Writing
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The History of Literature #163 – Gabriel García Márquez (with Sarah Bird)
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL5528223655.mp3 In this episode, Jacke welcomes author Sarah Bird to the program to talk about her background, her writing, and her readerly passion for the fiction of the great twentieth-century novelist, Gabriel García Márquez. GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ (1927-2014) was one of the most revered and influential novelists of the twentieth century. Born in a small… Continue reading
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162 Ernest Hemingway
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL5052941823.mp3 Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) was one of the most famous American writers of the twentieth century. His plain, economical prose style–inspired by journalism and the King James Bible, with an assist from the Cezannes he viewed in Gertrude Stein’s apartment–became a hallmark of modernism and changed the course of American literature. In this episode, Jacke… Continue reading
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161 Voltaire
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL9193713738.mp3 Voltaire was born Francois Marie Arouet in 1694 in Paris, France, the son of a respectable but not particularly eminent lawyer. By the time he died at the age of 83, he was widely regarded as one of the greatest French writers in history, a distinction he still holds today. Astoundingly prolific, he is… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #160 – Ray Bradbury (with Carolyn Cohagan)
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL4719308449.mp3 Special guest Carolyn Cohagan, author of the Time Zero trilogy and founder of the creative writing workshop Girls with Pens, joins Jacke for a discussion of her writing process, her origins in standup comedy and theater, and her early love for the fiction of Ray Bradbury (and her special appreciation for his short story “All Summer… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #158 – “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL3236940460.mp3 In the 1960s and ’70s, the Vietnam War dominated the hearts and minds of a generation of Americans. In 1990, the American writer Tim O’Brien, himself a former soldier, published “The Things They Carried,” a short story that became an instant classic. Through its depiction of the members of a platoon in Vietnam, told… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #157 – Travel Books (with Mike Palindrome)
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL1955560639.mp3 “The world is a book,” said Augustine, “and those who do not travel read only one page.” But what about books ABOUT traveling? Do they double the pleasure? Transport us to a different place? Inspire and enchant? Or are they more like a forced march through someone else’s interminable photo album? Mike Palindrome, President… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #155 – Plato
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL3663385565.mp3 “The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition,” said Alfred North Whitehead, “is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.” We’ve all heard the name of Plato and his famous mentor Socrates, and most of us have encountered the dialogues, a literary-philosophical form he essentially invented. We know the… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #153 – Charles Dickens
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL7087645759.mp3 Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was the greatest novelist of the Victorian age. In his 58 years he went from a hardscrabble childhood to a world-famous author, beloved and admired for his unforgettable characters, his powers of observation and empathy, and his championing of the lower classes. He wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #152 – George Sand
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL6745135714.mp3 George Sand wrote an astonishing number of novels and plays, and had friendships and affairs with an astonishing range of men and women. She dressed in men’s clothing, and she inspired a host of 19th century authors and artists, including Russian writers like Turgenev and Dostoevsky and British writers like Mary Ann Evans, who… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #150 – Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Little Dog”
http://traffic.megaphone.fm/ADL4067569493.mp3 It’s a deceptively simple story: a man and a woman meet, have an affair, are separated, and reunite. And yet, in writing about Anton Chekhov’s story, “The Lady with the Little Dog” (1899), Vladimir Nabokov said, “All the traditional rules have been broken in this wonderful short story…. No problem, no regular climax, no… Continue reading
Jacke Wilson 