has been eclipsed by others: her famous parents William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraf...

450 The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe

13 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's October! Time for dead leaves, spooky twilight, and little goblins running around in search of candy. And of course, the OG Mr. October, Edgar Al...

449 Method Acting and "Bad Hamlet" (with Isaac Butler)

10 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We all talk about actors who use the Method, but do we really understand what that means? And how exactly has the Method changed the way we take in dr...

448 Lewis Carroll (with Charlie Lovett)

06 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Although best known for his classic children's books involving Alice and her Wonderland adventures, Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) was a man of many talent...

447 Lady Chatterley's Lover (with Saikat Majumdar)

03 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930) started a firestorm with his 1928 novel Lady Chatterley's Lover, which was quickly banned around the world. But the novel ev...

446 Percy Bysshe Shelley - The Early Years

29 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke takes a look at the early years of Percy Bysshe Shelley, from his idyllic childhood, to his rebellious student years, to his experiments in free...

445 What Would Cervantes Do? (with David Castillo and William Egginton)

26 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As the author of what is generally considered the first and perhaps greatest novel of the modern era, Miguel de Cervantes and his masterpiece Don Quix...

444 Thrillers on the Eve of War - Spy Novels in the 1930s (with Juliette Bretan)

22 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The British spy novel was well established long before Ian Fleming's creation of James Bond in the 1950s. And while it came to be identified with the ...

443 Updating Bloom's Canon (with Bethanne Patrick)

19 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 1994, Harold Bloom's magnum opus The Western Canon took up the critical cudgels on behalf of 26 writers declared by Bloom to be essential. In this ...

442 Prince, Emperor, Sage - Bābur and the Bāburnāma (with Anuradha)

15 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The warrior and leader known as Bābur (1483-1530) had the kind of life one might expect from the descendant of Timur (Tamburlaine) on his father's si...

441 When Novels Were Novel (with Jason Feifer)

12 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's hard to imagine now, but there was a time when reading novels was not a common activity - and then, suddenly, it was. In this episode, Jacke talk...

440 Emma's Pick - "A Pair of Silk Stockings" by Kate Chopin

08 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today, Kate Chopin (1851-1904) might be best known for her groundbreaking feminist novel The Awakening (1899). But she was also an accomplished short ...

439 Poets' Guide to Economics (with John Ramsden)

05 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sure, we know poets are experts in subjects like love, death, nightingales, and moonlight. But what about money? Isn't that a little...beneath them? (...

438 How Was Your Ulysses? (with Mike Palindrome)

01 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 1922, a writer for the Observer commented: "No book has been more eagerly and curiously awaited by the strange little inner circle of book-lovers a...

437 A Million Miracles Now - "A Bird, came down the Walk" by Emily Dickinson

29 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Responding to a listener email, a heartbroken Jacke takes a close look at Emily Dickinson's astonishing poem "A Bird, came down the Walk." Additio...

The History of Literature Presents: Missing Pages

25 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today, we’d like to introduce you to the new podcast from The Podglomerate, Missing Pages. Missing Pages is an all-new investigative podcast hosted ...

436 The Lorax by Dr Seuss (with Mesh Lakhani)

22 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

He was born Theodor Seuss Geisel in 1904, but in the next 87 years, the world came to know and love him by his pen name, Dr. Seuss. Best known for his...

435 The Story of the Hogarth Press Part 2 - The Virginia Woolf Story That Changed Everything

18 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In our last episode, we looked at the decision by Virginia Woolf and her husband Leonard to purchase a printing press and run it out of their home. Wh...

434 The Story of the Hogarth Press Part 1 - Virginia Woolf's First Self-Published Story

15 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Virginia Woolf has long been celebrated as a supremely gifted novelist and essayist. Less well known, but important to understanding her life and cont...

433 Emma's Pick - "To Build a Fire" by Jack London

11 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Is this the greatest man vs. nature story ever? Hard to say. But it just might be the purest. Kicking off a new HOL feature, producer Emma chooses a s...

