civil war
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The History of Literature #514 — Southern Gothic (with David van den Berg) | My Last Book with Jason Feifer
In the aftermath of a Civil War loss that shattered the region and exposed the moral and cultural fault lines in the populace, writers in the American South responded with stories filled with grotesque, macabre, and shockingly violent elements, developing a genre that came to be known as Southern Gothic. In this episode, Jacke talks Continue reading
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The History of Literature #457 — The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson’s Editor (The Thomas Wentworth Higginson Story) | PLUS Making (Book) Dreams Come True (with Eve Yohalem and Julie Sternberg)
Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823-1911) has become famous as the man who in 1862 encouraged young contributors to submit to his magazine – and who received in reply four poems from an unknown woman in Amherst, who asked whether he thought her verses were alive. Her name, of course, was Emily Dickinson, and Higginson recognized her Continue reading
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The History of Literature #385 – The Gettysburg Address
In November of 1863, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln boarded a train for Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. His heart was heavy with the cost of two years of a bitter civil war, his body fatigued and feverish from what was likely the onset of smallpox. In the midst of personal grief and political turmoil, he drafted and delivered Continue reading
Jacke Wilson 