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In this special episode, Kim and Amy recount their recent visit to The Sitting Room, a unique library and literary salon in Sonoma, CA, dedicated to women's literature. Trip highlights included a stay at a Julia-Morgan-designed architectural gem in Berkeley, a private tour of Jack London State Park, and a fascinating tour of The Sitting Room’s extensive collection of books and artifacts. Listeners will also hear snippets from an engaging evening with library co-founder J.J. Wilson, making this episode a heartfelt homage to the preservation and celebration of books by women writers.

Mentioned in this episode:

Julia Morgan

The Berkeley City Club

Litquake

Jack London State Park

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 27 on Charmian Kittredge London

Charmian Kittredge London: Trailblazer, Author, Adventurer by Iris Jamahl Dunkle

The Sitting Room

J.J. Wilson

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 187 on Kay Boyle

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 162 on Meridel Le Seuer

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 264 on Jessica Mitford

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 140 on Zora Neale Hurston

Lyndall Gordon

A Luminous Halo: Selected Writings by Virginia Woolf

The Life of Violet: Three Early Stories by Virginia Woolf

Gorgeous Nothings: Emily Dickinson’s Envelope Poems

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Republished this year by Valancourt books, Rosalind’s Ashe’s 1976 gothic thriller Moths is a spine-chilling tale of supernatural seduction featuring a femme fatale who lures men to their deaths like lepidoptera to a flame. Gothic lit expert Lisa B. Kröger joins us to discuss Ashe’s knack for channeling female rage in a novel that’s been compared to Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca.

Mentioned in this episode:

Moths by Rosalind Ashe

Monster, She Wrote by Lisa B. Kröger and Melanie R. Anderson

Toil and Trouble: A Women’s History of the Occult by Lisa B. Kröger and Melanie R. Anderson

Original 1976 cover art of Moths

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 58 on Monster, She Wrote with Lisa B. Kröger and Melanie R. Anderson

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 240 on Angela Carter

Lisa Tuttle

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Hurricane Wake by Rosalind Ashe

Literary Houses by Rosalind Ashe

Dark Runner by Rosalind Ashe

Sinister Affirmations

Midnight Movie clip

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Grab your 10-gallon hat for this week’s episode as Amy dives deep into Edna Ferber's Giant, a novel that strongly critiqued racial inequity and exposed the unjust treatment of Mexican Americans and immigrants — a conversation that continues in America to this day. The blockbuster 1956 film adaptation of the novel, starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean, cemented Ferber’s legacy as a great American novelist, though her work is not as frequently read today as it ought to be. Using Giant Love, Julie Gilbert's comprehensive book on the novel and film, as her guide, Amy weighs in on the book’s enduring relevance and surprisingly bold commentary for its time.

Mentioned in this episode: 

Giant by Edna Ferber

So Big by Edna Ferber

Giant Love: Edna Ferber, Her Bestselling Novel and the Making of a Classic American Film by Julie Gilbert

Giant the film

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 45 on Edna Ferber’s So Big

The Hunting Wives on Netflix

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Often called “the lesbian Bible,” Radclyffe Hall’s 1928 novel The Well of Loneliness has been sparking debate for nearly a century. Banned in the UK after an infamous obscenity trial, the book remains a lightening rod for readers — some revere it, others can’t stand it. We’ll explore what makes this groundbreaking novel so remarkable (and so divisive) with returning guest Iris Jamahl Dunkle, who found inspiration in Hall’s protagonist for her forthcoming book on strong-bodied women who refuse to conform to society’s standards.

Mentioned in this episode:

Kim and Amy’s October 14 LitQuake appearance: “Scribbling Women” Strike Back: How Long-Silenced Voices Have Fueled a New Resistance

The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall (new Oxford Press edition)

Iris Jamahl Dunkle’s Substack article on Radclyffe Hall

“Bad Gays” podcast episode on Radclyffe Hall

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 27 on Charmian Kittredge London

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 214 on Sanora Babb

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 152 on Janet Lewis

Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb by Iris Jamahl Dunkle

Charmian Kittredge London: Trailblazer, Author, Adventurer by Iris Jamahl Dunkle

Womb House Books

Cita Press

Loving Sylvia Plath: A Reclamation by Emily Van Duyne

Do Admit: The Mitford Sisters and Me by Mimi Pond

Havelock Ellis

Edith Ellis

Djuna Barnes

Natalie Clifford Barney

Margaret Vandenburg

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Blood sport or poetry in motion? Amy relcutantly weighs in on the sport of boxing this week, reciting Mrs. Elwood Nickerson’s ballad about a historic prize fight in 19th-century England between the British boxer Tom Sayers and America’s “Benicia Boy,” John Heenan. You’ll also learn how a social introduction by Paris Review editor George Plimpton in 1966 led boxing great Muhammad Ali to collaborate on a poem with the esteemed American modernist poet Marianne Moore.

