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How did Martin Luther King Jr. (and eventually, the NAACP) end up the stewards of Dorothy Parker’s literary estate? A life of bold activism prompted the witty writer to quietly bequeath her body of work to advocates for racial justice. But what happened to her actual body (or rather, her ashes) is another story entirely—one that involves misplaced remains, an abandoned urn, and a decades-long effort to find her a proper resting place.

Mentioned in this episode:

“The Improbable Journey of Dorothy Parker’s Ashes” by Laurie Gwen Shapiro

“54 Years Late, Dorothy Parker Finally Gets Her Tombstone” by Robert Simonson

A Star is Born (1937)

The Algonquin Round Table

Scottsboro Boys

“Epitaph for a Darling Lady”

The Dorothy Parker Society

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January was dismal, but we’re distracting ourselves with something shiny in this first new full-length episode of the year. Catbird Chief Creative Officer Leigh Batnick Plessner joins us to explore three works by women writers, each of whom used jewelry as a powerful storytelling device. Louise de Vilmorin, Maria Edgeworth and Dorothy Parker feature diamond earrings, friendship bracelets and a pearl necklace, respectively, to reflect the deepest desires and ambitions of the characters who wore them. We hope this little gem of an episode helps you find some beauty and meaning in challenging times.

Mentioned in this episode:

Catbird 

Madame de by Louise de Vilmorin

“The Bracelets” by Maria Edgeworth

“The Standard of Living” by Dorothy Parker

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 77 on Daisy Fellowes

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 39 on Nancy Mitford

Duff Cooper

“Chichi Devil” (New York Times) by Christopher Petkanas

The Earrings of Madame de by Max Ophuls

Essay by Molly Haskell on The Earrings of Madame de

The Lovers and Julietta by Louise de Vilmorin

The Absentee, Castle Rackrent and Belinda by Maria Edgeworth

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 220 on Christina Rossetti

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Octavia E. Butler’s prescient dystopian novel Parable of the Sower may or may not be the perfect book to kick off 2025, as Amy discusses in this week’s bonus episode. On the other hand, if it’s escapism you’re after, consider the cutlass-wielding scalawags of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic Treasure Island and learn about a new book that explores the impact Stevenson’s wife Fanny (a writer herself) had on his literary output.

Mentioned in this episode:

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

Parallels between 2025 and Octavia E. Butler’s work

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

A Wilder Shore by Camille Peri

Fanny Stevenson

The Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Stevenson

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If you’re drawn to the hefty tomes of Victorian authors Anthony Trollope and George Eliot, we can pretty much guarantee you’ll enjoy this week’s novel, Hester, as much as we did. Margaret Oliphant is said to have been one of Queen Victoria’s favorite novelists, and she counted J.M. Barrie and Robert Louis Stevenson among her many fans. Joining us to discuss Hester is New York Times columnist and pediatrician Dr. Perri Klass. 

Discussed in this episode: 

Hester by Margaret Oliphant

Dr. Perri Klass

George Eliot

Anthony Trollope

Middlemarch by George Eliot

Blackwoods Magazine

The Brontes 

Henry James

The Best Medicine by Perri Klass

Charles Dickens

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Dorothea Brooke

The Chronicles of Barsetshire by Anthony Trollope

The Chronicles of Carlingford by Margaret Oliphant

Reach Out and Read

Miss Marjoriebanks by Margaret Oliphant

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This week’s episode was born out of Amy’s recent visit to London’s Highgate Cemetery, where fortuitous timing (or, perhaps, the graveside spirit of Christina Rossetti?) revealed a bit of juicy family drama. Find out why the tragic death (and later exhumation) of a pre-Raphaelite muse left another family member begging to not be buried next to her in the Rossetti family plot!

Mentioned in this episode:

Christina Rossetti

Elizabeth Siddal

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Gabriele Rossetti

Highgate Cemetery

“Ophelia” by John Everett Millais

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 220 on Christina Rossetti

Poetry by Elizabeth Siddal

The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall

Beryl Bainbridge

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

“When Did Cemeteries Become Tourist Attractions and Hot-Date Spots?” by Matthew Kronsberg for The Wall Street Journal

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In this week's hiatus replay, we’re focusing on one of Ukraine’s best-known poets and playwrights, Laryssa Kosach, who wrote under the pen name Lesya Ukrainka. Her play The Forest Song is a masterpiece of Ukrainian drama. 