432 Hemingway's One True Sentence (with Mark Cirino)

08 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"All you have to do is write one true sentence," Ernest Hemingway said in A Moveable Feast. "Write the truest sentence that you know." And so he did: ...

431 Langston Hughes

04 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Very few writers have had the influence or importance of Langston Hughes (1902?-1967). Best known for poems like "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," "I, Too...

430 In Shakespeare's Shadow (with Michael Blanding)

01 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's a paradox that has bothered Shakespeare's fans for centuries: the man was as insightful into human beings as anyone whoever lived, and yet his ow...

429 Books I Have Loved (with Charles Baxter, Margot Livesey, and Jim Shepard)

28 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For years, we've enjoyed talking to writers about the books they love best. In this "best of" episode, we go deep into the archive for three of our fa...

428 Edward Gibbon (with Zachary Karabell)

25 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Since the first publication of his six-volume magnum opus, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon (1734-1797) has been...

427 Bashō's Best - Haiku and the Essence of Life

21 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In our last episode, Jacke looked at the life of celebrated Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694), the widely acknowledged master of haiku. In this ...

426 Matsuo Bashō - Haiku's Greatest Master

18 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In addition to being what is probably the most widely used poetic form, haiku is almost certainly the most often misunderstood. In this episode, Jacke...

425 Tom Stoppard (with Scott Carter)

14 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Born Tomáš Sträussler, in what was then Czechoslovakia, celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard (1937- ) became one of the best known British playwright...

424 Karel Čapek (with Ian Coss)

11 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Czech novelist Karel Čapek (1890-1938) might be best known as the pioneering science fiction writer who first coined the term "robot." But readers ha...

423 Roger Ebert

07 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke spends his birthday reflecting on Chicago film critic Roger Ebert (1942-2013), the Judd Apatow show Freaks and Geeks, and other literature-and-l...

422 Wallace Stegner (with Melodie Edwards)

04 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

During his lifetime, Wallace Stegner (1909-1993) became famous for his prizewinning fiction and autobiographical works; his dedication to environmenta...

421 HOL Goes to the Movies (A Best-of Episode with Brian Price, Meg Tilly, and Mike Palindrome)

30 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Summertime! The season for watching blockbuster movies in arctic conditions, heart-pounding suspense flicks that heat the blood, and cool-breeze drama...

420 Honoré de Balzac (with Carlos Allende)

27 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Very few novelists can match the ambition or output of French novelist Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850). A pioneer of the great nineteenth-century "reali...

419 Christina Rossetti

23 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's the Christina Rossetti episode! Jacke finally musters up the energy to finish what he started, and takes a look at one of the great poets of the ...

418 "Because I could not stop for Death" by Emily Dickinson

20 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Because Jacke could not stop for the scheduled episode topics, a certain poem kindly stopped for him. Luckily it's one of the greatest poems of all ti...

417 What Happened on Roanoke Island? (with Kimberly Brock)

16 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's one of the great mysteries in American history. The "lost colony" of Roanoke Island, where 120 or so men, women, and children living in the first...

416 William Blake vs the World (with John Higgs)

13 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In his lifetime, the Romantic poet and engraver William Blake (1757-1827) was barely known and frequently misunderstood. Today, his genius is widely c...

415 "Goblin Market" by Christina Rossetti

09 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As a devout and passionate religious observer, Victorian poet Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) lived a life that might seem, at first glance, as proper ...

414 Henry James's Golden Bowl (with Dinitia Smith) | William Blake Preview (with John Higgs)

06 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Money. Sex. Power. Family. Those are the conceits at the heart of Henry James's late-period masterpiece, The Golden Bowl. In this episode, Jacke talks...

413 Walt Whitman - "Song of Myself"

02 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, we resume our look at Walt Whitman's life and body of work, focusing in particular on the years 1840-1855. Did Whitman's teaching car...

412 HOL Goes to War (with Elizabeth Samet, Matt Gallagher, and Tom Roston)

30 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this best-of History of Literature episode, Jacke revisits the topic of war and literature with three guests: Professor Elizabeth Samet (Soldier's ...

