Oct. 19, 2026
Episode 837: Ghost Month with Simon Wroe
In Episode 837, the History of Literature Podcast host Jacke Wilson gets ready for the Halloween season with an episode filled with madness, murder, and ghosts! First, he recounts the story of Romantic period writers Charles and Mary Lamb. Although the brother-sister duo later became famous for their summaries of Shakespeare's tales, they each spent time in madhouses due to fits of "lunacy," one of which resulted in Mary killing their mother with a kitchen knife. Then Jacke talks to author Simon Wroe about his new novel Ghost Month, in which the spirits of the dead return to visit London for four weeks each year. What do they want? And how do Londoners respond? Happy Halloween!
Episode 838: The Emerson Circle with Bruce Nichols
In Episode 838, Jacke talks to author Bruce Nichols about his new book The Emerson Circle: The Concord Radicals Who Reinvented the World. They discuss how literary luminaries — Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott, Bronson Al…
Twenty Shakespeare Episodes on the History of Literature Podcast
Spend time exploring the world of Shakespeare with host Jacke Wilson on the History of Literature Podcast! Here's a list of the twenty episodes on Shakespeare on the History of Literature Podcast. In these episodes, Jacke talks with eminent scholar…
