The History Of Literature

Complex and talented, Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932) was one of the first American authors to write for both Black and white readers. Born in Cleveland to "mixed race" parents, Chesnutt rejected the opportunity to "pass" as white, instead remaining in the Black community throughout his life. His life in the South during Reconstruction, and his knowledge of both Black and white communities, made him one of America's sharpest observers of race in America during the postwar years. In this episode, Jacke talks to Chesnutt scholar Tess Chakkalakal about her book A Matter of Complexion: The Life and Fictions of Charles W. Chesnutt, which the New York Times Book Review says "asks the reader to see the 'First Negro Novelist' as he saw himself: a writer and student of American letters at a time when the literary marketplace struggled to take him seriously...a timely reminder of the influence of artists like Charles W. Chesnutt today, when perhaps only literature has the power to sustain us." PLUS: John Goodby (Dylan

What happens when a respected church leader shows up one day wearing a mysterious veil that conceals his eyes, offering no explanation - and keeps wearing it for decades? How will the community respond? What conspiracy theories will they develop? And how will an author like Nathaniel Hawthorne, writing a hundred years later, spin a New England sin-and-guilt anecdote into powerful literary gold? In this episode, Mike Palindrome, the President of the Literature Supporters Club, joins Jacke for a reading and discussion of Hawthorne's riveting short story "The Minister's Black Veil." Additional listening: 660 "Wakefield" by Nathaniel Hawthorne 461 The Peabody Sisters (with Megan Marshall) 297 The Scarlet Letter The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at gabrielruizbernal.com. 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 thepodglomerate.com/hi

Marianne Moore (1887-1972) achieved something rare in American letters: a modernist poet who was popular with both critics and the public. Famous for her formal innovation, precise diction, and wit - as well as her black tri-corner hat and cloak, which she wore as she dashed around Manhattan - she was lauded by T.S. Eliot (and numerous prize committees) and treated by the public as a true American poet. Muhammad Ali asked her to write the liner notes to his album notes; Ford Motor Company asked her to name their line of cars. In this episode, Jacke talks to Moore scholar Cristanne Miller about Moore's life, Moore's work, and a new digital archive project that unites the two. Additional listening: 564 H.D. (with Lara Vetter) 56 Shelley, H.D., Yeats, Frost, Stevens (with Professor Bill Hogan) 176 William Carlos Williams's "The Use of Force" (with Mike Palindrome) The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at gabrielruizbernal.com. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or hist

As America closes out this year's Black History Month, Jacke dives into the archives for one of his favorite episodes, which featured a conversation with Columbia University professor Farah Jasmine Griffin about her book Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature. PLUS friend of the show Scott Carter stops by to talk about the version of the gospels that Charles Dickens wrote. This episode originally ran on November 15, 2021. It's presented here without the insertion of advertising. 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 thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's the conclusion to "The Jolly Corner"! Spencer Brydon lived in Europe for 33 years (as did his creator, Henry James) before returning to his childhood home in New York City. Europe has changed him - and he can't help thinking, as he observes a highly transformed New York, that he'd have been a very different person had he stayed in America during those crucial decades at the end of the nineteenth century. He finds himself roaming his old deserted house on "the jolly corner" late at night, hunting for the phantom of the self that might-have-been, until he finally sees something that shocks him into unconsciousness. In this episode, Jacke presents the rousing conclusion to this fascinating story of nostalgia, regrets, wonder, selfhood, friendship, and terror. PLUS Irish novelist and essayist Colm Tóibín (The Master, On James Baldwin) stops by to discuss his selection for the last book he will ever read. Enjoy! Additional listening: 679 The Jolly Corner by Henry James - Part 1 414 Henry James's Golden Bow

After spending decades in Europe, the American Henry James felt haunted by the idea that he'd given up something essential. Inspired by a trip home to New York City, the place of his birth, he wrote an astonishing story about a man who creeps through his childhood home late at night, searching for ghosts, and one in particular he's desperate to see: the American version of himself that didn't ever get a chance to live. In this episode, Jacke reads and analyzes the middle of Henry James's "The Jolly Corner." Additional listening: 679 The Jolly Corner by Henry James - Part 1 340 Constance Fenimore Woolson 341 Constance and Henry - The Story of "Miss Grief" The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at gabrielruizbernal.com. 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 thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Vi

Although the writer Henry James (1843-1916) was born in New York City's Washington Square, he spent most of his adulthood in Europe, where he wrote such masterpieces as The Portrait of a Lady, The Wings of the Dove, and The Golden Bowl. Late in life, he returned to New York after a thirty-three year absence to find the city much transformed, as skyscrapers and grand public buildings - museums and libraries and opera houses - now dominated the scene. In this episode, Jacke reads and comments upon the opening of James's 1908 story "The Jolly Corner," in which a man revisits his childhood home in New York after a thirty-three year absence and finds himself chasing memories, ghosts, and other figments of his imagination. Additional listening: 320 Henry James 509 The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James 414 Henry James's Golden Bowl (with Dinitia Smith) The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at gabrielruizbernal.com. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliteratu

