Lost Ladies of Lit

Send us Fan MailA 30-year-old virgin named Fortune Dundee moves into a swinging-singles L.A. apartment complex in Cynthia Buchanan’s 1972 debut novel Maiden. Newly reissued by Hagfish Books, this strange, post-modern work was once positioned in relation to The Bell Jar and Play It as It Lays as a comic triumph of feminist prose. Though Lily Tomlin and Robert Altman nearly collaborated on a film version in the Seventies, that prospect — and the book’s popularity — eventually hit the skids. Hagfish founders Julia Ringo and Naomi Huffman join us to discuss what makes Buchanan’s cleverly-crafted work such an obvious candidate for recovery.Mentioned in this episode:**Free online book club discussion of Maiden hosted by The Sitting Room Library. Register here.Maiden by Cynthia BuchananHagfish BooksLost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 298 on Nettie JonesGeek Love by Katherine DunnToad by Katherine DunnNear Flesh: Stories by Katherine DunnTo Smithereens by Rosalyn DrexlerThe Cosmopoliton Girl by Rosalyn DrexlerThree Women by Robert AltmanPlay It as It Lays by Joan DidionThe Bell Jar by Sylvia PlathDonald BarthelmeWilliam H. GassJames MerrillWilliam GaddisArthur MillerBridesmaidsNapoleon DynamiteA Woman Under the Influence by Robert AltmanDon Quixote by Miguel CervantesInfinite Jest by David Foster WallaceA Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy TooleThe Sitting Room Library Reading Group for Cynthia Buchanan’s MaidenMan Hating Psycho by Iphiginia BaalSupport the showFor episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.comSubscribe to our substack newsletter.Follow us on instagram @lostladiesoflit. Email us: Contact — Lost Ladies of Lit Podcast

Send us Fan MailTo celebrate historic record wins for women in the U.S. midterm elections this week, we're dusting off this episode from this week four years ago. Susanna M. Salter was a 27-year old political activist when she was placed on the 1860 Argonia, Kansas ballot as a cruel joke. She called her tormentors' bluff by becoming 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 bonus episode Support the showFor episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.comSubscribe to our substack newsletter.Follow us on instagram @lostladiesoflit. Email us: Contact — Lost Ladies of Lit Podcast

Send us Fan MailIn celebration of this week's Blue Tsunami, we're re-airing a previous bonus episode on Katharine Lee Bates. In the months leading up to the midterms, Iowa's newly-minted Democratic governor-elect Rob Sand kicked off each of his campaign events with a crowd singalong of "America the Beautiful," which takes its lyrics from a poem Bates wrote after her 1893 trip to Pike's Peak. Bates was a staunch activist for social justice who decried some of America's political policies in her day, but never lost her admiration for the country. The original words to her poem are more pointed (and less blindly patriotic) than the version we know today, but her hopeful message still resonates as we set about healing as a nation.Support the showFor episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.comSubscribe to our substack newsletter.Follow us on instagram @lostladiesoflit. Email us: Contact — Lost Ladies of Lit Podcast

Send us Fan MailWe’re honored to welcome 2026 Booker Prize finalist Rebecca Perry, author of the remarkable debut novel May We Feed The King, as a guest this week to discuss one of her favorite forgotten writers, Rosemary Tonks. A colorful figure in literary London’s Swinging Sixties, Tonks mysteriously retreated from the world after publishing two successful poetry collections and six novels. Perry joins us to discuss Tonks’s offbeat, louche and sardonic 1968 title The Bloater, and she also shares what her life has been like since being shortlisted for the Booker!Mentioned in this episode:May We Feed the King by Rebecca PerryThe Bloater by Rosemary TonksBeauty/Beauty by Rebecca PerryTransit BooksBedouin of the London Evening: Collected Poems and Selected Prose by Rosemary TonksWithnail & I 1987 filmBruce RobinsonLucy Scholes’ Paris Review article on Rosemary TonksAudrey Wollen’s New Yorker article “The Writer Who Burned Her Own Books”Michael Hofmann’s essay for Poetry on Rosemary Tonks: “The Woman Who Quit”New York Times review of May We Feed the King by Lauren ElkinLost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 296 on Josephine TeyWolf Hall by Hilary MantelDennis Severs’ HouseThe Favourite 2018 filmBarry Lyndon 1975 filmSupport the showFor episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.comSubscribe to our substack newsletter.Follow us on instagram @lostladiesoflit. Email us: Contact — Lost Ladies of Lit Podcast

