Send us a text In this week’s mini, we’re talking about twins in fiction, from Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet and Stephen King’s The Shining to some lesser-known gems. Plus, we have a letter from a new listener who wrote to us after hearing our episode about her late mother, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Discussed in this episode: Lost Ladies of Lit on Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s Heat and Dust with Brigitte Hales Merchant Ivory Films Julian Sands A Room with a View (1985 film) The Parent Trap (1961 film) Lottie a...
Feb 28, 2023•16 min•Season 1Ep. 129
Send us a text 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 ...
Feb 21, 2023•45 min•Season 1Ep. 128
Send us a text In this week’s mini we discuss the renowned Yaddo Artists’ Colony and the bittersweet story of the woman who envisioned this sylvan retreat on 400 acres in Saratoga Springs, New York. Since its inception in 1926 huge names in American literature have spent time as artists in residence at Yaddo, including important writers like Eudora Welty, Flannery O’Connor, Patricia Highsmith, Katherine Anne Porter, Carson McCullers, Sylvia Plath, Alice Walker, and Lost Lady poet Lola Ridge. Dis...
Feb 14, 2023•13 min•Season 1Ep. 127
Send us a text Like the sexually-liberated Tiger Queen from her scandalous bestselling 1907 novel Three Weeks , Elinor Glyn was bold, provocative and glamourous, with a magnetism that endeared her to international readers and Hollywood celebrities alike. (She counted Mary Pickford, Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino, and Charlie Chaplin among her personal friends.) After introducing the concept of the steamy “romance novel” to the staid Victorian world, Glyn became a pioneer of the Hollywood movi...
Feb 07, 2023•47 min•Season 1Ep. 126
Send us a text New episodes beginning Feb 7. This episode originally aired in June 2021. Like her contemporary Herman Melville, New England writer Elizabeth Stoddard was a critical success—Nathaniel Hawthorne himself was a fan, and she was compared to Tolstoy, George Eliot, Balzac, and the Bronte sisters—but her books failed to find an audience when they were published. Join us as we discuss Stoddard’s brilliant novel The Morgesons and its bold and inimitable heroine with guest Rachel Vorona Cot...
Jan 31, 2023•38 min•Season 1Ep. 125
Send us a text We're back with a full episode on Feb. 7. Irish novelist Margaret Wolfe Hungerford’s light Victorian-era romances were known throughout the English-speaking world, and her novel Molly Bawn was even name dropped in James Joyce’s Ulysses . Join us to find out why in a discussion with guest Jessica Callahan, Hallmark Channel exec and former editor of romance and mystery novels at Penguin Group. Discussed in this episode: Molly Bawn by Margaret Wolfe Hungerford Ulysses by James Joyce ...
Jan 24, 2023•34 min•Season 1Ep. 124
Send us a text We're back with new episodes on February 7! The New York Times called The Green Parrot “A strange and beautiful story, with the faintly arid charm of a miniature painted on the cover of a seventeenth-century snuff box.” That’s just one of the many reasons Amy and Kim couldn’t wait to discuss the provocative and brilliant author Princess Marthe Bibesco and her 1924 gem of a novel. Joining them is this week’s guest, book publicist and jewelry designer Lauren Cerand. Discussed in thi...
Jan 17, 2023•37 min•Season 1Ep. 123
Send us a text WE'RE BACK WITH A NEW EPISODE ON FEBRUARY 7, 2023. In this week’s episode, Amy and Kim have a conversation about Sui Sin Far and her wonderful short story collection, Mrs. Spring Fragrance (1912), with journalist and author Victoria Namkung , who has her Master’s Degree in Asian American Studies from UCLA. Sui Sin Far, the pen name of Edith Maude Eaton, was a journalist and writer of Chinese and British descent who moved to the U.S. and began writing articles about what it was lik...
Jan 10, 2023•34 min•Season 1Ep. 122
Send us a text WE'RE BACK WITH A NEW EPISODE ON FEBRUARY 7, 2023. In this episode, Kim and Amy have a conversation about Constance Fenimore Woolson’s novel Anne (1880) with professor and author Anne Boyd Rioux , whose biography of Woolson was named one of 2016’s ten best books of the year by The Chicago Tribune . Woolson, a close friend of Henry James, is remembered as a salacious footnote in his story, yet upon its publication, her novel Anne sold ten times as many copies as James’s Portrait of...
Jan 03, 2023•48 min•Season 1Ep. 121
Send us a text The Victorian era has been called the golden age of parlour games, and we share some interesting ones in this week’s mini episode. Let us know if you try any of them out by emailing info@lostladiesoflit.com or sharing on social @lostladiesoflit . We wish you the happiest of New Years! Support the show For episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.com Subscribe to our substack newsletter. Follow us on instagram @lostladiesoflit . Email us: Contact — Lost Ladies of Lit Podcast...
