Annotations

Before there was “fake news,” there was fake literature! Listen to this episode of our podcast to learn about Edgar Allan Poe’s penchant for constructing headline-making hoaxes, Grace Acton’s curiously-constructed recipe collection and other literary creations that were just too good to be true.

To celebrate the return of the Annotations podcast, join Rebecca Kling as she talks to Dr. Cordelia Ross, an instructor at the University of Alabama, about her unexpected archive. Listen to the interview to discover what tales of green children may mean, what medieval manuscripts smell like, and what you can discover by visiting (a cave called) the "Devil’s Arse”!

During this interview Lindsay Baltus shares her experience researching feminist media in the archives at UC Berkeley and Pacifica Radio and through her work as the Director of the 2017 Davis Feminist Film Festival.

We tackle some of the historical bestsellers that you’ve never heard of and contemporary bestsellers that skipped a few generations before becoming widely known. Selections include Herman Melville’s "Moby Dick", Samuel Richardson’s "Pamela" (with "Harry Potter" and "Fifty Shades of Grey!"), "St. Patrick’s Purgatory," and Charles Reade’s Victorian novels.

This episode explores the ways that texts can influence a reader’s actions and life decisions. We reflect on literary justifications for crimes offered by captured criminals, trace the aftermath of Robert Louis Stevenson’s "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (and John Gay’s "The Beggar’s Opera"), investigate the social and fashion fads inspired by Sydney Owenson’s author/character performances of "The Wild Irish Girl" and interview Dave Wheeler about “how reading helped [him] find [his] pride.”