Mentioned in this episode:

“A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift

“The Fight of the Century” by The Rest is History podcast

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 114 on Elsie Robinson

“Heenan and Sayers” by Mrs. Elwood Nickerson

Marianne Moore

“When Muhammed Ali Wrote a Poem with Marianne Moore” by Danny Heitman

“A Poem on the Annihilation of Ernie Terrell” by Marianne Moore and Muhammad Ali

“Marianne Moore and Muhammed Ali” blog post by Robin Bates

“I Am the Greatest” by Cassius Clay

“I Am the Greatest” spoken word album by Cassius Clay (Gary Belkin)

Cassius Clay’s ghostwriter, Gary Belkin

“Remembering Muhammad Ali’s Ghostwriters” by Paul Cantor

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In this follow-up to our 2021 episode on Nancy Mitford, we’re turning the spotlight on her younger sister, Jessica (a.k.a. “Decca”) Mitford, an activist and journalist whom Time magazine called “the queen of the muckrakers.” Her influential 1963 nonfiction title The American Way of Death exposed corruption in the funeral industry and was lauded by David Bowie as one of his “Top 100” favorite books, whereas her 1960 childhood memoir, Hons and Rebels, left her own family seeing red! Joining us in conversation is Mimi Pond, whose recently-published graphic biography Do Admit: The Mitford Sisters and Me adds new color (literally) to the Mitford mythology with wry commentary and artwork perfectly suited to England’s most outrageous debutantes.

Mentioned in this episode:

Do Admit: The Mitford Sisters and Me by Mimi Pond

Hons and Rebels by Jessica Mitford

The American Way of Death by Jessica Mitford

David Bowie’s Top 100 Favorite Books

The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford

Life in A Cold Climate by Laura Thompson

Decca: The Letters of Jessica Mitford edited by Peter Y. Sussman

Lifeitselfmanship: Or, How to Become a Precisely Because Man by Jessica Mitford

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No 39 on Nancy Mitford

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 65 on Lucia Berlin

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 187 on Kay Boyle

Nancy Mitford: A Portrait by Her Sisters documentary 

Asthall Manor

Chatsworth House

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Looking for an escape from the news of the day or just the daily grind? Amy has four tips in this week’s bonus episode to obtain some mental R&R, from a soothing 1977 documentary on Georgia O’Keeffe to a free online reading group tackling Dorothy Richardson’s Pilgrimage series. Additionally, Amy previews the upcoming PBS adaptation of The Forsyte Saga and suggests a unique literary get-away for fans of the Brontë sisters. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Georgia O’Keeffe documentary on YouTube

Purchase the Pilgrimage series at Asterism

2026 Reading Pilgrimage Group

PBS cast photos and Trailer for The Forsyte Saga

Stay at the https://brontebirthplace.com/

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With her witty and self-deprecating takes on dating and the single life, the narrator of Miriam Karpilove’s Diary of a Lonely Girl: Or the Battle Against Free Love is the 1918 Yiddish precursor to Girls’ Hannah Horvath, Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw, and Bridget Jones. Guest Jessica Kirzane’s English translation of the novel was published by Syracuse University Press in 2020.

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Amy’s recent attendance at a production of the jukebox musical “& Juliet” has her thinking about how Shakespeare’s ill-fated teenage beauty could have made wiser choices. So, too, might the Baroness Mary Vetsera, the 17-year-old whose utterly hopeless romance with a Habsburg crown prince landed her at the center of the royal scandal and attempted cover-up known as the “Mayerling Incident.” If you have yet to hear about the shocking double-suicide that rocked the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1889, consider this your chance to get the lowdown.

Mentioned in this episode:

“& Juliet”

“Six”

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 202 on Empress “Sisi”

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 19 on Louise Fitzhugh

“The Mayerling Incident Remains a Mystery” New York Times article

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In this encore presentation, we’re reviving a literary suicide scandal that took place among some of the biggest names in the West Coast’s early 20th century bohemian society. Joining us to discuss lost poet Nora May French and her life—and death—is Catherine Prendergast, author of the riveting book The Gilded Edge: Two Audacious Women and the Cyanide Love Triangle That Shook America. 

Discussed in this episode: 

Nora May French

The Gilded Edge: Two Audacious Women and the Cyanide Love Triangle That Shook America by Catherine Prendergast

Carmel-by-the-Sea, California 

Charles Loomis

“The Spanish Girl” by Nora May French

George Sterling

The Bohemian Club

Ambrose Bierce

Lost Ladies of Lit episode on Charmian Kittredge London with Iris Dunkle

Jack London

The Huntington Library 

Harry Lafler 

“Ave Atque Vale” by Algernon Charles Swinburne

“Ave Atque Vale” by Nora May French

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