For years I've wanted The Jiffy to be more than a newsletter. More than a podcast, and an Instagram Feed, and a TikTok channel. I still wasn't quite busy enough. So I created a book club.
The Jiffy Book Club is a season-long reading experience built around a single book, with companion content to really immerse you into the world of the subject. Essays. Field trips. A short audio feed delivered to your podcast app. A conversation with the author.
I've always thought the only thing a great book needs is more content. So we're starting with a book that I think a lot of Jiffy readers are going to love: Victoria Johnson's Glorious Country, a biography of Frederic Church that doubles as a portrait of a nation experiencing rapid change.
It’s a story about how Church ushered American painting onto the world’s cultural stage, and it’s also a story of America during another time of war on its own soil, as well as a picture of New York City when you might see P. T. Barnum, Herman Melville, Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman, Susan B. Anthony, or Caroline Astor walking around.
The plan is to read it (at your own pace) between May 5 and June 15. I'll send corresponding newsletter issues as we go. You'll get a private audio feed with six short produced segments. I've also built an interactive Jiffy Jaunt map to guide you through Church's New York. And you'll hear my conversation with Victoria Johnson the week after publication.
If you're a Jiffy subscriber, you're already in. If you're not, the form above will set you up! Welcome to Frederic Church's "Glorious Country."
