Welcome to The Lost Shelf - the podcast where we invite writers to rescue a neglected work of genius from obscurity.
On Episode 6, Art O'Connor and Francesca Bratton explore the life and poetry of Lola Ridge. They discuss Ridge's extraordinary biography, her poetic affinities with Imagism and Walt Whitman, her radical political convictions, and a more troubling question: whether her abandonment of her son, Keith, compromises the moral authority of her work.
Errata: Two cases, more or less grave, of mistaken identity occur in Ep 6. RB Braithwaite was not a "Scottish philosopher". He was English. The Scottish philosopher Art was reaching for (and the person he quoted) was RW Hepburn. TE Hulme, meanwhile, was not a lawyer. That distinction belongs to Edward Storer, another early Imagist.
Many thanks to the splendid Francesca Bratton, Emmet White, and the whole team at The Whistleblower.
Title song: 'Harry Clarke' by Clara Tracey - https://open.spotify.com/album/3laGIMZUEhM0sYvICIgDge
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