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Published by Jacke Wilson / The Podglomerate
Amateur enthusiast Jacke Wilson journeys through the history of literature, from ancient epics to contemporary classics. Episodes are not in chronological order and you don't need to start at the beginning - feel free to jump in wherever you like! Find out more at historyofliterature.com and facebook.com/historyofliterature. Support the show by visiting patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. Contact the show at historyofliteraturepodcast@gmail.com.
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We often say it's important for a person to be "authentic," but what does that mean? Why is that necessarily a good thing? In this episode, Jacke talks to author Hadley Suter (Becoming Stendhal: The Performance of Authenticity and the Making of a Novelist) about the French novelist Stendhal (1783-1842) and his classic realist novels The Charterhouse of Parma and The Red and the Black. Writing in the aftermath of the French Revolution, when individuals suddenly found themselves with the opportunity to become someone new, Stendhal was acutely aware of the blurred lines between performance and authencity. How did he and his characters figure out who they wanted to be - and what happened when they tried to achieve it? What can their efforts tell us about our own understanding of identity and self-actualization? PLUS Jacke provides a literary tribute to singer-songwriter, actress, celebrity, and philanthropist Dolly Parton, who passed away on August 25, 2026. On Sale Now! For more information and to order Great Detective! An Adventure for Two People [2-Book Boxed Set] by Jacke Wilson, visit press.historyofliterature.com. SPECIAL OFFER! For a limited time, enter promotion code LOVE26 to get 20% off! And if you help us get the word out by posting two people enjoying the book on social media (plus a link to our website), we will refund money to your account. Learn more at press.historyofliterature.com! 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell, two of the leading novelists of the 19th century, shared a remarkable literary friendship. After Charlotte's death, Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Brontë became one of the most famous--and controversial--literary biographies ever written. In this episode, Jacke talks to Susan Dunne about her new book Charlotte Bronte and Elizabeth Gaskell: Their Lives, Friendship and Writings, which tells the deeper story of the friendship between the two women. PLUS Jacke looks at the Odyssey kerfuffle that has entangled film director Christopher Nolan, translator and scholar Emily Wilson, and American novelist Joyce Carol Oates--including a surprising new development. AND previous guest Travis Franks, expert in Cherokee writer John Rollin Ridge, stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read. On Sale Now! For more information and to order Great Detective! An Adventure for Two People [2-Book Boxed Set] by Jacke Wilson, visit press.historyofliterature.com. SPECIAL OFFER! For a limited time, enter promotion code LOVE26 to get 20% off! And if you help us get the word out by posting two people enjoying the book on social media (plus a link to our website), we will refund money to your account. Learn more at press.historyofliterature.com! 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What do we know about the Chinese philosopher and teacher Confucius? Although people have written biographies of Confucius for over 2,000 years, a recent discovery of a Chinese tomb containing the oldest written account of his life gives us a chance to look at Confucius afresh. In this episode, after some reflections on his experiences as a young teacher in Taiwan, Jacke talks to Confucian scholar Mark Csikszentmihalyi about his book Confucius: A New Tradition. PLUS a conversation with Rachel Pastan about her role as literary director of the recently opened independent bookstore Celia Bookshop in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. On Sale Now! For more information and to order Great Detective! An Adventure for Two People [2-Book Boxed Set] by Jacke Wilson, visit press.historyofliterature.com. SPECIAL OFFER! For a limited time, enter promotion code LOVE26 to get 20% off! And if you help us get the word out by posting two people enjoying the book on social media (plus a link to our website), we will refund money to your account. Learn more at press.historyofliterature.com! 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The second half of the twentieth century was marked by an extreme increase in America's prison population, from roughly 250,000 inmates in 1940 to well over two million by 2008. At the same time, American readers were devouring mysteries, thrillers, detective novels, police procedurals, and other forms of crime fiction. In this episode, Jacke talks to Theodore Martin about his book, American Literature's War on Crime: Novels and the Hidden History of Mass Incarceration, which explores the connection between crime novels and the making of mass imprisonment in America. PLUS Jacke takes a look at W.E.B. DuBois's famous statement that he "sit[s] with Shakespeare and he winces not." On Sale Now! For more information and to order Great Detective! An Adventure for Two People [2-Book Boxed Set] by Jacke Wilson, visit press.historyofliterature.com. SPECIAL OFFER! For a limited time, enter promotion code LOVE26 to get 20% off! And if you help us get the word out by posting two people enjoying the book on social media (plus a link to our website), we will refund money to your account. Learn more at press.historyofliterature.com! 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
At the time of Washington Irving's death, he was the most famous and widely praised American writer of his or any other era. But his reputation soon dwindled, and today he's known primarily as the author of just two stories ("The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle"), while his groundbreaking works of history, biography, and essays are barely known. In this episode, Jacke talks to essayist Phillip Lopate about his book A Washington Irving Sketch Book: Reflections on an American Writer, in which Lopate pays tribute to the life and works of a nineteenth-century kindred spirit. Then Mike Palindrome turns the tables on Jacke, interviewing him about this summer's History of Literature Podcast Tour, in which Jacke, Emma, and a hearty band of guests journeyed together through literary England. On Sale Now! For more information and to order Great Detective! An Adventure for Two People [2-Book Boxed Set] by Jacke Wilson, visit press.historyofliterature.com. SPECIAL OFFER! For a limited time, enter promotion code LOVE26 to get 20% off! And if you help us get the word out by posting two people enjoying the book on social media (plus a link to our website), we will refund money to your account. Learn more at press.historyofliterature.com! 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In 1895, Henry James suffered through a terrible failure, as his play Guy Domville was greeted by hoots, jeers, and tomatoes being thrown at the play's author. James responded by starting work on his masterpiece The Turn of the Screw, which tells the story of a governess and the demonic forces haunting her and the children in her care. In this episode, Jacke talks to playwright and screenwriter Morgan Lloyd Malcolm about her new adaptation of The Turn of the Screw, which has its world premiere at London's Arcola Theater in September. PLUS eighteenth-century expert David Womersley (Thinking Through Shakespeare, Gulliver's Travels: The Cambridge Anniversary Edition) stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read. On Sale Now! For more information and to order Great Detective! An Adventure for Two People [2-Book Boxed Set] by Jacke Wilson, visit press.historyofliterature.com. SPECIAL OFFER! For a limited time, enter promotion code LOVE26 to get 20% off! And if you help us get the word out by posting two people enjoying the book on social media (plus a link to our website), we will refund money to your account. Learn more at press.historyofliterature.com! 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
It's an often-told, momentous story: how in the summer of 1816, four friends, including famed Romantic poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron, along with Mary Godwin (soon to be Mary Shelley) and Byron's doctor John Polidori, gathered in a Swiss villa and decided to tell each other ghost stories to pass the time. Mary Shelley began to write Frankenstein, and John Polidori wrote what would become the first modern vampire tale. It's hard to imagine a more spectacular outcome for four people--except that there were not four people involved. There were five. In this episode, Jacke talks to novelist Emily Franklin about her new book Love & Other Monsters, which narrates the story from the point of view of the fifth member of the group, Mary Shelley's stepsister Claire Clairmont, whom Mary tried to erase from history. PLUS Mathelinda Nabugodi (The Trembling Hand: Reflections of a Black Woman in the Romantic Archive) stops by to discuss her choice for the last book she will ever read. On Sale Now! For more information and to order Great Detective! An Adventure for Two People [2-Book Boxed Set] by Jacke Wilson, visit press.historyofliterature.com. SPECIAL OFFER! For a limited time, enter promotion code LOVE26 to get 20% off! And if you help us get the word out by posting two people enjoying the book on social media (plus a link to our website), we will refund money to your account. Learn more at press.historyofliterature.com! 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
United States President Abraham Lincoln and his assassin John Wilkes Booth were both deeply immersed in Shakespeare's works. And yet, the conclusions they reached about how best to end tyranny--a feature of both Macbeth and Julius Caesar--could not have been more different. As James Shapiro (Shakespeare in a Divided America) explained to Jacke in a conversation they had in 2023, reading Shakespeare from opposing vantage points is not unusual in American history. What does this mean for our understanding of the past--and our hopes for the future? On Sale Now! For more information and to order Great Detective! An Adventure for Two People [2-Book Boxed Set] by Jacke Wilson, visit press.historyofliterature.com. SPECIAL OFFER! For a limited time, enter promotion code SHIP26 to get free domestic or international shipping! (Available in the U.S., Canada, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Iceland, Estonia, Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand.) 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Henry David Thoreau was not a traditional Christian, and yet he was a deeply, profoundly religious man. In this episode, Jacke talks to Lydia Willsky-Ciollo about her book Wildness: Henry David Thoreau and the Making of an American Theology, which describes how Thoreau's experiences in nature helped him imagine and develop a distinctly American theology of the wild. PLUS Douglas Clark (The Will in English Renaissance Drama) stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read. On Sale Now! For more information and to order Great Detective! An Adventure for Two People [2-Book Boxed Set] by Jacke Wilson, visit press.historyofliterature.com. SPECIAL OFFER! For a limited time, enter promotion code SHIP26 to get free domestic or international shipping! (Available in the U.S., Canada, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Iceland, Estonia, Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand.) 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The kiss! What could be more romantic? And yet, as historian Katie Barclay discovered when writing her book The Kiss: A History of Passion and Power, she found non-romantic kisses to be even more fascinating. In this episode, Jacke kicks things off with a look at some famous kisses from Shakespeare and Byron, some news about his Netflix algorithm and Christopher Nolan's Odyssey, the exciting new promotion of free domestic and international shipping being offered by the History of Literature Press, and the curious response to Homer's use of what's been translated as the "wine-dark" (or "wine-faced") sea. PLUS independent bookstore owners Amy Joyce and Gayle Weiswasser tell Jacke about their experiences owning and operating Wonderland Books in Bethesda, Maryland. On Sale Now! For more information and to order Great Detective! An Adventure for Two People [2-Book Boxed Set] by Jacke Wilson, visit press.historyofliterature.com. SPECIAL OFFER! For a limited time, enter promotion code SHIP26 to get free domestic or international shipping! (Available in the U.S., Canada, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Iceland, Estonia, Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand.) 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
After reading an email from a listener in Ghana, Jacke talks to Sonja Tiernan about her book Eva Gore-Booth: Irish Radical Poet, Rebel, and Reformer, which tells the story of a young woman who cast aside her aristocratic origins to champion the causes of barmaids, circus performers, flower sellers, and pit-brow lasses. Living in Manchester with her partner, Esther Roper, Gore-Booth became an unsung hero of LGBTQ+ history, editing a radical journal and publishing nineteen volumes of poetry and prose that drew the admiration of fellow writers like W.B. Yeats. On Sale Now! For more information and to order Great Detective! An Adventure for Two People [2-Book Boxed Set] by Jacke Wilson, visit press.historyofliterature.com. SPECIAL DISCOUNT! It's a month for celebrations! In honor of the birthdays of America, Emma Wilson, Jacke Wilson, and Marcel Proust, enter discount code BIRTHDAY2026 to receive 20% off your order. Offer available throughout July 2026. 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
After discussing a news article detailing the rise of "hot literati," Jacke talks to biographer Glenda Norquay (Robert Louis Stevenson: A Critical Life) about the amazing life of Robert Louis Stevenson, the Scottish author of classic works like Kidnapped and Treasure Island. PLUS novelist Olivia Wolfgang-Smith (Mutual Interest) stops by to discuss her choice for the last book she will ever read. On Sale Now! For more information and to order Great Detective! An Adventure for Two People [2-Book Boxed Set] by Jacke Wilson, visit press.historyofliterature.com. SPECIAL DISCOUNT! It's a month for celebrations! In honor of the birthdays of America, Emma Wilson, Jacke Wilson, and Marcel Proust, enter discount code BIRTHDAY2026 to receive 20% off your order. Offer available throughout July 2026. 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jacke talks to author James Bailey about his critically acclaimed biography Like a Cat Loves a Bird: The Nine Lives of Muriel Spark. PLUS J. Michael Lennon, friend and biographer of Norman Mailer ( Norman Mailer: A Double Life), stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read. On Sale Now! For more information and to order Great Detective! An Adventure for Two People [2-Book Boxed Set] by Jacke Wilson, visit press.historyofliterature.com. SPECIAL DISCOUNT! It's a month for celebrations! In honor of the birthdays of America, Emma Wilson, Jacke Wilson, and Marcel Proust, enter discount code BIRTHDAY2026 to receive 20% off your order. Offer available throughout July 2026. 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Jacke gets ready for the release of Christopher Nolan's Odyssey, the rare instance of a summer blockbuster based on a literary classic, with some help from classics scholars Daniel Mendelsohn (The Odyssey, An Odyssey: A Father, A Son, and an Epic) and Mary Beard (Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old). On Sale Now! For more information and to order Great Detective! An Adventure for Two People [2-Book Boxed Set] by Jacke Wilson, visit press.historyofliterature.com. SPECIAL DISCOUNT! It's a month for celebrations! In honor of the birthdays of America, Emma Wilson, Jacke Wilson, and Marcel Proust, enter discount code BIRTHDAY2026 to receive 20% off your order. Offer available throughout July 2026. 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
