American Writers (One Hundred Pages at a Time)

H. P. Lovecraft Book Club: Series 5: Episode 7: The Call of Cthulhu (2)

In the second half of my review of THE CALL OF CTHULHU I explore some of the most important passages in all of Lovecraft's writings: the interview with the cultist Castro. The cost of wordily freedom maybe high, but for many marginalized people it is worth paying.

Episode 434: Sinclair Lewis: Arrowsmith (4)

Part four of ARROWSMITH by Sinclair Lewis explores Martin Arrowsmith's career as it moves into hard science, war, and eventually a devastating plague in the West Indies. As always the contradictions between science and politics follows him.

H. P. Lovecraft Book Club: Series 5: Episode 6: The Call of Cthulhu, Part 1

The first of two episodes in which I look at the famous story by H. P. Lovecraft, THE CALL OF CTHULHU. Great story due to its nested narrative and global scope.

Episode 433: Sinclair Lewis: Arrowsmith (3)

Martin Arrowsmith, bored with being a small-town doctor moves into the field of public health, finding the politics of science even worse than the personal politics of private practice. I look at this as well as other things in this part of my review of ARROWSMITH by Sinclair Lewis.

H. P. Lovecraft Book Club: Series 5: Episode5: In the Vault

"In the Vault" seems a bit out of place in this period of Lovecraft's career, but it is a bit of fun and plesantly gory. The TV show TALES FROM THE CRYPT did a episode seemingly inspired by this tale called "Fitting Punishment".

Episode 432: Sinclair Lewis: Arrowsmith (2)

Part two of my review of ARROWSMITH by Sinclair Lewis. In this episode we follow Martin Arrowsmith as he begins his career as a small-town doctor.

H. P. Lovecraft Book Club: Series 5: Episode 4: Cool Air

"Cool Air" by H. P. Lovecraft is a lovely science-fiction horror story set in New York, the last of Lovecraft's stories set in New York after "Red Hook" and "He".

Episode 431:Sinclair Lewis: Arrowsmith (1)

Part one of my five-part review of ARROWSMITH by Sinclair Lewis. This novel explores the culture of professional medicine in early 20th century America through the life of a young doctor torn by different perspectives on the proper role of the doctor.

H.P. Lovecraft Book Club: Series 5: Episode 3: HE

In this episode, I examine Lovecraft's short story "He", the second in a "trilogy" of New York stories. This one is the most meta and personal and certainly, the most cosmic.

Episode 430: Aldo Leopold: Journals.

In this short episode, I finish my look at Aldo Leopold's writings with his journals. I know I said I would look at his letters, but I decided to move on to my next series, starting with ARROWSMITH by Sinclair Lewis.

H. P. Lovecraft Book Club: Series 5: Episode 2: The Horror at Red Hook (2)

Part two of my review of THE HORROR AT RED HOOK by H. P. Lovecraft. Ignoring this story due to his racism, compartmentalizing his views on immigrants, or saying Lovecraft was just a man of his time will not due...and this story shows why.

Episode 429: Aldo Leopold: Writings 1938-1948

The third and final episode looking at Aldo Leopold's professional and private ecology writings. These cover the period of the Second World War and Leopold's growing awareness of the depth of the crisis in ecology.

H. P. Lovecraft Book Club: Series 5: Episode 1: The Horror At Red Hook (Part 1)

The first half of my review of THE HORROR AT RED HOOK, by H. P. Lovecraft. This is a story that pulls together most of the threads from his earliest horror writings. Despite its nasty language about immigrants, it is essential reading for those interested in his philosophy.

Episode 438: Aldo Leopold: Writings 1933-1937

A look at some more of Aldo Leopold's professional and private writings on ecology from the period when he began his work in Wisconsin, coinciding with the Great Depression and New Deal programs on conservation.

Episode 427: Aldo Leopold: Writings 1917-1933

Having finished A SAND COUNTY ALMANAC, we will now go back to look at Aldo Leopold's writings from the start of his career in 1917 until 1933, when he published a book on game management.

H. P. Lovecraft Book Club: Series 4: Episode 12: Poems, Later 1920s

In this episode of the H. P. Lovecraft Book Club I look at a bunch of horror poems Lovecraft wrote in the later 1920s.

Episode 426: Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac (Part 2)

This episode completes my review of A SAND COUNTY ALMANAC by Aldo Leopold. The second part of the book of essays explores the human impact on ecology and proposes a solution, the Land Ethic.

H. P. Lovecraft Book Club: Series 4: Episode 11: Supernatural Horror in Literature (2)

The second part of my review of "Supernatural Horror in Literature" looks at the bulk of the text. Most of the essay is surveys of the major works in different periods and regions. SHIL will remain a useful guide for readers of 18th, 19th, and early 20th century horror.

H. P. Lovecraft Book Club: Series 4: Episode 10: Supernatural Horror in Literature

In this episode of the H. P. Lovecraft Book Club I examine "Supernatural Horror in Literature", Lovecraft's brilliant survey of horror writing. I focus on his overall philosophy as detailed in the first chapter of this book-length essay.