Discussed in this episode: 

The Forest Song by Lesya Ukrainka

Looking for Trouble by Virginia Cowles

Lost Ladies of Lit episode on Virginia Cowles’ Looking for Trouble 

Invisible Battalion (2017 documentary)

“Ukraine Isn’t Part of Little Russia” (KCRW) 

Executed Renaissance

Dead Poets Society (1989 film)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006 film)

“Contra Spem Spero” by Lesya Ukrainka

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Once upon a time, a young woman escaped to a primeval forest, befriended the animals there (including a lynx, raven and wild boar) and met her handsome prince. Sounds like a fairy tale, but in this week’s episode Amy discusses the enchanting true story of Simona Kossak, a Polish scientist who wrote about her deep love for the Bialowieza Forest and worked tirelessly to protect it. Poland awarded Kossak the Golden Cross of Merit for her ecological efforts before her death in 2007, and several recent films celebrate her life and legacy.

Mentioned in this episode:

Simona Kossak

Dziedzinka Simona Kossak’s forest home

Bialowieza forest

Jane Goodall

Greta Thunberg

Simona 2022 documentary

Trailer for Simona 2024 feature film

Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska

Magdalena Samozwaniec

Lech Wilczek

Bialowieza Forest Saga

Disney’s Frozen

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 80 on Lesya Ukrainka’s “Forest Song”

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Novelist and university professor Joy Castro returns to the show to discuss the 1952 novel Forbidden Notebook by Cuban-Italian writer Alba de Cespedes. In a New York Times review of a 1958 English edition of this novel, de Céspedes was called “one of the few distinguished women writers since Colette to grapple effectively with what it is to be a woman.” 

Discussed in this episode: 

Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Céspedes

Her Side of the Story by Alba de Céspedes

Muriel Rukeyser poem “Kathë Kollwitz”

Hell or High Water by Joy Castro

Flight Risk by Joy Castro

Island of Bones by Joy Castro

One Brilliant Flame by Joy Castro

The Truth Book by Joy Castro

“Burning It Down” by Joy Castro

Lost Ladies of Lit episode on Margery Latimer

Lost Ladies of Lit episode on E.M. Delafield

Lost Ladies of Lit episode on Miriam Karpilove

Lost Ladies of Lit episode on Lorraine Hansberry

Literary scholar Merve Emre

Carlos Manuel de Céspedes

Mariama Bâ’s So Long a Letter

Mercé Rodoreda

Elena Ferrante

Katherine Mansfield

Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway

Kate Chopin’s The Awakening

Natalia Ginsburg’s essay “On Women” in Mercurio and a response by Alba de Céspedes

America Ferrera speech in Barbie movie

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Books are a time-tested cure-all, so in this week’s bonus episode Amy weighs a few of the titles that have helped her forget life's latest troubles and doubts … (sort of). She leaves no stone unturned in her quest for distraction, from Proust’s meandering sentences to a behind-the-scenes memoir about a beloved ’80s film and a charming, century-old suffrage novel that captures our current political zeitgeist. Rounding out the episode is a sneak peak at “lost ladies” we’ll be featuring in the coming year and Amy’s recitation of a poem by Adrienne Rich that’s perfectly suited to these strange times.

Mentioned in this episode

Whichbook.net

The Sturdy Oak

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron.

Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust

Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 116 on Dorothy Richardson

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 9 on Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 98 on Heterodoxy

Pilgrimage by Dorothy Richardson

Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride by Cary Elwes

Turning to Stone: Discovering the Subtle Wisdom of Rocks by Marcia Bjornerud

Fannie Hurst

Dorothy Canfield

Kathleen Norris

Anne O’Hagan

Mary Heaton Vorse 

Alice Duer Miller

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At the age of eight, Gertrude Simmons Bonnin (later known by her pen name Zitkála-Šá) left her Yankton Dakota reservation to attend a missionary boarding school for Native Americans, a harsh and abusive experience about which she eventually wrote a series of articles published in The Atlantic Monthly. Jessi Haley, editorial director of Cita Press (which just published a free anthology of the author’s work) joins Yankton Dakota poet Erin Marie Lynch to discuss how Zitkála-Šá’s sense of cultural displacement impacted her life and literary output.

Mentioned in this episode:

Free edition of Planted in a Strange Earth: Selected Writings of Zitkála-Šá by Cita Press

Cita Press’s Substack newsletter on Zitkála-Šá

Removal Acts by Erin Marie Lynch

Zitkála-Šá

Ella Cara Deloria

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe

Yankton Dakota people

Sugarcane 2024 documentary

Air/Light magazine

Joe Biden’s October 2024 federal apology to Indigenous Americans

Carlisle Indian Industrial School

Richard Henry Pratt

Earlham College

The Sun Dance Opera

PBS’s “Unladylike” documentary episode on Zitkála-Šá

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann 

“Oklahoma’s Poor Rich Indians: An Orgy of Graft and Exploitation of the Five Civilized Tribes, Legalized Robbery” by Zitkála-Šá

P. Jane Hafen’s full PBS interview on  Zitkála-Šá

Oral History Proj

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