Dec 27, 2022•16 min•Season 1Ep. 120
Send us a text Join us for a chat about the fantastic new book from the British Library Women Writers Series, Stories for Christmas and the Festive Season. The stories in this collection run the gamut of what the holiday season encompasses from a woman's perspective and includes stories by past Lost Ladies authors E.M. Delafield and Stella Gibbons. We’ll share some of our favorites. Happy Holidays! Discussed in this episode: Simon Thomas British Library Women Writers Series Stories for Christmas...
Dec 20, 2022•12 min•Season 1Ep. 119
Send us a text Published anonymously six years prior to Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park —yet largely ignored for two centuries—the Regency-era epistolary novel The Woman of Colour: A Tale is the only one of its kind to feature a racially-conscious Black heroine at its center. Dr. Leigh-Michil George, a lecturer in the English Department at Geffen Academy at UCLA, joins us to discuss the novel and its historical importance as well as its influence on Regency-era television adaptations of Sanditon an...
Dec 13, 2022•39 min•Season 1Ep. 118
Send us a text We managed to contract our first cases of Covid the very same week. If there’s one silver lining, it was getting to catch up on the sort of media we always wanted to binge but never had the time. So for this week’s mini episode, we’ll fill you in on the best of our respective binges. Discussed in this episode: Lucy Worsely Investigates The Great Downton Abbey: A New Era Talking Tudors The Sunshine Place A Woman of Colour by Anonymous Winter Love by Han Suyin Hester by Margaret Oli...
Dec 06, 2022•23 min•Season 1Ep. 117
Send us a text “Criminally neglected” author Dorothy Richardson (1873-1957) is credited with writing the first stream-of-consciousness novel, which launched her thirteen-volume, semi-autobiographical masterwork, Pilgrimage . Joining us to discuss Dawn’s Left Hand , the tenth book in the series, are Scott McCracken, professor of 20th century literature at Queen Mary University of London, and Brad Bigelow, the editorial coordinator for Boiler House Press’s Recovered Books series. Discussed in this...
Nov 29, 2022•46 min•Season 1Ep. 116
Send us a text For this week’s mini, we share the origin story of our writing partnership and chat about some books, TV shows, and films set in Colonial America. As ever, we’re thankful for you, our listeners! In mentioning Thanksgiving, we think it’s especially important to acknowledge that Los Angeles, where we live and record this podcast, is on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Gabrielino-Tongva, Chumash, and Kizh peoples. Discussed in this episode: Romancing the Tome ...
Nov 22, 2022•15 min•Season 1Ep. 115
Send us a text A newspaper columnist from the first half of the 20th century, Elsie Robinson walked away from a life of privilege in search of personal freedom, toiled in a gold mine as a single mother, and eventually hit rock-bottom before clawing her way to national success. Our guest is Allison Gilbert, an Emmy-Award-winning journalist whose latest book, written in collaboration with Julia Scheeres, is Listen, World ! How the Intrepid Elsie Robinson Became America’s Most-Read Woman. Discussed...
Nov 15, 2022•42 min•Season 1Ep. 114
Send us a text Susanna M. Salter was a 27-year old political activist when she was placed on the 1860 Argonia, Kansas ballot as a joke. She became the first woman elected to serve as mayor in the United States and one of the first women to serve in any political office in the U.S. We learn more about her in this week’s mini. Support the show For episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.com Subscribe to our substack newsletter. Follow us on instagram @lostladiesoflit . Email us: Contact — ...
Nov 08, 2022•7 min•Season 1Ep. 113
Send us a text Rona Jaffe was only 27 when she rose to stardom with her 1958 novel, The Best of Everything, a roman á clef about the adventures of four young, single women working in New York City’s publishing industry. Our guest is Josh Lambert, an associate professor of English and director of the Jewish Studies Program at Wellesley College. His latest book, The Literary Mafia: Jews, Publishing, and Postwar American Literature, was published in July 2022 by Yale University Press. Discussed in ...
Nov 01, 2022•37 min•Season 1Ep. 112
Send us a text Gothic thriller The Midnight Queen (1863) was written by May Agnes Fleming, a prolific Canadian author who specialized in churning out binge-worthy books, making her one of the nation’s first best-selling authors. Our guest is Canadian literary historian and author Brian Busby of The Dusty Bookcase. Discussed in this episode: The Midnight Queen by May Agnes Fleming The Dusty Bookcase Alexandre Dumas L.M. Montgomery The New York Mercury Philadelphia’s Saturday Night The Tempest by ...
Oct 25, 2022•39 min•Season 1Ep. 111
Send us a text Author Alena Dillon joins us for this week’s mini to discuss the medical treatment of women and mothers and how it’s evolved over time. We’ll touch on hysteria, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” and some of the things that surprised us about giving birth. Discussed in this episode: Eyes Turned Skyward by Alena Dillon Amy Schumer My Body Is a Big, Fat Temple by Alena Dillon Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World by Elinor Cleghorn Tokology: A Book for Every Woman Alice B. St...