Send us Fan MailFrom bushwhacking through the Congo to smoking opium in Shanghai, Emily “Mickey” Hahn turned her need for adventure into captivating copy for The New Yorker, which published her vivid, first-person dispatches over the span of 60 years. Hahn also wrote more than 50 books and became a household name in America following her bestselling 1944 memoir China to Me. Author Julia Cooke joins us to discuss how Mickey’s unapologetic ambitions – (“Nobody told me not to go,” she once quipped) – shaped a brand of voice-driven reporting decades before the “new journalists” of the 1960s got credit for the style.Mentioned in this episode:Starry and Restless: Three Women Who Changed Work, Writing and the World by Julia CookeCome Fly The World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women on Pan Am by Julia CookeNo Hurry to Get Home by Emily HahnCongo Solo: Misadventures Two Degrees North by Emily HahnChina To Me: A Partial Biography by Emily HahnMr. Pan by Emily HahnThe Soong Sisters by Emily HahnA Degree of Prudery: A Biography of Fanny Burney by Emily HahnMabel: A Biography of Mabel Dodge Luhan by Emiy HahnAffair by Emily HahnLost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 30 on Martha GellhornLost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 232 on Katharine S. WhiteSupport the showFor episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.comSubscribe to our substack newsletter.Follow us on instagram @lostladiesoflit. Email us: Contact — Lost Ladies of Lit Podcast

Send us Fan MailChronicles, confidantes, confessionals. Diaries have historically served all these purposes and more, allowing women to speak out in a world that sometimes preferred they keep mum (just ask Mrs. Samuel Pepys). But where should these very personal recollections end up once the lives they document cease? We explore the options this week with author Betsy Rubiner, whose new book Our Diaries, Ourselves explores the phenomenon of diary-writing and its importance. Along the way, we’ll explore some of the “lost lady” diarists whose private records are worth reading.Mentioned in this episode:Lost Ladies of Lit “Become A Patron”Our Diaries, Ourselves: How Diarists Chronicle Their Lives and Document Our World by Betsy RubinerThe Diary of Anne FrankThe Diary of Samuel PepysJames Boswell’s London Journal The Extraordinary Work of Ordinary Writing by Jennifer Sinor. Anais NinVirginia WoolfDiary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff KinneyThe American Diary Project A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diary, 1785 to 1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich The Frozen River by Ariel LawhonThe Diary of Anne Lister“Gentleman Jack” Emilie Davis' Civil War: The Diaries of a Free Black Woman in Philadelphia 1863 to 1865 edited by Judith Geisbert  Notes from a Colored Girl: The Civil War Pocket Diaries of Emilie Francis Davis by Karsonya Wise Whitehead. The Reconstruction Diary of Frances Anne Rollin edited by Jennifer Putzi Candida Royalle and the Sexual Revolution: A History from Below by Jane Kamensky  Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries edited by Sarah Gristwood.  The Assassin's Cloak: An Anthology of the World’s Greatest Diarists edited by Irene and Alan Taylor The Diaries of Girls and Women: A Midwestern Sampler edited by Suzanne L. Bunkers. A Day at a Time: The Diary Literature of American Women From 1764 to Present edited by Margo Culley Revelations: Diaries of Women edited by Mary Jane Moffat and Charlotte Painter Life Notes: Personal Writings by Contemporary Black Women edited by Patricia Bell-Scott We Are Your Sisters: Black Women in the 19th Century edited by Dorothy SterlingSupport the showFor episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.comSubscribe to our substack newsletter.Follow us on instagram @lostladiesoflit. Email us: Contact — Lost Ladies of Lit Podcast

Send us Fan MailFirst surfacing in 1896 at a marketplace in Cairo, scraps of ancient papyrus left scholars gobsmacked by the discovery: a fragmented account of Mary Magdalene in conversation with Jesus and his disciples. The codex’s circuitous path to publication in the mid-20th century is almost as compelling a tale as the gospel itself, which redefines the role of women in early Christianity and features a salvation that’s rooted in individual agency. Religious historian Sarah Parkhouse joins us from the University of Manchester to discuss the reclamation of Mary’s words and historical reputation, as well as how newly unearthed Greek fragments lend credence to this long-lost gnostic text.Mentioned in this episode:The Gospel of MaryRead The Gospel of MaryMary MagdaleneEschatology and the Savior: The ‘Gospel of Mary’ among Early Christian Dialogue Gospels by Sarah ParkhouseThe Gospel of Mary Magdala by Karen L. KingCarl ReinhardtIrenaeusThe concept of Entanglement in the Gospel of MaryThe Dark Tower by Stephen KingThe Da Vinci Code by Dan BrownOxyrhynchusPope Gregory IThe Gospel of PhilipSophia: The Wisdom of God by Sergei BulgakovHistory of The Acts of Paul and TheclaRead The Acts of Paul and TheclaThe Girl Who Baptized Herself: How a Lost Scripture About a Saint Named Thecla Reveals the Power of Knowing Our Worth by Meggan Watterson“Has a Missing Fragment of the Gospel of Mary Been Discovered?” from The Bible and Beyond PodcastDiscussion on Mary Magdalene’s influence on the songs of Tori AmosVideo clip from The Gospel of Mary opera by Mark AdamoSupport the showFor episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.comSubscribe to our substack newsletter.Follow us on instagram @lostladiesoflit. Email us: Contact — Lost Ladies of Lit Podcast

