The History of Literature #439 – Poets’ Guide to Economics (with John Ramsden)

September 13, 2022September 16, 2022 ~ jackewilson ~ Leave a comment

Sure, we know poets are experts in subjects like love, death, nightingales, and moonlight. But what about money? Isn’t that a little…beneath them? (Or at least out of their area of expertise?) In this episode, Jacke talks to author John Ramsden (The Poets’ Guide to Economics) about the contributions made by eleven poets to the field of economics. What did men like Defoe, Swift, Shelley, Coleridge, Sir Walter Scott, de Quincey, Ruskin, William Morris, George Bernard Shaw, Hilaire Belloc, and Ezra Pound get right? Where did they go wrong?

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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 #437 – A Million Miracles Now – “A Bird, came down the Walk” by Emily Dickinson

September 11, 2022September 5, 2022 ~ jackewilson ~ Leave a comment

Responding to a listener email, a heartbroken Jacke takes a close look at Emily Dickinson’s astonishing poem “A Bird, came down the Walk.”

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The History of Literature #435 – The Story of the Hogarth Press Part 2 – The Virginia Woolf Story That Changed Everything

September 9, 2022September 5, 2022 ~ jackewilson ~ Leave a comment

In our last episode, we looked at the decision by Virginia Woolf and her husband Leonard to purchase a printing press and run it out of their home. What began as a hobby – a relief from the strains of writing – soon turned into a genuine business, as The Hogarth Press met with success. And when Virginia published one of her most famous stories “Kew Gardens,” the dam burst, and the Woolfs and their press had to prepare for a dramatic increase in sales. In this episode, Jacke continues and concludes the story of the Hogarth Press, including a close look at the story that changed the press’s fortunes.

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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.

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The History of Literature #428 – Edward Gibbon (with Zachary Karabell)

August 7, 2022August 1, 2022 ~ jackewilson ~ Leave a comment

Since the first publication of his six-volume magnum opus, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon (1734-1797) has been ranked among the greatest historians who ever lived. What made his work different? Does it hold up today? And what lessons can a modern-day historian draw from his example? In this episode, Jacke talks with author Zachary Karabell about Gibbon’s inspiration, influence, and legacy.

ZACHARY KARABELL is the author of numerous books, including Inside Money: Brown Brothers Harriman and the American Way of Power and The Leading Indicators: A Short History of the Numbers That Rule Our World. He is also the founder of the Progress Network at New America, the president of River Twice Capital, and the host of the podcast “What Could Go Right?”

Additional listening suggestions:

321 Thucydides
285 Herodotus
36 Poetry and Empire (Virgil, Ovid, Horace, Petronius, Catullus)
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 http://www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature.

The History of Literature #406 – A World in Turmoil – 1967-1971 (with Beverly Gologorsky)

May 13, 2022May 9, 2022 ~ jackewilson ~ Leave a comment

Novelist Beverly Gologorsky joins Jacke for a discussion of the tumultuous years from 1967 to 1971, which provides the background for her new novel. In Can You See the Wind?, a working-class family in the Bronx struggles to make a better world, even as the world spins into chaos.

Columbia professor (and friend of the podcast) Farah Jasmine Griffin says “Beverly Gologorsky brings a clarity of vision and purpose to this extraordinary novel—a story about the complexities and love that both bring families, lovers and comrades together and tears them apart. Can You See the Wind? renders the urgency of political movements as well as moments of individual contemplation. That she does so in breathtaking prose is a testament to her brilliance and artistry.”

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The History of Literature #321 – Thucydides

July 30, 2021June 28, 2021 ~ jackewilson ~ Leave a comment

Jacke and Mike take a look at the life and works of Thucydides (c. 460 to c. 400 B.C.), an Athenian general whose History of the Peloponnesian War has earned him the title of “the father of scientific history” or sometimes “the other father of history.” We discuss the highlights of Thucydides, what it’s like to read him in 2021, whether it’s better to read him straight through or only for the famous parts (such as the Pericles funeral oration and the Melian dialogue) and how he compares with his predecessor Herodotus, the earlier Ancient Greek historian who took a very different approach to the writing of history.

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.

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!

“A Crisp and Merciless Clarity”: Mary Beard’s SPQR

December 5, 2015November 25, 2015 ~ jackewilson ~ Leave a comment

beard2

I haven’t read the latest book by Mary Beard yet, but this NY Times review is certainly enough to whet my readerly appetite:

How on earth did they do it? The Greek historian Polybius, writing in the second century B.C., was the first to ask the question: “Who could be so indifferent or so idle that they did not want to find out how, and under what kind of political organization, almost the whole of the inhabited world was conquered and fell under the sole power of the Romans in less than 53 years?” It was not as if Rome was a promising spot: a swampy piece of ground up a barely navigable river surrounded by scrubby hills, its few thousand inhabitants alternately flooded out and ravaged by malaria….

In “SPQR,” her wonderful concise history, Mary Beard unpacks the secrets of the city’s success with a crisp and merciless clarity that I have not seen equaled anywhere else.

For those of you not familiar with Mary Beard, she’s worth checking out. She’s one of my favorite guests on the In Our Time show (with Melvyn Bragg) and one of my favorite reviewers in the New York Review of Books. When it comes to the ancients, she’s as consistently excellent (and reliable) as we have.

You can find it here: