Thanks mostly to the achievement and success of his Canterbury Tales, poet Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340s-1400) has been called "the Father of English literature" for more than 500 years. In this episode, Jacke talks to University of Oxford Professor Marion Turner (Chaucer: A European Life; The Wife of Bath: A Biography) about what made Chaucer so special - and why his poetry is still vibrant today. PLUS Jacke talks to Lee Saunders, President of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, about a new podcast I Am Story, which retells the story of the Memphis Sanitation Strike of 1968, a labor struggle that rocked a city and altered our history.
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 www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature.
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523 Geoffrey Chaucer (with Marion Turner) | A New Podcast About the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike (with AFSCME President Lee Saunders)

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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Society & Culture

Books

Fearless and fiercely intelligent, the nineteenth-century American feminist Margaret Fuller was "the radiant genius and fiery heart" of the Transcendentalists, the group of New Englanders who helped launch a fledgling nation onto the world's cultural and literary stage. In this episode, bestselling historical novelist Allison Pataki, author of the new novel Finding Margaret Fuller, joins Jacke to discuss what it was like to bring this remarkable nineteenth-century woman to life.  PLUS James Marcus (Glad to the Brink of Fear: A Portrait of Ralph Waldo Emerson) stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read.
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 www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature.
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612 Finding Margaret Fuller (with Allison Pataki) | My Last Book with James Marcus

Scottish writer John Buchan is perhaps best known for his pioneering thriller The Thirty-Nine Steps, the source material for one of Alfred Hitchcock's first great films. But as his biographer (and granddaughter) Ursula Buchan tells Jacke, Buchan was far from a one-hit wonder. John Buchan wrote more than a hundred books of fiction and non-fiction and a thousand newspaper and magazine articles - and he was just getting started. Ursula's book Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps: A Life of John Buchan depicts the remarkable life of this twentieth-century writer (and scholar, antiquarian, barrister, journal editor, war correspondent, member of parliament, director of wartime propaganda, Governor-General of Canada, and more!). 
PLUS Jacke reads a special letter by Ernest Hemingway, and Marsha Gordon (Becoming the Ex-Wife: The Unconventional Life and Forgotten Writings of Ursula Parrott) stops by to discuss her choice for the last book she will ever read.
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 www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature.
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611 John Buchan (with Ursula Buchan) | My Last Book with Marsha Gordon | A Hemingway Letter

Why do we read John Keats and not one of his well-regarded peers? Why do some authors disappear into the sands of time - while others, virtually unknown in their day, become posthumous household names? In this episode, Jacke talks to Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein (How to Become Famous: Lost Einsteins, Forgotten Superstars, and How the Beatles Came to Be) about the phenomenon of fame, with a particular emphasis on how it affects the world of literature. PLUS author and TLS managing director James MacManus (Love in a Lost Land) stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he'll ever read.
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 www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature.
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610 How to Become Famous (with Cass Sunstein) | My Last Book with James MacManus

Dear listeners: What kind of life are you living? What's your relationship between your body, mind, and soul? And what can you learn about your deepest self as you get older? In this episode, Jacke talks to award-winning French novelist Colombe Schneck about her new book, Swimming in Paris: A Life in Three Stories, in which she dives into her past to understand her present and - maybe - finds the way to a new future. Then Professor Pardis Dabashi (Losing the Plot: Film and Feeling in the Modern Novel) stops by to discuss her choice for the last book she will ever read.
Colombe Schneck is documentary film director, a journalist, and the author of twelve books of fiction and nonfiction. She has received prizes from the Académie française, Madame Figaro, and the Société des gens de lettres. The recipient of a scholarship from the Villa Medici in Rome as well as a Stendhal grant from the Institut français, she was born and educated in Paris, where she still lives.
Swimming in Paris: A Life in Three Stories, Schneck's twelfth book, tells the story of a woman’s personal journey through abortion, sex, friendship, love, and swimming.
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 www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature.
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609 Swimming in Paris (with Colombe Schneck) | My Last Book with Pardis Dabashi

First published in 1980, Between Dog and Wolf by Sasha Sokolov is one of the most acclaimed Russian novels of the twentieth century. But the book, with its dazzling wordplay, shifting-sand narration, and other literary pyrotechnics, has been tough for English-speaking audiences to appreciate. In this episode, Jacke talks to Jose Vergara about his new project, The Encyclopedia of the Dog, an online bilingual digital version of Sokolov's novel, which seeks to make a literary masterwork accessible to new audiences. Then Jacke talks to Gareth Russell (The Palace: From the Tudors to the Windsors, 500 Years of British History at Hampton Court) about his choice for the last book he will ever read.
Find Encyclopedia of the Dog at https://encyclopediaofthedog.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 www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature.
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523 Geoffrey Chaucer (with Marion Turner) | A New Podcast About the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Strike (with AFSCME President Lee Saunders)

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