Send us Fan Mail“Things that go bump in the night…?” Try sleep-deprived mothers, for starters. British author Celia Fremlin recognized the terrors of trying to hold it together while caring for young children, earning her an Edgar Award for her 1959 debut novel The Hours Before Dawn. Having recently published her own suspense-filled novel, returning guest Emily Midorikawa joins us to discuss Fremlin’s ability to cast a dark shadow on domesticity. This page-turning tale of a beleaguered mum facing inner doubts and outward threats will also kick off the first “Lost Ladies of Lit” online reading group, generously hosted by The Sitting Room Library.Mentioned in this episode:Reading Group for The Hours Before Dawn hosted by The Sitting Room Library.The Hours Before Dawn by Celia FremlinA Tiny Speck of Black and Then Nothing by Emily MidorikawaOut of the Shadows: Six Visionary Victorian Women in Search of a Public Voice by Emily MidorikawaA Secret Sisterhood: The Literary Friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot and Virginia Woolf by Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire SweeneyLost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 85 on Mary TaylorLost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 286 on Mary Elizabeth BraddonThe Seven Chars of Chelsea by Celia FremilinAppointment With Yesterday by Celia FremlinPatricia HighsmithRosemary’s Baby by Ira LevinThe Fifth Child by Doris LessingNightbitch by Rachel YoderThe School for Good Mothers by Jessamine ChanSupport the showFor episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.comSubscribe to our substack newsletter.Follow us on instagram @lostladiesoflit. Email us: Contact — Lost Ladies of Lit Podcast

Send us Fan MailWe're concluding our own "Hot Girl Summer" with the writer Mary MacLane, a defiant and wildly egotistical 19-year-old resident of Butte, Montana, whose confessional diary implored the “kind devil” to deliver her from a life of bourgeois boredom. Professor Cathryn Halverson joins us to discuss MacLane’s life, angst and the reading public’s reaction to her adolescent intensity.Mentioned in this episode:I Await the Devil’s Coming/The Story of Mary MacLane by Mary MacLane (Project Gutenberg)MTV’s “My So-Called Life”Kate Chopin’s The AwakeningHerbert S. Stone & Co.Marie BashkirtseffThe Journal of Marie Bashkirtseff: I am the Most Interesting Woman of All Volume I and Lust for Glory Volume IIAre You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume“Men Who Have Made Love to Me” I, Mary MacLane by Mary MacLaneFaraway Women and the Atlantic Monthly by Cathryn HalversonMaverick Autobiographies: Women Writers and the American West by Cathryn HalversonPlaying House in the American West: Western Women’s Life Narratives by Cathryn HalversonSupport the showFor episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.comSubscribe to our substack newsletter.Follow us on instagram @lostladiesoflit. Email us: Contact — Lost Ladies of Lit Podcast

Send us Fan MailIf Brigid Brophy’s The King of a Rainy Country had a soundtrack, it might include the soft patter of rain on a garret window, jazz drifting from a smoky cafe, the hum of a Vespa on narrow cobblestone streets … and the obnoxious griping of a few dozen uncultured Americans! As the description suggests, Brophy’s 1956 novel has a little bit of everything  — atmosphere, nostalgia and poignancy mixed with subversive wit and madcap antics. Kim and Amy play “tour guide” examining Brophy’s life and accomplishments, including this wonderfully quirky book, recently reissued by McNally Editions.Mentioned in this episode:Pilgrimage online Reading Group with The Sitting Room libraryLost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 116 on Dorothy RichardsonLost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 270 on The Sitting RoomPilgrimage by Dorothy RichardsonMcNally Editions The King of a Rainy Country by Brigid BrophyMarginalia article about Brigid Brophy and Iris Murdoch by Maria PopovaLost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 51 on Rosamond LehmannDusty Answer by Rosamond LehmannLost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 150 on Elizabeth SmartBy Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth SmartLost Ladies of Lit Episode No. 184 on Elizabeth Taylor Vs. Elizabeth TaylorBBC program “Take it Or Leave It”In Transit by Brigid BrophyHackenfeller’s Ape by Brigid BrophyThe Snowball by Brigid BrophyFifty Works of English Literature We Could Do Without by Brigid Brophy, Michael Levey and ??The Crown Princess and Other Stories by Brigid Brophy“Spleen” by BeaudelaireDeath in Venice by Thomas Mann“As You Like It” by William ShakespeareSupport the showFor episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.comSubscribe to our substack newsletter.Follow us on instagram @lostladiesoflit. Email us: Contact — Lost Ladies of Lit Podcast