Oct 18, 2022•33 min•Season 1Ep. 110
Send us a text Anne Hampton Brewster’s florid 1866 novel St. Martin’s Summer is set mostly in Italy and inspired by her experiences as a young, single American woman on her European grand tour. Brewster, who became one of America's first female foreign correspondents, is also one of the fascinating women profiled in our guest Etta Madden’s recent book Engaging Italy: American Women’s Utopian Visions and Transnational Networks. Discussed in this episode: St. Martin’s Summer by Anne Hampton Brewst...
Oct 11, 2022•41 min•Season 1Ep. 109
Send us a text Lola Ridge was once considered one of America's preeminent poets, on par with E.E. Cummings, William Carlos Williams, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Jean Toomer, and Robert Frost. We discuss the radical life and career of this early 20th century modernist poet, anarchist, and literary editor with guest Terese Svoboda, whose 2018 biography of Ridge was described as “magisterial” in The Washington Post. For episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.com Follow us on instagram @lostlad...
Oct 04, 2022•41 min•Season 1Ep. 108
Send us a text Cue the Twin Peaks theme music. In this week’s mini, we take a Lynchian detour to discuss the book Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder by Lawrence Weschler and share our mutual love for L.A. 's weirdly wonderful Museum of Jurassic of Technology and other strange museums around the world. For episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.com Follow us on instagram @lostladiesoflit . Follow Kim on twitter @kaskew . Sign up for our newsletter: LostLadiesofLit.com Email us: Contact — Los...
Sep 27, 2022•16 min•Season 1Ep. 107
Send us a text Following her straight-laced Edwardian-era upbringing, “Dirty” Helen Cromwell became a call girl-turned-madame, bootlegger, and legendary speakeasy owner. The life of every party, she counted Al Capone among her many famous friends. Our guest is Christina Ward, who reintroduced the world to Cromwell’s unputdownable memoir Good Time Party Girl: The Notorious Life of Dirty Helen Cromwell 1886-1969. For episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.com Follow us on instagram @lostl...
Sep 20, 2022•42 min•Season 1Ep. 106
Send us a text In this week’s mini episode, we share some interesting odds and ends related to recent episodes, including a “no, she didn’t!” letter by lost poet Debora Vogel as well as letters from our listeners. Thank you so much for tuning in! We appreciate every single one of you. For episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.com Follow us on instagram @lostladiesoflit . Follow Kim on twitter @kaskew . Sign up for our newsletter: LostLadiesofLit.com Email us: Contact — Lost Ladies of L...
Sep 13, 2022•18 min•Season 1Ep. 105
Send us a text Before she became a bestselling fiction writer whose work was deemed “catchy as ragtime,” Miriam Michelson made a name for herself as a “girl reporter” covering crime and politics for a major San Francisco paper. Professor Lori Harrison-Kahan, who edited 2019’s The Superwoman and Other Writings by Miriam Michelson, joins us to discuss Michelson and her 1912 feminist utopian novella The Superwoman . For episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.com Follow us on instagram @los...
Sep 06, 2022•40 min•Season 1Ep. 104
Send us a text In today’s mini episode, we talk about a lady novelist who is also thought to have secretly edited a Victorian-era edition of Shakespeare that eventually sold over 340,000 copies. Shakespeare’s Lady Editors by Molly G. Yarn For episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.com Follow us on instagram @lostladiesoflit . Follow Kim on twitter @kaskew . Sign up for our newsletter: LostLadiesofLit.com Email us: Contact — Lost Ladies of Lit Podcast Support the show For episodes and sh...
Aug 30, 2022•15 min•Season 1Ep. 103
Send us a text We think both Freud and Jane Austen might approve of one-time bestselling novelist and Austen biographer Margaret Kennedy’s delightfully clever 1953 historical novel, Troy Chimneys. Recently republished by McNally Editions, it’s written in the Regency style and from the perspective of a male hero with dueling personalities. For episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.com Follow us on instagram @lostladiesoflit . Follow Kim on twitter @kaskew . Sign up for our newsletter: L...
Aug 23, 2022•27 min•Season 1Ep. 102
Send us a text In this week’s mini, we’re talking about Sylvia Beach, the American who in 1919 founded the beloved bookshop Shakespeare and Company on Paris’s Left Bank. Beach also played an instrumental role in the 1922 publication of James Joyce’s Ulysses . For episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.com Follow us on instagram @lostladiesoflit . Follow Kim on twitter @kaskew . Sign up for our newsletter: LostLadiesofLit.com Email us: https://www.lostladiesoflit.com/contact Support the ...
Aug 16, 2022•14 min•Season 1Ep. 101
Send us a text For our 100th episode (!), we’re reviving a lost literary 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 . Support the show For episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.com Subscribe to our substack ne...
Aug 09, 2022•45 min•Season 1Ep. 100
