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, Emily 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.
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Jul 6
1 hr 40 min
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.
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Jul 2
1 hr 7 min
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.
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Jun 29
1 hr 4 min
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.
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Jun 22
1 hr 2 min
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.
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Jun 18
54 min
Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) is widely regarded as one of the greatest short story writers in history. Among his admirers were Flaubert, who befriended and mentored the younger writer, and later masters of the form like Joyce and Chekhov, who were both deeply influenced by Maupassant's precision, economy, and subject matter. In this episode, Jacke reads one of Maupassant's most famous stories, "The Necklace," about a young middle-class couple whose social climbing efforts result in disillusionment and disaster. Then Jacke is joined by Mike Palindrome, the President of the Literature Supporters Club, for a discussion of what makes this late nineteenth-century story so powerful.
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.
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Jun 15
1 hr 14 min
Robert Browning (1812-1889) is often considered one of the greatest of the Victorian poets. Two developments established Browning as an indispensable figure in the history of literature: first, his early taste for Shelleyan knockoffs and lengthy, impenetrable historical narratives gave way to his use of the dramatic monologue, a highly successful and adaptable form he used to striking effect; and second, his marriage to fellow poet Elizabeth Barrett (Moulton-Barrett) Browning, which became one of the greatest literary love stories of all time. In this episode, Jacke offers some reasons to love the poet who gave us "My Last Duchess" and many other voice-driven poems.
PLUS author and Washington Irving expert Elisabeth Paling Funk joins Jacke for a conversation about her book The Dutch World of Washington Irving: Knickerbocker's History of New York and the Hudson Valley Folktales, which tells an alternative origin story of American literary culture.
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.
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Jun 11
1 hr 26 min
During the Cold War, hearings led by U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy soon turned into a witch hunt, as paranoia and political opportunism destroyed the careers (and lives) of actors, directors, singers, filmmakers, writers, and prominent scientists who were accused of disloyalty, subversion, and treason. But even as the accusers cited poems, plays, novels, and song lyrics to bolster their attack, literature mounted a counteroffensive, striking back at the powerful in what Marjorie Garber has termed "poetic revenge." In this episode, Jacke talks to Garber about her book A Treacherous Secret Agent: How Literature Spoke Truth to Power During the Red Scare about the long reach of authors like William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd, John Donne, and others, whose works exposed the lies and hypocrisies of one of America's darkest periods. PLUS Jacke takes a look at Arthur Miller's late-in-life reflections on his own work of poetic revenge, the great anti-McCarthyist play The Crucible.
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.
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Jun 8
56 min
When we first started this podcast in 2015, we began with a simple premise: "We are human beings, and human beings tell stories." But how has that happened? What has that meant for humanity? And to what extent has technology transformed our relationship with stories? In today's episode, Jacke talks to MIT technology pioneer Kevin Ashton about his new book, The Story of Stories: The Million-Year History of a Uniquely Human Art, which traces the history of human storytelling through eight great revolutions, helping us to see the power of stories and their importance to humankind. PLUS Ilya Vinitsky and James H. MacGavran III (The Graphomaniac: A Literary Historical Discussion of Dmitry Khvostov as a Reprieve from Teaching, the Vanity of Worldly Affairs, and Melancholy Reflections Brought On by the Loss of a Front Tooth, Together with the Current Cultural and Political Situation) stop by to discuss their choices for the last books they will ever read.
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.
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Jun 4
1 hr 12 min
By the middle of the twentieth century, Robert Frost was widely regarded as America's most popular poet, beloved for the simple, sincere verses that took readers on journeys through the wooded roads of rural New England, accompanied by Frost's wry observations and hardscrabble truths. Just a few years after Frost's death, a scathing biography by Lawrance Thompson painted a different picture of the man, which led critic Helen Vendler to ask, in her review of the biography, whether it was possible to avoid the conclusion that Frost had actually been a "monster." In this episode, Jacke talks to critic and author Adam Plunkett about his new book, Love and Need: The Life of Robert Frost's Poetry, a major new biography that challenges our understanding of Frost's life and poetic legacy. PLUS Ursula Buchan (Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps: A Life of John Buchan) stops by to discuss her choice for the last book she will ever read.
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
Jun 1
53 min
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