The History of Literature

Latest Episodes:

675 Zora Neale Hurston (with Cheryl Hopson) | Jack Kerouac's Newly Discovered Writings Feb 03, 2025

Show notes

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) was the most published African American woman writer of the first half of the twentieth century; her signature novel Their Eyes Were Watching God is still read by students, scholars, and literature lovers everywhere. In this episode, Jacke talks to Hurston biographer Cheryl R. Hopson (Zora Neale Hurston: A Critical Life) about the life and creativity of this remarkable figure. PLUS Jacke takes a look at some newly resurfaced works by Jack Kerouac, which shed light on his dalliance with Buddhism.

Additional listening:

The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at ⁠gabrielruizbernal.com⁠.

Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature.

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674 Nabokov vs Freud (with Joshua Ferris) [Ad-Free Re-Release] Jan 30, 2025

Show notes

“I admire Freud greatly,” the novelist Vladimir Nabokov once said, “as a comic writer.” For Nabokov, Sigmund Freud was “the Viennese witch-doctor,” objectionable for “the vulgar, shabby, fundamentally medieval world” of his ideas. Author Joshua Ferris (The Dinner Party, Then We Came to the End) joins Jacke for a discussion of the author of Lolita and his special hatred for “the Austrian crank with a shabby umbrella.”

[This episode was originally released on September 30, 2017. It is presented here without commercial interruptions.]

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673 Edna Ferber (with Julie Gilbert) | My Last Book with Jessica Kirzane Jan 27, 2025

Show notes

Novelist and playwright Edna Ferber (1885-1968) lived a wondrous life: residing in Manhattan as a member of the famed Algonquin Round Table, writing a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel (So Big), and producing works that Hollywood turned into twentieth-century classics, including the Kern & Hammerstein musical Show Boat and George Stevens's Giant, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean. Along the way, she also served as a caretaker and mentor for her grandniece, who was wowed by her great aunt's style, presence, and celebrity connections. In this episode, Jacke talks to Julie Gilbert, that little girl who grew up to become a writer herself, about her new book Giant Love: Edna Ferber, Her Best-Selling Novel of Texas, and the Making of a Classic American Film. PLUS Jacke talks to Yiddish literature expert Jessica Kirzane about her choice for the last book she will ever read.

Additional listening:

The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at ⁠gabrielruizbernal.com⁠.

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672 The Little Review (with Holly A. Baggett) | My Last Book with Phil Jones Jan 23, 2025

Show notes

Founded in Chicago in 1914, the avant-garde journal the Little Review became a giant in the cause of modernism, publishing literature and art by luminaries such as T.S. Eliot, Djuna Barnes, William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Gertrude Stein, Jean Toomer, William Carlos Williams, H.D., Amy Lowell, Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Stella, Hans Arp, Mina Loy, Emma Goldman, Wyndham Lewis, Hart Crane, Sherwood Anderson, and more. Perhaps most famously, the magazine published Joyce's Ulysses in serial form, causing a scandal and leading to a censorship trial that changed the course of literature.

In this episode, Jacke talks to scholar Holly A. Baggett about her book Making No Compromise: Margaret Anderson, Jane Heap, and the Little Review, which tells the story of the two Midwestern women behind the Little Review, who were themselves iconoclastic rebels, living openly as lesbians and advocating for causes like anarchy, feminism, free love, and of course, groundbreaking literature and art. PLUS Phil Jones (Reading Samuel Johnson: Reception and Representation, 1750-1970) stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read.

Additional listening:

The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at ⁠gabrielruizbernal.com⁠.

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671 Shakespeare's Tragic Art (with Rhodri Lewis) | My Last Book with Joel Warner Jan 20, 2025

Show notes

It is a truth universally acknowledged that tragedy is one of the world's highest art forms, and that Shakespeare was one of the form's greatest practitioners. But how did he do it? What models did he have to draw upon, and where did he innovate? In this episode, Jacke talks to Shakespeare scholar Rhodri Lewis about his new book Shakespeare's Tragic Art, a new account of Shakespearean tragedy as a response to life in an uncertain world. PLUS Joel Warner (The Curse of the Marquis de Sade: A Notorious Scoundrel, a Mythical Manuscript, and the Biggest Scandal in Literary History) stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read.