411 Walt Whitman - A New Hope

26 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 1844, Ralph Waldo Emerson called for a new poet who would reflect the spirit and potential of America. In 1855, a then-unknown poet named Walt Whit...

410 What Is American Literature? (with Ilan Stavans)

23 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

America, America, America... a continent, a nation, a people, and a whole lotta books. But how does America define itself? Who defines it? Where did t...

409 "Fear and Trembling" (The Story of Abraham and Isaac) by Soren Kierkegaard

19 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In our last look at Søren Kierkegaard, we left our hero after he had just left the love of his life, Regine Olsen, in favor of a life devoted to God ...

408 Dylan Thomas (with Scott Carter)

16 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Do not go gentle into this good episode! Rage, rage against the dying of the... well, things fall apart there, don't they? (Because we're not gifted p...

407 "The Old Nurse's Story" by Elizabeth Gaskell

12 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth Gaskell had only written one novel when Charles Dickens started publishing her work in his journal Household Words. But soon she would becom...

406 A World in Turmoil - 1967-1971 (with Beverly Gologorsky)

09 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Novelist Beverly Gologorsky joins Jacke for a discussion of the tumultuous years from 1967 to 1971, which provides the background for her new novel. I...

405 Kierkegaard Falls in Love

05 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The nineteenth-century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) is well known as the father of existentialism and one of the great Christian ...

404 Kafka and Literary Oblivion (with Robin Hemley)

02 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Author Robin Hemley joins Jacke for a discussion of Kafka, writerly ambition, and his new novel Oblivion: An After Autobiography, which tells the stor...

403 The Wonderful World of Mysteries (A Best-of-HOL Episode)

28 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Mysteries! In this best-of episode, Jacke revisits conversations with three guests for three different angles on this popular and enduring literary ge...

Introducing "The History of Literature"

26 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Literature enthusiast Jacke Wilson journeys through the history of literature, from ancient epics to contemporary classics. Find out more at historyof...

402 "The Open Boat" by Stephen Crane

25 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

After being given $700 in Spanish gold by some newspapers, a 25-year-old Stephen Crane set out for Florida, where he planned to travel by boat to Cuba...

401 HOL Presents: Melissa Chadburn and The Throwaways (A Storybound Project) | PLUS The First Work of Literature by an African American Author

21 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke takes a look at the first work of literature by an African American author, courtesy of Fictions of America: The Book of Firsts by Uli Baer and ...

400 Anniversary Special! (with Mike Palindrome)

18 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Celebrating 400 episodes of The History of Literature, Jacke and Mike respond to a listener poll and choose the Top 10 Episodes We Must Do in the Futu...

399 Stephen Crane (with Linda H. Davis)

14 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Stephen Crane (1871-1900) lived fast, died young, and impressed everyone with his prose style and insight into the human condition. While he's best kn...

398 Fernando Pessoa

11 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Questioning the nature of the self is a standard trope in literature and one of the hallmarks of the Modernist movement. But no one pushed this to the...

397 Plath, Hughes, and the "Other Woman" - Assia Wevill and Her Writings (with Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick and Peter Steinberg)

07 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 1961, poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath rented their flat to a Canadian poet and his wife, the beautiful, accomplished, and slightly mysterious Ass...

396 Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes (with Heather Clark)

04 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ultimately, the marital relationship of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes was filled with pain and ended in tragedy. At the outset, however, things were ver...

395 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (A Best of HOL Episode)

31 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke plays a clip from Nabokov discussing his famous novel Lolita, in which the frantic narrator Humbert Humbert recounts his passionate (and illegal...

394 Freud and Fiction | PLUS An Assia Wevill Preview

28 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What narrative techniques did Freud borrow and employ? What was the effect? And what did it mean for the literary critics who followed? Following his ...

393 Writers in Odessa, Ukraine's "Black Sea Pearl" | PLUS Margot Reads Boswell

24 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Still recovering from his immersion in Sigmund Freud, Jacke looks instead to one of the world's great literary cities: Odessa. More than 300 writers h...

392 Sigmund Freud

21 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century. Although many of his cla...