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Part-Time Genius

How Much Did Jane Austen Earn From Her Books (And Why Wasn’t It More)?

Part-Time Genius

iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope

Society & Culture

4.52K Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Jane Austen worked at a 12-sided desk, was great at singing, and earned shockingly little money from her novels. Today’s her 250th birthday, so we’re celebrating with nine niche literary facts about the beloved author, from the way she helped soldiers in WWI to the reason why Kelly Clarkson couldn’t buy her ring. (Sorry, Kelly.)

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Drawing of Jane Austen by her sister Cassandra via Wikimedia Commons. 

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is an I-Heart podcast.

0:02.3

Guaranteed human.

0:18.5

You're listening to Part-Time Genius,

0:23.4

the production of Collidoscope and IHeart Radio.

0:28.5

Guess what, Mango?

0:29.2

What's that, Will?

0:34.5

All right, let's say I invite you over for ice cream and give you a dessert spoon to eat it with. I also offer you coffee from a coffee urn.

0:39.2

So who would we be celebrating here,

0:45.5

Mango? Can I have another clue? Sure, if you don't want a coffee, I'll serve you tea with a tea ladle. Which sounds nice, but I still have no idea what you're talking about. You get one more

0:51.4

clue, Megal. You know I never give more than three clothes. So I'm throwing this party for someone who's 250th birthday just so happens to be on

0:59.0

December 16th. Jane Austen. Nailed it, Mango. You're so smart. According to the Oxford

1:04.8

English Dictionary, Austin was the first person to use these terms in writing. She didn't necessarily

1:09.7

coin them, but she definitely helped

1:11.5

codify them. For example, the dessert spoon first appeared in a letter she wrote back in 1808.

1:17.2

Apparently no one had ever bothered writing about dessert spoons before. In fact, the OED

1:21.7

credits her with around 200 different words. And they run the gamut from the verb to chaperone. The noun existed before that,

1:29.4

but she verbed it. Have you ever verbed something? I haven't ferved anything. So to the phrase,

1:34.3

if I've told you once, I've told you a hundred times, which I think it's like the eternal mom phrase,

1:39.4

right? That's pretty amazing. Though what Austin actually wrote was, if I have spoken once to Rebecca about that

1:45.5

carpet, I am sure I have spoken at least a dozen times, but you know, it's the gist.

1:49.8

Yeah, and that carpet, Rebecca better get on it.

1:54.3

Well, thank you to Jane Austen for all of those terms. But, you know, I definitely use

...

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