Episode 425: Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac, Part 1

Episode one of my new series on the writings of Aldo Leopold. To begin we will explore his masterpiece A SAND COUNTY ALMANAC. It remains one of the greatest works of American ecology. In later episodes, we will look at his professional writings and journals.

H. P. Lovecraft Book Club: Series 4: Episode 9: Letters January 1929 to June 1929

The end of this series on H. P. Lovecraft's letters. This set is a doozy with some monster letters to Frank B. Long, Wilfred Talman, and Woodburn Prescott Harris.

Episode 424: James Agee: Shorter Fiction

In this final episode on James Agee, I look at his shorter fiction, including "Morning Watch" and "Death in the Desert". They are all pretty excellent and worth checking out.

H. P. Lovecraft Book Club: Series 4: Episode 8: Letters January 1928-December 1928

Lovecraft's letters in 1928 ranged in topics from literature to modernism to race and class. I review some of these letters as I continue to work my way through the second volume of The Selected Letters of H. P. Lovecraft.

Episode 423: James Agee:Death in the Family (2)

In this episode I finish up my look at James Agee's novel A DEATH IN A FAMILY. I find the novel a bit more interesting in the second half as Agee explores issues of race, childhood, and maturation.

H. P. Lovecraft Book Club: Series 4: Episode 7: Letters October 1927-February 1928

The highlight of the H. P. Lovecraft letters from the winter of 1927-28 is Lovecraft's account of a story-length Roman dream. He mediates quite a lot about the Romans and their history, in seeming preparation for his debates with Robert E. Howard.

Episode 422:James Agee: Death in the Family (1)

The first part of my review of James Agee's DEATH IN THE FAMILY. This posthumously published novel won the Pulitzer Prize. I found it to be of interest, but a bit of a slog.

H. P. Lovecraft Book Club: Series 4: Episode 6: Letters June 1927-October 1927

The H. P. Lovecraft letters I look at in this episode cover much of the second half of 1927. There is not much in the way of philosophy, but professionally it is an important period with the submission of "The Call of Cthulhu".

Episode 421: James Agee: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (Conclusion)

The episode in which I try to make some final sense of James Agee's LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN. I am pretty sure I am only scratching the surface.

H. P. Lovecraft Book Club: Series 4: Episode 5: Letters February 1927-June 1927

Let's look at some more of H. P. Lovecraft's letters. In this episode I explore the ones he wrote in 1927. There are a few good and important letters here such as one to Donald Wanderi on metaphysics and one to Bernard Dwyer on culture, migration and modernism.

Episode 420: James Agee: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (3)

Part three of my review of LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN by James Agee. In this part of the book, Agee continues his report on the material conditions of life for the three sharecropping families. It will get weird again at the end.

H.P. Lovecraft Book Club: Series 4: Episode 4: Letters October 1926-February 1927

The winter of 1926-27 Lovecraft wrote several interesting letters on his aesthetic and literary tastes and he worked on THE DREAMQUEST OF UNKNOWN KADATH. Some ennui at this time, it seems to me.

Episode 419: Jame Agee: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (2)

In part 2 of LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN by James Agee we get a look at the material conditions of life for our three sharecropper families, with special focus on their homes.

H. P. Lovecraft Book Club: Series 4: Episode 3: Letters May 1926-October 1926

Back in Providence, Lovecraft felt more at peace, but his New York experience shaped how he even saw Providence as he began to explore it again. He saw pockets of his town he never noticed before. Lots of fun letters in this section showing these reflections on NY.

H. P. Lovecraft Book Club: Series 4: Episode 2: Letters November 1925-May 1926

In this episode I look at more of H. P. Lovecraft's letters. These cover his final months in New York and his return to Providence. But this New York experience will stay in Lovecraft's mind for many years.

Episode 418: James Agee: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1)

Part one of my review of the frustrating, fascinating, and beautiful work LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN. I still do not know fully what to think of this one. It explores the lives of sharecroppers in the South during the Great Depression, but goes off the rails.

Episode 417:James Agee: Some Assorted Journalism

If you are interested here are some thoughts on a few pieces of James Agee's assorted journalism for FORTUNE and TIME, including some book reviews. The most interesting may be his look at cock fighting and the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Episode 416: James Agee: Night of the Hunter: Screenplay and Film

For the first time in this podcast, I am looking at a screenplay. This one was by James Agee based on the book NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, about a Bluebeard character. Contains some real horror elements.

H. P. Lovecraft BookClub: Series 4: Episode 1: Letters Feburary to October 1925

An episode where I try to look at a bunch of H. P. Lovecraft's letters from his time in New York.

The Harry Houdini Book Club: Episode 1: Under the Pyramids

In this episode, I look at a short story by Harry Houdini (ghost written by H. P. Lovecraft) called "Under the Pyramids". It is a beautiful story of the exploration into deep history even if the scare at the end is fairly typical of its writer. Narrated by Houdini, the "was it all a dream" suggestion has a bit more punch.

Episode415: James Agee: Agee on Film (5)

In this episode we finish up with Agee's film reviews for TIME. Overall, I think they are worth reading in the context of re-exploring some of the films of the 1940s.