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Episodes

493 Catullus - The Poet of Love and Hate
March 9, 2023

493 Catullus - The Poet of Love and Hate

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...

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492 Nabokov Noir (with Luke Parker)
March 6, 2023

492 Nabokov Noir (with Luke Parker)

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 t...

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491 Elizabeth Bishop (with Megan Marshall)
March 2, 2023

491 Elizabeth Bishop (with Megan Marshall)

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,...

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Introducing YE GODS WITH SCOTT CARTER
March 1, 2023

Introducing YE GODS WITH SCOTT CARTER

Introducing YE GODS WITH SCOTT CARTER

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490 Writing Hit Songs, Rewriting Charles Dickens, and Murdering Your Employer (with Rupert Holmes)
Feb. 27, 2023

490 Writing Hit Songs, Rewriting Charles Dickens, and Murdering Your …

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 Mys...

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489 Schopenhauer (aka The Tunnel and The Hole)
Feb. 23, 2023

489 Schopenhauer (aka The Tunnel and The Hole)

"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 - Schopenh...

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488 William Faulkner (with Carl Rollyson)
Feb. 20, 2023

488 William Faulkner (with Carl Rollyson)

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 Alarmi...

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487 Bond, the Beatles, and the British Psyche (with John Higgs)
Feb. 16, 2023

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

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, …

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486 The Creative Partnership of Willa Cather & Edith Lewis (with Melissa J. Homestead)
Feb. 13, 2023

486 The Creative Partnership of Willa Cather & Edith Lewis (with Meli…

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,...

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485 Reading Pleasures - Everyday Black Living in Early America (with Dr Tara Bynum)
Feb. 9, 2023

485 Reading Pleasures - Everyday Black Living in Early America (with …

"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 h...

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484 Reading John Milton (with Stephen Dobranski)
Feb. 6, 2023

484 Reading John Milton (with Stephen Dobranski)

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 …

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483 Margaret Fuller (with Megan Marshall)
Feb. 2, 2023

483 Margaret Fuller (with Megan Marshall)

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 treatmen...

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482 Moby Dick - 10 Essential Questions (Part Two)
Jan. 30, 2023

482 Moby Dick - 10 Essential Questions (Part Two)

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 ab...

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481 Moby Dick - 10 Essential Questions (Part One)
Jan. 26, 2023

481 Moby Dick - 10 Essential Questions (Part One)

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 will - a literary leviathan, an intellectual chowder, an early entry …

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480 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (with Ritchie Robertson)
Jan. 23, 2023

480 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (with Ritchie Robertson)

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 the same time, in the width, depth, and richness of his criticism of life, by...

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479 Auden and the Muse of History (with Susannah Young-ah Gottlieb)
Jan. 19, 2023

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

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 of fascism, two world wars, and industrialized murder, his focus turned to...

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478 The Diaries of Franz Kafka (with Ross Benjamin)
Jan. 16, 2023

478 The Diaries of Franz Kafka (with Ross Benjamin)

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 translator Ross Benjamin about the new edition of The Diaries of Franz Kafka , publi...

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477 Does Edith Wharton Hate You? (Part 2 -
Jan. 12, 2023

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

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 literature and her fiction satirizing the same. In this two-part series, Jac...

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476 Does Edith Wharton Hate You? (Part 1 -
Jan. 12, 2023

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

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 literature and her fiction satirizing the same. In this two-part series, Jac...

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475 Portable Magic - A History of Books and Their Readers (with Emma Smith)
Jan. 9, 2023

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

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 this episode, Jacke talks to author Emma Smith ( This Is Shakespeare ) abou...

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474 Herman Melville
Jan. 5, 2023

474 Herman Melville

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 a fancy Manhattan childhood to financial ruin and back again. Once a liter...

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473 A Hemingway Short Story (with Mark Cirino)
Jan. 2, 2023

473 A Hemingway Short Story (with Mark Cirino)

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 discussion of Hemingway's classic short story about World War I and recovery...

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472 The Art of Not Knowing
Dec. 29, 2022

472 The Art of Not Knowing

In this special episode, Jacke pays tribute to a friend, including a consideration of endings and beginnings, mystery and grace, and two powerful works: John Berger's The Shape of a Pocket and James Joyce's masterpiece "The D...

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471 Angels of War (with Ariel Lawhon, Kristina McMorris, and Susan Meissner
Dec. 26, 2022

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

In this episode, Jacke talks to three bestselling authors - Susan Meissner, Kristina McMorris, and Ariel Lawhon - who came together to write When We Had Wings , a historical novel about a trio of World War II nurses who …

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