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The History of Literature Podcast

The History of Literature Podcast

Amateur enthusiast Jacke Wilson journeys through the history of literature, from ancient epics to contemporary classics. (Episodes are not in chronological order - feel free to jump in wherever you'd like!)

Recent Episodes

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637 From the Archives - Heart of Darkness (with Mike Palindrome) | My Last Book with Fred Waitzkin
Sept. 26, 2024

637 From the Archives - Heart of Darkness (with Mike Palindrome) | My Last Book with Fred Waitzkin

We asked, you answered! In response to a listener recommendation, we revisit a conversation from 2017 in which Mike and Jacke discuss Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness , Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now , and Eleanor Co…
636 Emily Dickinson's Letters (with Cristanne Miller)
Sept. 23, 2024

636 Emily Dickinson's Letters (with Cristanne Miller)

Who was Emily Dickinson? We think we know her, or at least one side of her, from her poems. But what was she like when she wasn't writing poetry? What was she like with her friends and family? In this episode, we talk to edi…
635 Darwin and Cataclysmic Change (with Allen MacDuffie) | My Last Book with Adelle Waldman
Sept. 19, 2024

635 Darwin and Cataclysmic Change (with Allen MacDuffie) | My Last Book with Adelle Waldman

Dealing with reality can be difficult enough, but when the nature of that reality is completely overturned - as it is in a case like the climate crisis - people are left with a feeling of intense uncertainty. What does this …
634 The Bible: A Global History (with Bruce Gordon) | My Last Book with Michelle P Brown
Sept. 16, 2024

634 The Bible: A Global History (with Bruce Gordon) | My Last Book with Michelle P Brown

For more than two thousand years, the Bible has been an essential part of the world's conception of humanity and its relationship to God. But although it is in some sense timeless and eternal - literally the word of God - th…
633 Hemingway's Letters (with Sandra Spanier) | My Last Book with Andrew Stauffer
Sept. 12, 2024

633 Hemingway's Letters (with Sandra Spanier) | My Last Book with Andrew Stauffer

Discussions of Ernest Hemingway tend to focus on the peaks of his career, which are typically centered around his most famous novels. But Hemingway was busy in between those novels too, writing articles, short stories, and l…
632 Norman Mailer (with J. Michael Lennon)
Sept. 9, 2024

632 Norman Mailer (with J. Michael Lennon)

For almost sixty years, Norman Mailer was a fixture on the American literary scene, seemingly as well known for his feuds and personal exploits as he was for his prize-winning novels and groundbreaking journalism. But what w…
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