Jacke's been trying to come to grips with Portuguese modernist poet Fernando Pessoa ever since Harold Bloom named him one of the 26 most influential writers in the entire Western canon. But it's not easy! As a young man, Pessoa wanted to be, in his words, "plural like the universe," and he carried this out in his poetry: writing verse in the style of more than one hundred fictional alter-egos that he called heteronyms. In this episode, Pessoa expert Bartholomew Ryan, author of Fernando Pessoa: A Critical Life, joins Jacke for a discussion of Pessoa's profound, endlessly innovative ideas. PLUS renowned scholar Robin Waterfield (Aesop's Fables: A New Translation) joins Jacke for a discussion of the last book he will ever read. Additional listening: 643 Aesop and His Fables (with Robin Waterfield) 398 Fernando Pessoa 138 Why Poetry (with Matthew Zapruder) The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at gabrielruizbernal.com. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyoflite

Dylan Thomas: brilliant poet or self-indulgent blowhard? In this episode, Jacke talks to John Goodby, co-author of the biography Dylan Thomas: A Critical Life, about the misconceptions swirling around the famous Welsh poet, and the approach that he and fellow author Chris Wigginton took in presenting a revealing and fresh introduction to Thomas's life and work. PLUS Jacke reads an essay by Emily Brontë in which she wades through deep currents of darkness and gloom to catch a glimpse of hope. Additional listening: 408 Dylan Thomas (with Scott Carter) 647 The Brontës The Brontës' Secret Scandal (with Finola Austin) The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at gabrielruizbernal.com. 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 thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mike Palindrome, the President of the Literature Supporters Club, joins Jacke for a reading and discussion of "Mrs. Spring Fragrance" by Sui Sin Far. The story, which takes place against a backdrop of waves of immigration to America in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (and the racist anti-Asian laws that followed), depicts an enterprising "Americanized" Chinese woman with a taste for matchmaking as she navigates the worlds of Seattle, San Francisco, and her own marriage. While acknowledging the achievement of the pioneering Sui Sin Far, Mike explores his personal reaction to the story, especially the highly patriarchal world of Asian immigrant communities. Additional listening: 667 Sui Sin Far (with Victoria Namkung) 529 Ten Thousand Things and the Asian American Experience (with Shin Yu Pai) 410 What Is American Literature? (with Ilan Stavans) The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at gabrielruizbernal.com. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyof

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) was the most published African American woman writer of the first half of the twentieth century; her signature novel Their Eyes Were Watching God is still read by students, scholars, and literature lovers everywhere. In this episode, Jacke talks to Hurston biographer Cheryl R. Hopson (Zora Neale Hurston: A Critical Life) about the life and creativity of this remarkable figure. PLUS Jacke takes a look at some newly resurfaced works by Jack Kerouac, which shed light on his dalliance with Buddhism. Additional listening: Zora Neale Houston and Langston Hughes (with Yuval Taylor) 431 Langston Hughes 644 Jack Kerouac (with Steven Belletto) The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at gabrielruizbernal.com. 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 thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad

“I admire Freud greatly,” the novelist Vladimir Nabokov once said, “as a comic writer.” For Nabokov, Sigmund Freud was “the Viennese witch-doctor,” objectionable for “the vulgar, shabby, fundamentally medieval world” of his ideas. Author Joshua Ferris (The Dinner Party, Then We Came to the End) joins Jacke for a discussion of the author of Lolita and his special hatred for “the Austrian crank with a shabby umbrella.” [This episode was originally released on September 30, 2017. It is presented here without commercial interruptions.] 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 thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Novelist and playwright Edna Ferber (1885-1968) lived a wondrous life: residing in Manhattan as a member of the famed Algonquin Round Table, writing a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel (So Big), and producing works that Hollywood turned into twentieth-century classics, including the Kern & Hammerstein musical Show Boat and George Stevens's Giant, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean. Along the way, she also served as a caretaker and mentor for her grandniece, who was wowed by her great aunt's style, presence, and celebrity connections. In this episode, Jacke talks to Julie Gilbert, that little girl who grew up to become a writer herself, about her new book Giant Love: Edna Ferber, Her Best-Selling Novel of Texas, and the Making of a Classic American Film. PLUS Jacke talks to Yiddish literature expert Jessica Kirzane about her choice for the last book she will ever read. Additional listening: 567 Your Dream Guest: Jessica Kirzane on Translating Yiddish Literature 316 Willa Cather (with Lauren Ma

Founded in Chicago in 1914, the avant-garde journal the Little Review became a giant in the cause of modernism, publishing literature and art by luminaries such as T.S. Eliot, Djuna Barnes, William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Gertrude Stein, Jean Toomer, William Carlos Williams, H.D., Amy Lowell, Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Stella, Hans Arp, Mina Loy, Emma Goldman, Wyndham Lewis, Hart Crane, Sherwood Anderson, and more. Perhaps most famously, the magazine published Joyce's Ulysses in serial form, causing a scandal and leading to a censorship trial that changed the course of literature. In this episode, Jacke talks to scholar Holly A. Baggett about her book Making No Compromise: Margaret Anderson, Jane Heap, and the Little Review, which tells the story of the two Midwestern women behind the Little Review, who were themselves iconoclastic rebels, living openly as lesbians and advocating for causes like anarchy, feminism, free love, and of course, groundbreaking literature and ar

