Mark Twain – Jacke Wilson

April 20, 2022

The History of Literature #391 – Mark Twain’s Publishing Fiasco | Great Literary Terms and Devices Part 2 (with Mike Palindrome)

Mark Twain was an enormously successful writer and a horrendous businessperson, with a weakness for gadgets and inventions that cost him a fortune. In this episode, Jacke takes a look at his efforts to start his own publishing company, which started off strong but quickly descended into bankruptcy and ruin. What was he trying to Continue reading

Arts, Authors, Fiction, history of literature, novelists

Fiction, Literature, Mark Twain, Writing

January 19, 2021

The History of Literature #258 Hatchet Jobs! The Top 10 Most Savage Reviews of All Time

The vast majority of book reviews are informative and genteel. What books get that treatment, and why? And what happens when reviewers sharpen their tools and go nasty? Jacke and Mike take a look at the some of the most savage book reviews of all time. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. (We appreciate it!) Find Continue reading

history of literature, Podcast

david foster wallace, dorothy parker, john updike, Mark Twain

April 28, 2017

History of Literature #90 – Mark Twain’s Final Request

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 50:31 — 35.5MB) | Embed Subscribe: iTunes | Android | Email | RSS | More In 1910, the American author Mark Twain took to his bed in his Connecticut home. Weakened by disease and no longer able to write, the legendary humorist (and author of The Adventures of Continue reading

Arts, Authors, books, Fiction, history of literature, Podcast, Writing

1601, french revolution, huckleberry finn, last words, Mark Twain, obituary, thomas carlyle, tom sawyer

December 19, 2016

History of Literature #72 Best Christmas Stories in Literature

Sure, we all know the story of Frosty and Rudolph… but what about literary Christmas stories? How have great authors treated (or mistreated) this celebrated holiday? Mike Palindrome, President of the Literature Supporters Club, joins Jacke for a look at the ten best Christmas stories in literature. Authors discussed include Dostoevsky, Dickens, Willa Cather, Mark Continue reading

Arts, Authors, books, Fiction, history of literature, Podcast

chekhov, dickens, Dostoevsky, Dr. Seuss, Hans Christian Andersen, james joyce, Mark Twain, Ntozake Shange, o. henry, Roderick Thorpe, Thomas Mann, Willa Cather

October 7, 2016

The History of Literature Episode #62 – Bad Poetry

Everyone loves and admires a good poem…but what about the bad ones? After discussing his own experience writing terrible poetry, Jacke analyzes the 10 things that make a poem go wrong, assesses the curious role of Scotland and Michigan in developing bad poetry, and reviews some candidates for the worst poet in history, including: Jennifer Aniston, whose astonishingly Continue reading

Arts, Authors, books, history of literature, Podcast, Uncategorized, Writing

bad poetry, james mcintyre, jennifer aniston, joyce kilmer, margaret cavendish, Mark Twain, Robert Burns, william macgonagall

November 14, 2015

Craunch the Marmoset, Buy Cat in Pocket: The Book Mark Twain Called “Perfect”

What happens when a Portuguese publisher who doesn’t know English attempts to bring out an English phrase book? This great 2011 piece from Splitsider tells the whole story. Continue reading

Uncategorized

Humor, inadvertent comedy, Mark Twain, portuguese, splitsider, Translation

April 6, 2014

What They Knew #30

“High and fine literature is wine, and mine is only water…” – Mark Twain “…but everybody likes water.” – Mark Twain Continue reading

Authors, Fiction, What They Knew, Writing

humblebrag, Literature, Mark Twain, Writing

January 21, 2014

The Celebrated Yarn Spinner of Whatagenius County

Ben Tarnoff takes an insightful look at Mark Twain’s push to employ his humor for something deeper than mere entertainment. Mark Twain loved frontier humor, the impish wit and yeasty vernacular, its fondness for the gargantuan and the grotesque. He also understood its deeper value: not merely as entertainment but as a survival tactic. Twain Continue reading

Authors, Fiction, Uncategorized, Writing

Humor, Mark Twain