The Norton Library Podcast

In this episode of the Norton Library Podcast, we welcome Jesse McCarthy to discuss who  W. E. B. Du Bois was and how The Souls of Black Folk came to be.  We also explore Souls' most enduring ideas and how these still resonate today with a variety of underrepresented groups.McCarthy is the editor of the Norton Library edition of The Souls of Black Folk and Assistant Professor in the departments of English and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. He has published articles and reviews in the journals transposition, NOVEL, and African American Review and contributed chapters to Richard Wright in Context and Ralph Ellison in Context  as well as a new introduction for Vincent O. Carter’s long out-of-print memoir The Bern Book. He is also the author of Who Will Pay Reparations on My Soul?  a collection of essays and a novel, The Fugitivities.To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition ofThe Souls of Black Folk,  go to seagull.wwnorton.com/TSOBFLearn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.Listen to our Spotify playlist inspired by The Souls of Black Folk: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5Jx6YYSrTjRTFqgfWsT3vy?si=f7493ea35a7d4588.Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at nortonlibrary@wwnorton.com or find us on Twitter @TNL_WWN.Episode transcript at: https://seagull.wwnorton.com/thesoulsofblackfolk/part1/transcript.

In Part 2 of our conversation with Michael Bérubé, we discuss the enduring legacy of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein—how a cautionary tale about reckless experimentation and radicalization speaks just as forcefully to our present moment as it did to readers in 1818. Michael Bérubé is Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Literature at Penn State University and the editor of the Norton Library edition of Frankenstein. He is the author of ten books, including What’s Liberal About the Liberal Arts? Classroom Politics and “Bias” in Higher Education and Life As We Know It: A Father, a Family, and an Exceptional Child. The Norton Library edition of Frankenstein features the complete text of the 1818 edition. To learn more or purchase a copy, go to http://seagull.wwnorton.com/frankenstein.Learn more about the Norton Library series at http://wwnorton.com/norton-library.Listen to our Spotify playlist inspired by Frankenstein: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3t8NNem7nWM3IV7BT6j7pW?si=960699708f7a49de.Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at nortonlibrary@wwnorton.com or find us on Twitter @TNL_WWN.Episode transcript at: https://seagull.wwnorton.com/frankenstein/part1/transcript.

In this episode of the Norton Library Podcast, we welcome Michael Bérubé to discuss the origins of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the radical (and enduring) questions the novel poses about science, religion, and humanity. Michael Bérubé is Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Literature at Penn State University and the editor of the Norton Library edition of Frankenstein. He is the author of ten books, including What’s Liberal About the Liberal Arts? Classroom Politics and “Bias” in Higher Education and Life As We Know It: A Father, a Family, and an Exceptional Child.  The Norton Library edition of Frankenstein features the complete text of the 1818 edition. To learn more or purchase a copy, go to http://seagull.wwnorton.com/frankenstein. Learn more about the Norton Library series at http://wwnorton.com/norton-library.Listen to our Spotify playlist inspired by Frankenstein: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3t8NNem7nWM3IV7BT6j7pW?si=960699708f7a49de.Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at nortonlibrary@wwnorton.com or find us on Twitter @TNL_WWN. Episode transcript at: https://seagull.wwnorton.com/frankenstein/part1/transcript.

In Part 2 of our conversation with Anne Margaret Daniel, we break down common misconceptions about The Great Gatsby and dig in to what it is about the novel that draws readers (and Hollywood) in and keeps us coming back.  Anne Margaret Daniel is the editor of the Norton Library edition of The Great Gatsby and teaches literature at The New School University in New York City. She is also the editor of I’d Die For You and Other Lost Stories, Fitzgerald’s last previously unpublished short stories, and of the forthcoming selected letters of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald. The Norton Library edition of The Great Gatsby  features the complete text of the first 1925 edition, along with a selection of earlier short stories by Fitzgerald. To learn more or purchase a copy, go to https://seagull.wwnorton.com/gatsby.Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.Listen to our Spotify playlist inspired by The Great Gatsby: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/38hcFnY4wCoBbr3Q6Nz6dp?si=861dd02247b4411b.Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at nortonlibrary@wwnorton.com or find us on Twitter @TNL_WWN.Episode transcript at: https://seagull.wwnorton.com/thegreatgatsby/part2/transcript.

In this inaugural episode of the Norton Library Podcast, we welcome Anne Margaret Daniel to discuss how F. Scott Fitzgerald came to write his Jazz Age masterpiece. We also explore some of the themes that have captivated readers for over a century—self-improvement and the "American Dream," the power and limits of wealth in the upper reaches of the elite, and the narrative filtering of Gatsby's world through the perspective of outsider Nick Carraway. Anne Margaret Daniel is the editor of the Norton Library edition of The Great Gatsby and teaches literature at The New School University in New York City. She is also the editor of I’d Die For You and Other Lost Stories, Fitzgerald’s last previously unpublished short stories, and of the forthcoming selected letters of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald. The Norton Library edition of The Great Gatsby  features the complete text of the first 1925 edition, along with a selection of earlier short stories by Fitzgerald. To learn more or purchase a copy, go to https://seagull.wwnorton.com/gatsby.Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.Listen to our Spotify playlist inspired by The Great Gatsby: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/38hcFnY4wCoBbr3Q6Nz6dp?si=861dd02247b4411b.Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at nortonlibrary@wwnorton.com or find us on Twitter @TNL_WWN. Episode transcript at: https://seagull.wwnorton.com/thegreatgatsby/part1/transcript.