The History of Literature #430 – In Shakespeare’s Shadow (with Michael Blanding)

August 9, 2022August 1, 2022 ~ jackewilson ~ Leave a comment

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0hd6rJHmhnVn6t9BX37lJP?si=a8abd777ae184061

It’s a paradox that has bothered Shakespeare’s fans for centuries: the man was as insightful into human beings as anyone whoever lived, and yet his own life is barely documented. This combination of literary genius plus biographical uncertainty has spun off a number of mysteries – including the question of how exactly Shakespeare came to know the things that he did.

In this episode, Jacke talks to investigative journalist Michael Blanding, author of In Shakespeare’s Shadow, about a renegade scholar named Dennis McCarthy’s theory that Shakespeare may have drawn upon a previously unknown source – the lost plays of Sir Thomas North – and how Blanding himself joined the pursuit of searching for evidence to support McCarthy’s theory.

Additional listening suggestions:

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 the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature.

The History of Literature #427 – Bashō’s Best – Haiku and the Essence of Life

August 6, 2022August 1, 2022 ~ jackewilson ~ Leave a comment

In our last episode, Jacke looked at the life of celebrated Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694), the widely acknowledged master of haiku. In this episode, Jacke looks deeper into the nature of Bashō’s best works, organizing them into some loose categories and offering some thoughts on haiku in Bashō’s world and ours.

Additional listening suggestions:

The History of Literature #353 – Oscar Wilde in Prison (with Scott Carter)

March 13, 2022March 1, 2022 ~ jackewilson ~ Leave a comment

Even the best biographical depictions of Oscar Wilde often skip over the years he spent in prison, perhaps because the episode is so sad and painful. But in doing so, they miss the profundity of his life and writings. In this episode, Scott Carter, author of the new play Wilde Man, joins Jacke to talk about Oscar Wilde’s time in prison, including the writing of the agonizing masterpiece De Profundis.

The History of Literature #338 – Finding Yourself in Hollywood (with Meg Tilly)

August 16, 2021August 5, 2021 ~ jackewilson ~ Leave a comment

Jacke talks to actress and novelist Meg Tilly about her unusual childhood, her life as a ballet dancer and Hollywood star, and her current life writing thrillers in the peaceful Pacific Northwest.

THE RUNAWAY HEIRESS is the pulse-pounding story of a brave woman who finds herself falling for a big-shot film director while trying to stay one step ahead of the man who will do anything to find her.

Meg Tilly may be best known for her acclaimed Golden Globe-winning performance in the movie Agnes of God. Other screen credits include The Big Chill, Valmont, and, more recently, Bomb Girls and the Netflix movie War Machine, starring Brad Pitt. After publishing six standout young adult and literary women’s fiction novels, the award-winning author/actress decided to write the kind of books she loves to read: romance novels. Tilly has three grown children and resides with her husband in the Pacific Northwest.

The History of Literature #336 – Painting the Paintings in Literature (with Charlie Stein)

August 14, 2021August 5, 2021 ~ jackewilson ~ Leave a comment

German artist Charlie Stein joins Jacke for a discussion of art in literature, including her series 100 Paintings Imagined by Authors, in which she and her partner Andy Best use textual clues and historical context to reimagine artworks that are described in great works of literature. You can see examples of their work at charliestein.com/100-paintings-imagined/

In appreciation to Charlie for joining us, we are donating to her preferred charity, Bärenherz Children’s Hospice in Leipzig.

Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. (We appreciate it!) Find out more at historyofliterature.com, jackewilson.com, or by following Jacke and Mike on Twitter at @thejackewilson and @literatureSC. Or send an email to jackewilsonauthor@gmail.com.

New!!! Looking for an easy to way to buy Jacke a coffee? Now you can at paypal.me/jackewilson. Your generosity is much appreciated!

The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature.

The History of Literature #334 – Katherine Mansfield

August 12, 2021August 5, 2021 ~ jackewilson ~ Leave a comment

Born into a well-to-do family in New Zealand, Katherine Mansfield began writing fiction at the age of 10. But it was in England and continental Europe that her writing took flight, as she drew upon Chekhov and the new spirit of Modernism to advance (and perfect) the short story form before dying a tragically early death. Her work was “the only writing I have ever been jealous of…,” Virginia Woolf wrote. “Probably we had something in common which I shall never find in anybody else.” In this episode, Jacke takes a look at the life and career of Katherine Mansfield, including a close-up look at her masterpiece “The Garden Party.”

New!!! Looking for an easy to way to buy Jacke a coffee? Now you can at paypal.me/jackewilson. Your generosity is much appreciated!

The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature.

The History of Literature #333 – Tristram Shandy

August 11, 2021August 5, 2021 ~ jackewilson ~ Leave a comment

It’s the OG of experimental literature! (In English, anyway…) In this episode, Jacke takes a look at the wild and woolly Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne. And in spite of Dr. Johnson’s famous claim that “nothing odd will do long – Tristram Shandy did not last!” we’re still talking about this classic eighteenth-century novel. Who was Sterne? What rules did he break? And what power does it have for a reader today?

New!!! Looking for an easy to way to buy Jacke a coffee? Now you can at paypal.me/jackewilson. Your generosity is much appreciated!

The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature.

New Year’s Thank You: The Top Podcast Episodes of the Year

December 31, 2015 ~ jackewilson ~ Leave a comment

Dear Readers and Listeners:

It’s time for another humble thank you from your old friend Jacke. This year was another good one in Jackeland. No new books (alas), but a newly launched podcast, plenty of blogging inspiration – and most importantly, the community of readers and listeners who make everything worthwhile.

I owe you more than I could ever express.

