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Charmed by her friend Lewis Carroll’s children’s book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Victorian poet Christina Rossetti followed suit nearly a decade later with her own children’s book — one that alludes to the “Alice” tale while also offering a more clear-eyed view of girls’ duties, even in topsy-turvy dream worlds. Ayana Christie, Chief Product Officer of Bond & Grace, joins us for a discussion this week on Rossetti’s 1874 work Speaking Likenesses and helps us draw comparisons with Carroll’s seminal tale.

Mentioned in this episode:

Speaking Likenesses by Christina Rossetti

Bond & Grace edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Bond & Grace edtiion of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Bond & Grace edition of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Christina Rossetti

“Goblin Market” by Christina Rossetti

Gabriele Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The Rosetti family photographic portrait by Lewis Carroll

Christina Rossetti: A Writer’s Life by Jan Marsh

Lewis Carroll (a.k.a. Charles Dodgson)

The Liddell sisters

The real-life Alice in Wonderland

The Princess Bride film

“Be Our Guest” number from Beauty & the Beast

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When it comes to this year’s fall fashion, Virginia Woolf is having a moment. A number of designers and brands including Anna Sui, Clare Waight Keller, Miu Miu, Burberry and Tod’s have found their inspiration in the iconic Bloomsbury author. In this week’s bonus episode, Amy dives into this sartorial vibe, reads from Woolf’s short story “The New Dress” and muses over which other “lost ladies” could serve as fashion muses.

Mentioned in this episode:

“A Woolf in Chic Clothing” by Fiorella Valdesolo 

Uniqlo’s C Collection

Clare Waight Keller’s 2020 Givenchy spring/summer line runway show

Anna Sui’s Fall 2024 line

Charleston House

Vanessa Bell

Intentional Clutter design trend

Vanity Fair article on Virginia Woolf as fashion influencer

“The New Dress” by Virginia Woolf

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

J.J. Wilson

Mary McFadden

The Tale of Genji

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 149 on Murasaki Shikibu

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 130 on Han Suyin

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 126 on Elinor Glyn

Lucy Duff Gordon

Lost Ladies of Lit

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Margaret Drabble’s 1965 novel The Millstone offers a nuanced portrayal of single motherhood in 1960s London. Author Carrie Mullins, whose 2024 nonfiction work The Book of Mothers explores literary depictions of motherhood, joins us to discuss Drabble’s fearless protagonist, Rosamund. Together, we explore how The Millstone captures the joys and burdens of motherhood, and how Drabble’s sharp, ahead-of-its-time portrayal speaks to contemporary readers.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Book of Mothers: How Literature Can Help Us Reinvent Modern Motherhood by Carrie Mullins

The Millstone by Margaret Drabble

A Touch of Love starring Sandy Dennis and Ian McKellan

A.S. Byatt

Cambride Ladies Dining Society

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 139 on Heartburn by Nora Ephron

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

“Little Women” and the Marmee Problem

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Pride & Prejudiceby Jane Austen

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

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In this week’s bonus episode Amy discusses the black comedy mystery film Wicked Little Letters starring Olivia Coleman and Jessie Buckley, then hones in on the real-life "poison-pen letter" incident the film is based on. 

Mentioned in this episode:

British Airways in-flight safety film

Wicked Little Letters trailer

The Lost Daughter film

The Lost Daughter novel

Waking Ned Devine

Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers

National Archives Littlehampton Libel Case 

Cheek By Jowl: A History of Neighbours by Emily Cockayne

Penning Poison: A Hisotry of Anonymous Letters by Emily Cockayne

Poison pen letter case in Shiptonthorpe, Yorkshire

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Elizabeth Garver Jordan’s riveting coverage of the Lizzie Borden trial for The New York World captivated true-crime junkies of the late 19th-century, and her lengthy career as a journalist, fiction writer and literary editor still resonates today. Lori Harrison-Kahan and Jane Carr, editors of a brand new collection of Garver Jordan’s work, join us this week to discuss her courtroom dispatches, her connection to today’s #MeToo movement and how her “invisible labor” shaped the writing of literary giants like Sinclair Lewis and Henry James. 

Mentioned in this Episode: 

The Case of Lizzie Borden & Other Writings by Jane Carr and Lori Harrison-Kahan

Elizabeth Garver Jordan’s work:

The Sturdy Oak

The Whole Family 

The Lady of Pentlands

Three Rousing Cheers

“Ruth Herrick’s Assignment”

“The Cry of the Pack”

The Superwoman and Other Writings by Miriam Michelson

Heirs of Yesterday by Emma Wolf

The New York World

Nellie Bly

The Lizzie Borden case

The Lizzie Borden house in Fall River, Mass.

