Show Notes: Wednesday, January 28, 2026

Today's Feature: The 151st birthday of Antonio Machado, the 74th birthday of Humberto Ak'abal, the 152nd birthday of Dmitry Gulia, and the 87th anniversary of the passing of W.B. Yeats.

Deep Dive:

• Antonio Machado: A cornerstone of Spain's "Generation of '98" whose introspective poetry transformed the landscapes of Castile into a mirror for the human soul.

• Humberto Ak'abal: The K'iche' Maya poet who used onomatopoeia and indigenous oral traditions to give the natural world of the Guatemalan highlands a modern literary voice.

• Dmitry Gulia: The foundational figure of Abkhaz literature who created the nation’s first alphabet and newspaper to preserve a culture under pressure.

• W.B. Yeats: A reflection on the Irish giant’s final days and his transition from the mystical folklore of his youth to the sharp, structural modernism of his later years.

Poem: "Has My Heart Gone to Sleep?" by Antonio Machado (Public Domain).

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Tuesday, January 27, 2026

Today's Feature: The 194th birthday of Lewis Carroll, the 135th birthday of Ilya Ehrenburg, and the 105th birthday of James Jones.

Deep Dive:

• Lewis Carroll: Beyond Wonderland—exploring the mathematical logic and the private life of Charles Dodgson.

• Ilya Ehrenburg: The survivor of Soviet censorship whose novel The Thaw defined a generation of political change.

• James Jones: The gritty realism of the man who gave us From Here to Eternity.

• Poem: "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll (Public Domain).

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Show Notes: Monday, January 26, 2026

Today's Feature: The 194th birthday of Jules Vallès, the 175th birthday of Mary Augusta Ward, and the 126th birthday of Seán Ó Faoláin.

Deep Dive:

• Jules Vallès: The French radical whose trilogy Jacques Vingtras brought the language of the street to the French novel.

• Mary Augusta Ward: A look at the Victorian "novel of ideas" and the woman who wrote the million-selling Robert Elsmere.

• Seán Ó Faoláin: The Irish short story master who fought for independence and then fought against the censorship of his own country.

• Poem: "The Shepherdess" by Alice Meynell (Public Domain).

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