It is a truth universally acknowledged that tragedy is one of the world's highest art forms, and that Shakespeare was one of the form's greatest practitioners. But how did he do it? What models did he have to draw upon, and where did he innovate? In this episode, Jacke talks to Shakespeare scholar Rhodri Lewis about his new book Shakespeare's Tragic Art, a new account of Shakespearean tragedy as a response to life in an uncertain world. PLUS Joel Warner (The Curse of the Marquis de Sade: A Notorious Scoundrel, a Mythical Manuscript, and the Biggest Scandal in Literary History) stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read. Additional listening: 518 The Curse of the Marquis de Sade (with Joel Warner) 548 Shakespeare in a Divided America (with James Shapiro) Shakespeare's Best | Sonnet 116 ("Let me not to the marriage of true minds") The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at gabrielruizbernal.com. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyoflite

Inspired by an email (from a listener?) with mysterious origins, Jacke takes a look at the brief narrative form the parable. How did parables get their name? What are their key features? Why did Jesus rely on them so heavily to communicate to his listeners? And what meaning does "A Parable" have for us today? Additional listening: 634 The Bible: A Global History (with Bruce Gordon) 368 The Story of the Nativity (with Stephen Mitchell) 41 The New Testament (with Professor Kyle Keefer) The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at gabrielruizbernal.com. 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 thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when a woman becomes obsessed with Herman Melville during the pandemic? What if the process of sorting fact from fiction in Melville's work inspires a midlife reckoning with her own marriage and ambition? And what if she (a poet) and her husband (a novelist, by the way) write a book about all of it? Well, the result would be something like Dayswork: A Novel, which has been called "a supremely literate achievement that wears its erudition lightly." In this episode, Jacke talks to the poet and her novelist husband, Jennifer Habel and Chris Bachelder, about what Melville means to them. PLUS Alexander Boots (The Strangers' House: Writing Northern Ireland) discusses his choice for the last book he will ever read. Additional listening suggestions: 513 The Writers of Northern Ireland with Alexander Poots 481 Moby-Dick: 10 Essential Questions (Part One) 482 Moby-Dick: 10 Essential Questions (Part Two) The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at gabrielruizbernal.com. Help sup

When the U.S. joined the war in the 1940s, it had a problem: its military had virtually no intelligence service. Enter the librarians! In this episode, Jacke talks to Elyse Graham about her work Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II, which tells the story of the efforts to recruit academics and train them for espionage. PLUS a look at some of the upcoming festivities being planned for Jane Austen's 250th birthday. Additional listening: 444 Thrillers on the Eve of War: Spy Novels in the 1930s (with Juliette Bretan) 380 Ian Fleming | PLUS The Black James Bond 114 Christopher Marlowe: What Happened and What If? The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at gabrielruizbernal.com. 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 thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices.

Edith Maude Eaton (1865-1914) grew up in unusual circumstances: her father was an English merchant who traveled to China on business, and her mother was a formerly enslaved tightrope walker and human knife-throwing target who traveled all over the world with an acrobatic troupe. The eldest daughter among fourteen children, Eaton mostly grew up in Montreal, then relocated to America, where she became famous under the pen name Sui Sin Far. Today, her journalism and fiction, mostly chronicling the lives of Chinese men and women living in America, are impressive for their insight and humor. In this episode, Jacke talks to novelist and scholar Victoria Namkung about An Immortal Book: Selected Writings by Sui Sin Far, for which she wrote the forward. PLUS Samantha Rose Hill (Hannah Arendt: A Critical Life) discusses her choice for the last book she will ever read. Additional listening: 512 Hannah Arendt (with Samantha Rose Hill) 529 Ten Thousand Things and the Asian American Experience (with Shin Yu Pai) 66 A Co

First published in December of 1922, "Winter Dreams" was one of the short stories known as the "Gatsby cluster," as F. Scott Fitzgerald worked out the characters, themes, and prose style that would later make his famous novel The Great Gatsby (1925) an American classic. Telling the story of Dexter Green, a Midwestern golf caddy who becomes a wealthy - but not wealthy enough - suitor to a rich young heiress Judy Jones, "Winter Dreams" works out some of Fitzgerald's own nostalgia and regret for his thwarted relationship with Chicago socialite Ginevra King. In this episode, Jacke and Mike introduce and comment upon the story, which is read in its entirety. PLUS Lev Grossman (The Bright Sword) stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read. Additional listening: 659 The Legend of King Arthur (with Lev Grossman) 47 Hemingway vs. Fitzgerald 167 "Babylon Revisited" by F. Scott Fitzgerald 550 F. Scott Fitzgerald (with Arthur Krystal) The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn