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The History of Literature

Keeping Secrets! Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago, and the CIA (with Lara Prescott)

The History of Literature

Jacke Wilson

History, Books, Arts

4.61.2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 June 2020

⏱️ 64 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Author Lara Prescott joins Jacke to talk about her novel The Secrets We Kept, which is based on the incredible but true story of the CIA's efforts to use a novel (Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago) as part of its Cold War battle against the Soviet Union. LARA PRESCOTT is the author of The Secrets We Kept, an instant New York Times bestseller and a Hello Sunshine x Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick. The Secrets We Kept has been translated into 30 languages and will be adapted for film by The Ink Factory and Marc Platt Productions. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. (We appreciate it!) Find out more at historyofliterature.com, jackewilson.com, or by following Jacke and Mike on Twitter at @thejackewilson and @literatureSC. Or send an email to [email protected]. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to The History of Literature, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding literature, history, and storytelling like Storybound, Micheaux Mission, and The History of Standup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

The History of Literature Podcast is a member of the Podglamorate Network and LIT Hub Radio.

0:07.0

Hello, I'm Jack Wilson.

0:11.0

Welcome to The History of June. My goodness, where does the time go, even

0:37.5

when we're holed up in the basement? Stuck in the Jack Wilson studio buried deep underground. The time just zips by. It's almost the end of the month, which means it's almost time for the little

0:51.0

Patreon only content that should go up soon for all you

0:54.4

patreon subscribers over there at patreon.com slash literature. We have a great show

1:00.0

today we're taking a look at an amazing story Dr.

1:03.3

Gervago by Boris Pasternak, one of Russia's greatest poets, one of its great historical

1:09.7

figures, one of its Cold War heroes, a great lover, a brave writer, a punished writer, taking on a regime.

1:20.0

And one of those times when writers are front and center on the world stage, often they are not.

1:26.0

Often poets and novelists are ignored. Who cares? Nobody reads.

1:32.0

That's what I imagine world leaders saying. Like that quote that's attributed to Napoleon.

1:39.0

Ah, the Pope, how many armies does he have? He objects. How many armies does he have? That's what I imagine

1:47.5

world leader saying about writers sometimes. A non-fiction book, maybe we'll try to block that.

1:54.0

A book by an insider, a relative, a former aide, that might be embarrassing or reveal some secrets,

2:01.0

but a novel? Eh, who cares?

2:05.8

That's how things are some of the time in history.

2:08.6

Other times in history at other moments, poets,

2:10.7

and novelists and filmmakers are extremely important.

2:15.0

Viewed as dangerous.

2:17.0

So dangerous they might be censored, they might be locked up,

2:21.0

they might be exiled or imprisoned.

...

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