Episode 13

The Conjurer

Featuring Charlotte Gordon

Audio episode · 16 min

Charlotte Gordon on Frankenstein

Before the series ends, one episode about how it was made. Charlotte Gordon researches the dead by haunting them: a hotel room below Mont Blanc that made her sick, a swim in the bay where Percy Shelley drowned, a Vicksburg guest room above an old morgue. She calls the method conjuring, and she can date it to a single afternoon in a Gloucester hair salon, where a medium looked at her and said one word about a neglected Puritan poet. What Anne Bradstreet wanted her to know changed every book she has written since, including this one.

This post is for paying subscribers only

Subscribe to continue reading

Read Deeper

Read with the Best

A literary publication for the self-taught reader. Where to start, which translation, why it matters — with editors who'll actually take a side.