Additional listening:

The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at ⁠gabrielruizbernal.com⁠.

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670 The Parable Jan 16, 2025

Show notes

Inspired by an email (from a listener?) with mysterious origins, Jacke takes a look at the brief narrative form the parable. How did parables get their name? What are their key features? Why did Jesus rely on them so heavily to communicate to his listeners? And what meaning does "A Parable" have for us today?

Additional listening:

The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at ⁠gabrielruizbernal.com⁠.

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669 Obsessed with Melville (with Jennifer Habel and Chris Bachelder) | My Last Book with Alexander Poots Jan 13, 2025

Show notes

What happens when a woman becomes obsessed with Herman Melville during the pandemic? What if the process of sorting fact from fiction in Melville's work inspires a midlife reckoning with her own marriage and ambition? And what if she (a poet) and her husband (a novelist, by the way) write a book about all of it? Well, the result would be something like Dayswork: A Novel, which has been called "a supremely literate achievement that wears its erudition lightly." In this episode, Jacke talks to the poet and her novelist husband, Jennifer Habel and Chris Bachelder, about what Melville means to them. PLUS Alexander Boots (The Strangers' House: Writing Northern Ireland) discusses his choice for the last book he will ever read.

Additional listening suggestions:

The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at ⁠gabrielruizbernal.com⁠.

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668 Book and Dagger - The Scholars and Librarians Who Became Spies and Fought the Nazis (with Elyse Graham) | Jane Austen Turns 250 Jan 09, 2025

Show notes

When the U.S. joined the war in the 1940s, it had a problem: its military had virtually no intelligence service. Enter the librarians! In this episode, Jacke talks to Elyse Graham about her work Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II, which tells the story of the efforts to recruit academics and train them for espionage. PLUS a look at some of the upcoming festivities being planned for Jane Austen's 250th birthday.

Additional listening:

The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at ⁠gabrielruizbernal.com⁠.

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667 Sui Sin Far (with Victoria Namkung) | My Last Book with Samantha Rose Hill Jan 06, 2025

Show notes

Edith Maude Eaton (1865-1914) grew up in unusual circumstances: her father was an English merchant who traveled to China on business, and her mother was a formerly enslaved tightrope walker and human knife-throwing target who traveled all over the world with an acrobatic troupe. The eldest daughter among fourteen children, Eaton mostly grew up in Montreal, then relocated to America, where she became famous under the pen name Sui Sin Far. Today, her journalism and fiction, mostly chronicling the lives of Chinese men and women living in America, are impressive for their insight and humor. In this episode, Jacke talks to novelist and scholar Victoria Namkung about An Immortal Book: Selected Writings by Sui Sin Far, for which she wrote the forward. PLUS Samantha Rose Hill (Hannah Arendt: A Critical Life) discusses her choice for the last book she will ever read.

Additional listening:

The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at ⁠gabrielruizbernal.com⁠.

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666 "Winter Dreams" by F. Scott Fitzgerald (with Mike Palindrome) | My Last Book with Lev Grossman Jan 02, 2025

Show notes

First published in December of 1922, "Winter Dreams" was one of the short stories known as the "Gatsby cluster," as F. Scott Fitzgerald worked out the characters, themes, and prose style that would later make his famous novel The Great Gatsby (1925) an American classic. Telling the story of Dexter Green, a Midwestern golf caddy who becomes a wealthy - but not wealthy enough - suitor to a rich young heiress Judy Jones, "Winter Dreams" works out some of Fitzgerald's own nostalgia and regret for his thwarted relationship with Chicago socialite Ginevra King. In this episode, Jacke and Mike introduce and comment upon the story, which is read in its entirety. PLUS Lev Grossman (The Bright Sword)stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read.

Additional listening:

The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at ⁠gabrielruizbernal.com⁠.

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