On the happy occasion of the publication of Francesca Wade’s magnificent Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife, we speak with the biographer about Stein’s life, work, and complicated relationships.

Wade describes her access to new Stein archives that afforded her a fresh look on the enigmatic writer, the difference between Stein's legend and her life, the particular value of her various publications, and what she was ultimately trying to capture with her singular writing style. Wade also explores Stein’s “afterlife,” the controversial legacy that her writings and persona have left us.

We also discuss the fraught Hemingway-Stein relationship, that cryptic passage in A Moveable Feast, and what each might have meant to the other.

Join us for a new consideration of one of Hemingway’s oldest friendships and rivalries!

In our second episode devoted to the centenary of The Sun Also Rises, we turn our focus to the beloved Count Mippipopolous.

He’s an epicurean and an entrepreneur; he’s battle-tested, arrow-wounded, champagne-enjoying, no-dancing, business-tripping, generous-tipping... and he’s always in love. We discuss his role in the novel, his relationship with Brett and Jake, Hemingway’s original plan for him in the manuscript, and how he emerges as such a resonant figure.

Make sure to listen for a snippet of Leonard Nimoy as the Count in the polarizing 1984 mini-series, where he says things that he doesn’t say in the novel. As always, we enjoy the legendary actor William Hurt reading a pivotal scene involving the Count, courtesy of our friends at Simon & Schuster Audio.

If you’re quite one of us, you will love this exploration of Hemingway’s great novel and this indelible, magnificently alive secondary character.

Audio excerpt courtesy of Simon & Schuster Audio from The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, read by William Hurt. Copyright © 1926 by Charles Scribner’s Sons. Used with permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

We are thrilled to welcome Susan Shillinglaw, the preeminent John Steinbeck scholar, to discuss one of Hemingway’s contemporaries and fellow Nobel laureates.

Although Hemingway and Steinbeck are not discussed comparatively as frequently as some of his other fellow literary titans, Prof. Shillinglaw talks about Steinbeck’s life, career, and temperament in ways that will inspire us to remap the overlaps between these two men. We explore Steinbeck’s fondness for “The Butterfly and the Tank,” Hemingway and Steinbeck’s different paths during the 1930s, the way The Red Pony’s Jody Tiflin functions as a Nick Adams-like character, and much more.

Make sure to tune in to the very end of the episode! In honor of Steinbeck, our friend Michael Kim Roos treats us to a version of Woody Guthrie’s “Tom Joad.” For more information about Mike’s music, see: https://mikeroos.com.