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The History of Literature #364 – Bob Dylan, the Blues, and Songs with Literary Power (with Mike Mattison and Ernest Suarez)
What happened in the Sixties? How did singers of popular music transform from mere entertainers to the poetic bards of their generation? Were these songs literature? If so, what does that mean? And if not, what exactly are they? In this episode, Jacke talks to the authors of a new book, Poetic Song Verse: Blues-Based Popular Continue reading
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The History of Literature #363 – William Butler Yeats
Born into a remarkable family full of talented artists, the Irish poet and playwright William Butler Yeats (1865-1938) nevertheless stood out. Deeply immersed in mysticism and the occult – along with Irish politics, the development of the theater, and devotion to advancing the spirit of Ireland’s native heritage – Yeats bridged the divide from the Continue reading
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The History of Literature #362 – Kurt Vonnegut (with Tom Roston)
Jacke talks to journalist Tom Roston about his new biography of Kurt Vonnegut, The Writer’s Crusade: Kurt Vonnegut and the Many Lives of Slaughterhouse Five. PLUS Jacke reads excerpts from one of Vonnegut’s most famous speeches, the address he gave to Agnes Scott College in 1999. Enjoy! Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. Continue reading
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The History of Literature #361 – Five Glimpses of Gratitude (Maya Angelou, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sharon Olds, Henry David Thoreau, WS Merwin)
Feeling grateful, Jacke rummages through the literary storage trunk to find works on gratitude by five poets and essayists: Maya Angelou, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sharon Olds, Henry David Thoreau, and W. S. Merwin. Enjoy! Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and Continue reading
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The History of Literature #360 – FMK Shakespeare! (with Laurie Frankel) | Tolstoy’s Gospel (with Scott Carter)
It’s a good day for cooking! First up: Scott Carter, author of the play Discord: The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens, and Count Leo Tolstoy, joins Jacke for a look at the gospel as updated by Leo Tolstoy. Then novelist Laurie Frankel (author of One Two Three) stops by for a special Shakespeare Continue reading
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The History of Literature #359 – Forgotten Women of Literature 6 – Eliza Haywood and Fantomina | PLUS Keats’s Letter on Shakespeare and “Negative Capability”
During her stormy and mysterious life, Eliza Haywood (1693?-1756) was one of the most prolific writers in England. Her “amatory fictions” were unapologetically sensationalistic, earning her the opprobrium of her mostly male critics. But in spite of being described (some might say slandered) by Alexander Pope in his Dunciad, Haywood kept going – acting, writing, translating, Continue reading
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The History of Literature #358 – Jasmine Griffin) | Charles Dickens’s Gospel (with Scott Carter)
In her new book Read Until You Understand, beloved professor Farah Jasmine Griffin entwines memoir, history, and art in exploring the culture of Black genius and the lessons and legacies of Black lives and literature. In this episode, Professor Griffin joins Jacke for a discussion of her father, the role literature played in her life Continue reading
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The History of Literature #357 – Little Women Remixed (with Bethany C. Morrow) | Thomas Jefferson’s Gospel (with Scott Carter)
It’s a literary feast! National bestselling author Bethany C. Morrow joins Jacke for a discussion of her novel So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix, in which four young Black sisters come of age during the American Civil War. PLUS playwright Scott Carter, author of Discord: The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens, and Count Leo Continue reading
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The History of Literature #356 – Louisa May Alcott
“I could not write a girls’ story,” Louisa May Alcott protested after a publisher made a specific request that she do so, “knowing little about any but my own sisters and always preferring boys.” But she agreed to try, and the result was Little Women, an immediate bestseller and now a world-famous and well-loved classic. But Continue reading
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The History of Literature #355 – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Brilliant and contentious, the Swiss-born political philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (`1712-1768) is one of the key figures of the Enlightenment, with a fame and influence that continues to this day. But although we know him best for his Social Contract, which influenced both the American Constitution writers and the French revolutionaries, in his own time he was Continue reading
Jacke Wilson 