But I’ll keep trying! Or at least, I’ll keep trying to express something. We may be uncertain about the role of literature, and we may have more failures than successes, but the creative spirit is still endlessly fascinating and apparently indefatigable. Let’s hope it’s the same – for you as well as me – in 2016, as it was in 2015.

I’m going to take a quick run through the most popular episodes of The History of Literature, as selected by you the listeners. Here we go from 10-6:

#10 (tie) – Gar Discovers a Lost Recording of Walt Whitman!

November 12, 2015

Gar finds a lost recording of Walt Whitman reading his own poetry! Plus: Author Jacke Wilson gives an update on the Greatest First Lines contest.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:27 — 20.5MB)

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#10 (tie) – Greek Comedy – Aristophanes

December 14, 2015

Author Jacke Wilson examines the life and works of Aristophanes, whose comic plays included The Clouds, which pokes fun at philosophers such as Socrates, and Lysistrata, where the females of Athens and Sparta go on a sex strike in an attempt to end the war.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 45:04 — 31.2MB)

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#10 (tie) – Proust, Pound, and Chinese Poetry

December 17, 2015

A young Jacke Wilson immerses himself in great books on his way from Taiwan to Tibet – and finds out what Ezra Pound, Marcel Proust, and Chinese poetry can teach him about literature and life.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 50:36 — 35.0MB)

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#10 (tie) – A Jacke Wilson Holiday

December 24, 2015

Jacke offers some holiday thoughts on loneliness, his failures with women and the theater, and a teary trip to the Nutcracker.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:35 — 28.5MB)

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#9 – Odysseus Leaves Calypso

November 16, 2015

Responding to a listener email, author Jacke Wilson takes a deeper look at one of the Odyssey’s most famous passages. Why does Odysseus leave Calypso, and what does it tell us about Homer and his genius? And is it fair to compare Achilles and Odysseus with Yosemite Sam and Bugs Bunny?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:15 — 12.8MB)

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#8 – Greek Tragedy (Part Two) – Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides

December 7, 2015

Author Jacke Wilson examines the works of three great Greek tragedians, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides – and attempts to solve the mystery of why Friedrich Nietzsche admired two of the three and despised the other.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:28 — 38.4MB)

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#7 – Sappho

November 23, 2015

Ancient Greece viewed her as Homer’s poetic equal; Plato referred to her as the “tenth muse.” As a fearless and lyrical chronicler of female desire, she had a profound impact on literature and society. Author Jacke Wilson takes a look at the genius of Sappho, the first great female writer in the history of literature.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:27 — 17.7MB)

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#6 – Nietzsche’s Children

December 10, 2015

Continuing the discussion of Greek tragedy, Jacke takes a look at Nietzsche and the impact he has on eager young philosophers. This episode includes the Jacke Wilson story “My Roommate’s Books” from the History of Jacke in 100 Objects series.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:26 — 33.6MB)

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Onward and upward, everyone!

Little Black Dress? Yes. Little Black Penguin Classics? Also Yes!

December 16, 2015December 16, 2015 ~ jackewilson ~ 3 Comments

Some things are so classy they just never go out of style. Like little black dresses, and little black classics from Penguin Books. Here’s another gift idea for this holiday season (along with Edward Gorey).

Eighty Penguin Classics, presented in bite-sized form (i.e., novellas, short essays, selections of poems, or excerpted passages from longer books).

Yes, it’s a bit of a commitment ($75 or so), but that’s cheap for what you’re getting, and think of the possibilities here. Close your eyes, grab one, tuck it into your pocket, and head out to face the day. Give yourself a little surprise: a bit of Chekhov, maybe, or a touch of Sappho. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,: Suetonius, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Montaigne.

Will it work? Can I make my year better through this strategy of randomizing my brain expansion? Stay tuned!

Amazon description:

The Little Black Classics feature works by Jane Austen, Anton Chekhov, Samuel Coleridge, Edgar Allan Poe, John Milton, Nikolay Leskov, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Gustave Glaubert, Nikolai Gogol, Samuel Pepys, Washington Irving, Henry James, Christina Rossetti, Sophocles, Leo Tolstoy, Oscar Wilde, Boccaccio, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Thomas de Quincey, Apollonius of Rhodes, Robert Louis Stevenson, Petronius, John Peter Hebel, Hans Christian Andersen, Rudyard Kipling, John Keats, Thomas Hardy, Guy de Maupassant, Aesop, Joseph Conrad, Brothers Grimm, Katherine Mansfield, Ovid, Ivan Turgenev, H. G. Wells, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Charles Dickens, Herman Melville, Michel de Montaigne, Thomas Nashe, Mary Kingsley, Honoré de Balzac, C. P. Cavafy, Wilfred Owen, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Plato, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Giorgio Vasari, Friederich Nietzsche, Suetonius, Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx, Dante, Henry Mayhew, Hafez, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Ruskin, Pu Songling, Jonathan Swift, Walt Whitman, Kenko, Baltasar Gracián, Marco Polo, Matsuo Basho, Emily Bronte, Richard Hakluyt, Omar Khayyam, Charles Darwin, Catullus, Homer, D. H. Lawrence, Sappho, Virgil, Herodotus, Shen Fu, and others.

Exciting Discovery Revealed Tomorrow!

November 11, 2015November 8, 2015 ~ jackewilson ~ Leave a comment

WOW!

I don’t want to overpromise until I hear more details, but it sounds like tomorrow will be a Very Big Day for The History of Literature Podcast. Here’s a hint:

Come back tomorrow for the Restless Mind Show when all will be revealed. Or just subscribe to the History of Literature Podcast (iTunes | Android | RSS | More Subscribe Options).

See you then!