Harper’s Bazaar

Harper and Brothers

The White Negress: Literature, Minstrelsy, and the Black Jewish Imaginary by Lori Harrison Kahan

Amish Rumspringa

“Baby McKee”

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

“Dateline’s” Keith Morrison

CNN article by Lori Harrison Kahan on the seeds of the #MeToo movement

The World She Edited: Katharine S. White at The New Yorker by Amy Reading

Blue Pencils and Hidden Hands

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The bob haircut shocked and appalled when it was popularized in the 1920s. A bob devotee herself, Amy has a laugh in this week’s bonus episode as she reads newspaper reports from the era which blame the hair trend for a wide array of societal ills including economic collapse, bigamy and unwanted facial hair. She’ll also read an excerpt from the F. Scott Fitzgerald story, “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” which first appeared in The Saturday Evening Post in 1920. This episode is exclusively available for those with a paid subscription to Lost Ladies of Lit.

Mentioned in this episode

The Press Gallery by Paul Fairie

“Bernice Bobs Her Hair” by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Lucy Worsley

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Growing up on the Great Plains and witnessing the struggles of migrant workers in California made Sanora Babb uniquely qualified to write the story of the Dust Bowl. Her novel Whose Names Are Unknown was slated for publication by Random House in 1939 until The Grapes of Wrath beat her book to the punch. John Steinbeck actually used Babb’s notes and research to write his Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel, but did he get the story right? Iris Jamahl Dunkle, author of a new biography on Babb, joins us to explain why this long-lost “Dust Bowl” novel (finally published in 2004) deserves more recognition.

Mentioned in this episode:

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

Whose Names Are Unknown by Sanora Babb

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

West: Fire: Archiveby Iris Jamahl Dunkle

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 152 on  Janet Lewis

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

The Dust Bowl a film by Ken Burns

The Girl by Meridel Le Seuer

The Lost Traveler by Sanora Babb

An Owl on Every Post by Sanora Babb

Tom Collins

Ralph Ellison

William Saroyan

Carlos Bulosan

Ray Bradbury

Tillie Olsen

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 69 on Margery Latimer with Joy Castro

Ken Burns

Dayton Duncan

Joanne Dearcopp

Pauline Hodges

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Look closely enough, and you can find “lost ladies of lit” almost anywhere — including at a rock concert! In this week’s bonus episode, Amy explains how a Saturday night spent attempting to sing along with Green Day on their world tour concert stop in Los Angeles started her down a lyrical rabbit hole that led to the writer Lakshmi Kannan. Learn how this Indian author’s feminist poem inspired a hit song on the band’s breakout album and why both the poem and song stir up familiar themes from this podcast.

Mentioned in this episode:

“She” by Green Day’ 

“The Saviors Tour”

Billy Joe Armstrong

Lakshmi Kannon

Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell

Rhine Journey by Ann Schlee

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 159

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Details of Eliza Haywood’s life may be murky today, but in the early 18th century, she was a literary force—writing plays and bestselling novels, editing periodicals, and ruffling the feathers of male contemporaries like Alexander Pope. Academic Kelly J. Plante joins us this week to discuss Haywood’s anonymous wartime writing for The Female Spectator, the first periodical written by and for women, as well as her 1751 novel, The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless.

Mentioned in this episode:

Kelly J. Plante’s recent scholarship on Eliza Haywood in Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal

Eliza Haywood: 

Love in Excess 

Fantomina 

The History of Miss Betsy Thoughtless

The Female Spectator: Book 14, Letter 1

The Parrot

Epistles for the Ladies

Samuel Richardson: 

Pamela; or Virtue Rewarded 

Clarissa; or the History of a Young Lady

Daniel Defoe: 

Robinson Crusoe

Alexander Pope:

The Dunciad

Henry Fielding:

The History of Tom Jones

Frances Burney

Jane Austen

The Sound of Music’s “Sixteen Going on Seventeen”

“The Things We Do For Love” by 10cc

Lost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 49 on Aphra Behn

A Political Biography of Eliza Haywood by Kathryn R. King

The Jacobite Uprising

Bonnie Prince Charlie

Christian Davies (Mother Ross)

Joan of Arc

Mulan

John Locke’s tabula rasa

“Eliza Haywood’s Periodicals in Wartim

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Amy springboards off our discussion of last week’s “lost lady,” Mary MacLane, to further investigate the woman whose diary inspired her. From the age of 12 until her death at 25, Russian-born painter Marie Bashkirtseff detailed her daily life, frustrations, flirtations and family drama. First published in 1887, the diary enthralled readers including British Prime Minister William Gladstone and George Bernard Shaw, while future diarists like Anaïs Nin and Katherine Mansfield were also inspired by Bashkirtseff’s musings. Amy reads excerpts in this week’s bonus episode to give listeners a glimpse into the world of a precocious young artist in late-19th-century Paris.

Mentioned in this episode:

Brat Summer explained

Belvedere Museum

Marie Bashkirtseff

The Journal of Marie Bashkirtseff translated by Katherine Kernberger and Phyllis Howard Kernberger

“In the Fog” by Marie Bashkirtseff

“In the Studio” by Marie Bashkirtseff

“Self-portrait with Palette” by Marie Bashkirtseff

I Await the Devil’s Coming by Mary MacLane

George Bernard Shaw

William Gladstone

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