Episodes

'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 dispute over one of the most famous Christmas poems of all time, "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (also known as "The Night Before Christmas" or "'Twas the Night Before Christmas"). Long attributed to the somewhat curmudgeonly figure Clement C. Moore, new research has called that authorship into question. Does ANOTHER Christmas poem by Moore unlock the ...

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 most famous artists and intellectuals of the twentieth century. Everyone who was everyone, it seemed, was in Europe, but as the Roaring Twenties faded, a new political reality took hold. The winds of war were once again stirring - how would these artists adapt? In this episode, Jacke talks to author Florian Illies about his new book, Love in a Time...

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 what kind of lives did they lead? In this episode, Jacke talks to author Peter K. Andersson about his book Fool: In Search of Henry VIII's Closest Man , which tells the story of Will Somer, an unusual man with a very strange job. PLUS Milton expert Ed Simon ( Heaven, Hell, and Paradise Lost ) selects his choice for the last book he will ever read. Hel...

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 encounter one another? In this episode, Jacke talks to esteemed literary historian Andrew Pettegree about his new book, The Book at War: How Reading Shaped Conflict and Conflict Shaped Reading . PLUS Robin Lane Fox ( Homer and His Iliad ) stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read. Help support the show at patreon.com/litera...

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, her writing career, and her new book The Wren, The Wren . PLUS Dublin literary historian Christopher Morash ( Dublin: A Writer's City ) stops by to select the last book he will ever read. 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 Podglomer...

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, the President of the Literature Supporters Club, stops by to discuss his trip to the Proust Conference and his thoughts on Lawrence's classic short story. 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.t...

After discussing Emily Dickinson's Poem #259 ("A Clock stopped -"), Jacke talks to author David Sterling Brown about his new book Shakespeare's White Others . PLUS novelist Shilpi Suneja ( House of Caravans ) selects the last book she will ever read. 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 abo...

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 Amongst the Pirates, Written by Herself . PLUS an analysis of Emily Dickinson's Poem #256 ("The Robin's my Criterion for Tune-") 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/histor...

Jacke talks to British academic librarian Christopher de Hamel about his passion for medieval manuscripts and his new book The Manuscripts Club: The People Behind a Thousand Years of Medieval Manuscripts . PLUS Maaheen Ahmed, editor of The Cambridge Companion to Comics , stops by to select the last book she will ever read. 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....

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 ( Family Family , One Two Three ) for a Wednesday-before-Thanksgiving discussion of one of Shakespeare's last works, The Tempest . 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/histor...

Your wish is our command! Jacke talks to listener-nominated "dream guest" Dr. Jessica Kirzane about her work with Yiddish literature, including her recent translations of early twentieth-century writer Miriam Karpilove, Diary of a Lonely Girl and A Provincial Newspaper and Other Stories . PLUS fairy-tale expert Jack Zipes ( Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion ) returns to the show to select his choice for the last book he will ever read. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or histo...

Jacke talks to Adrian Edwards, the lead curator of the British Library's Printed Heritage Collections, about the new book Shakespeare's First Folio: 400th Anniversary Facsimile Edition: Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories & Tragedies, Published According to the Original Copies . PLUS Jacke takes a look at Emily Dickinson's Poem #243 ("That after Horror - that 'twas us -") Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcas...

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 humankind. In this episode, Jacke talks to novelist-turned-historian Tom Holland ( Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic , Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar ) about his new book Pax: War and Peace in Rome's Golden Age . PLUS fellow historian Honor Cargill-Martin ( Messalina: Empress, Adultress, Libertine: The Story of the Most No...

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 Doolittle, better known by her nom de plume H.D. 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 ( The Last Days of Sylvia Plath , The Life of William Faulkner ) about his new book, Sylvia Plath: Day by Day: Volume 1: 1932-1955 , which draws upon Plath's diaries and other writings to present Plath's life from her birth in Boston, through her elementary, high school, and college years, to her acceptance of admission at Cambridge University. PLUS Jacke takes a look at Emily Dickinson Poem #240 ("Bound a Trouble - and Lives will bear it"). Help ...

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 Myron Tuman ( The Stuttering Son in Literature and Psychology: Boys and Their Fathers , Don Juan and His Daughter: The Incestuous Lover in the Female Literary Imagination , stops by for a discussion of his early career, his rediscovery of his passion for nineteenth-century narratives, and the slew of books about literature he's written since then. Help...

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 ) about his lifelong passion for this classic ancient text. PLUS Katherine Howe, editor of The Penguin Book of Witches , stops by to deliver a Halloween-themed dose of witches in literature. 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 Pod...

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 rickety horse. All those stories he's heard about a headless horseman are just stuff and nonsense...aren't they? In this episode, Jacke continues his look at early American writer Washington Irving (1783-1859) with a reading of Irving's classic 1820 Halloween story, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." PLUS a look at Emily Dickinson's Poem #236 ("Some -...

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" and "Rip Van Winkle." PLUS Joe Skinner of American Masters: Creative Spark chooses the last book he will ever read. 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...

How do we humans experience nature? And how might we experience nature differently from one another? In this episode, Jacke talks to writer, film producer, arts and abolition organizer, cultural worker, and educator Erin Sharkey about a new book of essays she edited, A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from Soil to Stars , in which "a constellation of luminary writers reflect on the significance of nature in their lived experience and on the role of nature in the lives of Black folks in th...

The English novelist, playwright, and short story writer Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) lived a life as eventful as his prodigious literary output. In this episode, Jacke takes a look at Maugham's travels and travails, following Maugham across numerous continents as he sought material for his writing - and a safe resting place for himself and his various male companions. Then Jacke is joined by novelist Tan Twan Eng ( The Gift of Rain , The Garden of Evening Mists ) to discuss his new novel The Ho...

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 public viewed and treated animals. Although her novel Black Beauty has since become a familiar classic, Sewell did not live to see its success, dying just five months after its publication. In this episode, Jacke talks to author Celia Brayfield ( Writing Black Beauty: Anna Sewell and the Story of Animal Rights ) about a remarkable book and its remar...

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 he work? What made him laugh? In this episode, Jacke talks to Sir Stanley Wells about his new book What Was Shakespeare Really Like ? Then David Ellis ( Byron: A Critical Life ) stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read. PLUS Jacke continues his journey through the selected poetry of Emily Dickinson, with a look at Poem 204 ...

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 Cotton, whose biography of John Ashbery ( John Ashbery: A Critical Life ) charts Ashbery's rise from a minor avant-garde figure to the most important poet of his generation. PLUS contemporary poet David van den Berg ( Love Letters from an Arsonist ) stops by to offer his choice for the last book he will ever read. Help support the show at patreon.com...