As a literary classic turns 300, Jacke talks to the University of Oxford's David Womersley about Jonathan Swift, the nature of satire, and The Cambridge Anniversary Edition of Gulliver's Travels, which Womersley edited. PLUS Daniel Mendelsohn, classics scholar and translator ofThe Odyssey, stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read. On Sale Now! For more information and to order Great Detective! An Adventure for Two People [2-Book Boxed Set] by Jacke Wilson, visit press.historyofliterature.com. SPECIAL DISCOUNT! It's a month for celebrations! In honor of the birthdays of America, Emma Wilson, Jacke Wilson, and Marcel Proust, enter discount code BIRTHDAY2026 to receive 20% off your order. Offer available throughout July 2026. 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Thanks in part to beloved films like Marty (1955) and Network (1976), Paddy Chayefsky is often regarded as the greatest writer of television's first Golden Age and the most acclaimed screenwriter in Hollywood history. But who was Chayefsky? What made his writing stand out? And how well do his works hold up in 2026? In this episode, as America turns 250, Jacke takes a look at the career and major works of Paddy Chayefsky, whose 1976 film Network is often praised for predicting the demise of television (and, perhaps, America itself). On Sale Now! For more information and to order Great Detective! An Adventure for Two People [2-Book Boxed Set] by Jacke Wilson, visit press.historyofliterature.com. SPECIAL DISCOUNT! It's a month for celebrations! In honor of the birthdays of America, Emma Wilson, Jacke Wilson, and Marcel Proust, enter discount code BIRTHDAY2026 to receive 20% off your order. Offer available throughout July 2026. 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What is it like to translate Shakespeare into another language? How does one attempt to capture that transcendent magic so familiar to English speakers? In this episode, Jacke talks to writer, editor, and translator Daniel Hahn (If This Be Magic: The Unlikely Art of Shakespeare in Translation), about his encounters with writers and actors who've engaged with Shakespeare's work in more than a hundred different languages. PLUS Indira Ghose (Shakespeare in Jest) stops by to discuss her choice for the last book she will ever read. On Sale Now! For more information and to order Great Detective! An Adventure for Two People [2-Book Boxed Set] by Jacke Wilson, visit press.historyofliterature.com. 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Upon her death, French novelist George Sand (1804-1876) was widely recognized as one of the most popular and acclaimed writers in Europe. And yet, even then, the legend of the cigar-smoking, cross-dressing, promiscuous writer threatened to overshadow her literary accomplishments. Fast forward to the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and the English-speaking world has all but forgotten Sand the novelist, instead recalling her as a side character in a suit, a wannabe artist who hitched her wagon to greater geniuses like Chopin and Flaubert. In this episode, Jacke talks to award-winning poet and biographer Fiona Sampson about her book Becoming George, which examines Sand's iconoclasm and rehabilitates her as an intellectual and artistic giant. PLUS Kathleen Antonioli (Colette: A Critical Life) stops by to tell Jacke about her choice for the last book she will ever read. On Sale Now! For more information and to order Great Detective! An Adventure for Two People [2-Book Boxed Set] by Jacke Wilson, visit press.historyofliterature.com. 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Why are we so fascinated by the ancient world? What can we find in the distant past that is recognizably human--and how do we grapple with the complicated and controversial issues that the past forces us to address? In this episode, Jacke talks to distinguished classicist Mary Beard about her new book Talking Classics: The Shock of the Old. PLUS Karen Spence (The Companion Guide to the Godfather Trilogy: Betrayal, Loyalty, and Family) stops by to discuss her choice for the last book she will ever read. On Sale Now! For more information and to order Great Detective! An Adventure for Two People [2-Book Boxed Set] by Jacke Wilson, visit press.historyofliterature.com. 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Harlem Renaissance, the great flowering of African American arts and culture in the early twentieth century, is hard to define but easy to admire. Coupled with the Great Migration, in which hundreds of thousands of Southern black workers moved to the rapidly industrializing cities of the North, the Harlem Renaissance was a time of radically innovative artistic expression, as musicians, visual artists, and writers forged a new consciousness. The works they produced reflected a spirit of change, progress, and optimism – but underlying the excitement were also a sense of struggle; reflective themes of nostalgia, guilt, and regret; and a clear-eyed view of racial relations in American culture. In this episode, Jacke looks at the social context for the Harlem Renaissance, with a particular focus on works by Langston Hughes, Nella Larsen, and Zora Neale Hurston. On Sale Now! For more information and to order Great Detective! An Adventure for Two People [2-Book Boxed Set] by Jacke Wilson, visit press.historyofliterature.com. 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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Observed September 20, 2026.
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