Narrated Archives

In this episode, we're experiencing a gripping piece titled "A Forest Fire in Northern Wisconsin," originally published in September 1917 within the very first volume of the Wisconsin Magazine of History. This story drags us back to the bone-dry timber country near Rice Lake in the fall of 1898.

Our guide through the smoke is John L. Bracklin. John was a true man of the woods, raised under the tutelage of his father, James, a legendary logging superintendent for the massive Knapp, Stout & Company lumber corporation. John spent his life as a skilled woodman, lumber camp foreman, and steamboat operator on Lake Chetak. He knew these forests intimately. He knew their power, and he knew their danger.

What began as a raw, personal letter detailing the frantic, heroic efforts to save lives and property stands today as a terrifying testament to the wild, untamed early days of the lumber industry in Wisconsin.

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Send requests for authors or short stories to: [email protected] or www.narratedarchives.com

All music courtesy of Ende.app.

Audiobooks narrated by Sally Barron can be found at:

• audible
• Spotify
• Nook
• Kobo
• Libro.fm
• storytel
• ...

For this episode we're cleaning out the Narrated Archive shelves for a curated selection of three distinct, unrelated gems from our backlog that demand to be heard.

We begin with "The Strange Looking Man" by Fanny Kemble Johnson, written in 1916, was so highly celebrated upon release that it was selected for the prestigious Best American Short Stories anthology. It remains a raw, poignant look at societal trauma.

Next, we shift gears to an entirely different style with "Approximating the Ultimate with Aunt Sarah" by Charles Earl Gaymon. 

We close today’s journey with "The Judge" by Rebecca West.  Originally emerging in 1922 as part of a sweeping family saga, "The Judge" perfectly highlights her unmatched talent for exploring deep psychological landscapes and the generational ripples of family conflict.

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Support the show

Thanks for listening!  Rate & Review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast provider. SUBSCRIBE for at least 2 Bonus Episodes each month.

Send requests for authors or short stories to: [email protected] or www.narratedarchives.com

All music courtesy of Ende.app.

Audiobooks narrated by Sally Barron can be found at:

• audible
• Spotify
• Nook
• Kobo
• Libro.fm
• storytel
• ...

Today, we dive into the heart of the Windy City with The Diary of A Chicago Girl, an anonymous piece featured in the collection Twenty Tales by Twenty Women: From Real Life in Chicago. The anthology features tales that delve into the challenges and experiences of women in Chicago, exploring themes of love, loss, societal expectations, and redemption through their various life stories. 

Twenty Tales by Twenty Women: From Real Life in Chicago

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Support the show

Thanks for listening!  Rate & Review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast provider. SUBSCRIBE for at least 2 Bonus Episodes each month.

Send requests for authors or short stories to: [email protected] or www.narratedarchives.com

All music courtesy of Ende.app.

Audiobooks narrated by Sally Barron can be found at:

• audible
• Spotify
• Nook
• Kobo
• Libro.fm
• storytel
• ...

This episode's story is set in the simmering 19th century's sweltering NYC.  "Cordelia's Night of Romance", written by Julian Ralph, a journalist and war correspondent, shows the softer atmospheric side of Ralph's writing.  A chance meeting by an Irish immigrant teen girl and a wealthy unmarried factory owner. 

The story explores the dreams and longing for a better life of the immigrant girl as well as the desire for love and romance.

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Thanks for listening!  Rate & Review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast provider. SUBSCRIBE for at least 2 Bonus Episodes each month.

Send requests for authors or short stories to: [email protected] or www.narratedarchives.com

All music courtesy of Ende.app.

Audiobooks narrated by Sally Barron can be found at:

• audible
• Spotify
• Nook
• Kobo
• Libro.fm
• storytel
• ...

In this episode we're sharing  "The Mark on the Wall" by Virginia Woolf. 

It is not a story of grand plots or sweeping action. Instead, is an intimate journey which tracks the fluid, wandering thoughts of a narrator sitting by a fire, transfixed by a mysterious dark mark on the wall just above the mantelpiece. Have you ever found your thoughts wandering so far you can barely trace them back to where you started.  Listen in and hear Virginia Woolfe's thought path. 

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Support the show

Thanks for listening!  Rate & Review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast provider. SUBSCRIBE for at least 2 Bonus Episodes each month.

Send requests for authors or short stories to: [email protected] or www.narratedarchives.com

All music courtesy of Ende.app.

Audiobooks narrated by Sally Barron can be found at:

• audible
• Spotify
• Nook
• Kobo
• Libro.fm
• storytel
• ...

From the classic compilation Mysteries of the Missing—first serialized in 1924 by crime journalist Edward H. Smith—we bring you the strange and heartbreaking tale of Jimmy Glass. 

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Thanks for listening!  Rate & Review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast provider. SUBSCRIBE for at least 2 Bonus Episodes each month.

Send requests for authors or short stories to: [email protected] or www.narratedarchives.com

All music courtesy of Ende.app.

Audiobooks narrated by Sally Barron can be found at:

• audible
• Spotify
• Nook
• Kobo
• Libro.fm
• storytel
• ...

Today we’re diving into a true story involving pirates and a Scottish teenage girl named Charlotte Honeyman as written in the 1901 book True Stories of Girl Heroines by Evelyn Everett-Green.

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Thanks for listening!  Rate & Review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast provider. SUBSCRIBE for at least 2 Bonus Episodes each month.

Send requests for authors or short stories to: [email protected] or www.narratedarchives.com

All music courtesy of Ende.app.

Audiobooks narrated by Sally Barron can be found at:

• audible
• Spotify
• Nook
• Kobo
• Libro.fm
• storytel
• ...

Today, we step back into the year 1913, turning the pages of Ernest Thompson Seton’s seminal masterpiece, Wild Animals at Home. 

• Forward - by the author 
• The Cute Coyote - A look at a creature Seton felt was profoundly misjudged 
• The Canada Lynx - Into the open plains and the deep, snow-laden northern forests, we encounter a phantom of a completely different nature 
• The Mole-Gopher (aka the Upheaver) -  wilderness is built on many levels, and next Seton’s watchful eye turned downward, beneath the soil, to introduce us to an entirely different class of creature 
• The Beaver -  Seton’s field notes treat the beaver not just as an animal, but as a respected fellow engineer 
• "Horns and Hoofs and Legs of Speed" - Here, we meet "The Bounding Blacktail," or the Mule Deer. 

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Support the show

Thanks for listening!  Rate & Review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast provider. SUBSCRIBE for at least 2 Bonus Episodes each month.

Send requests for authors or short stories to: [email protected] or www.narratedarchives.com

All music courtesy of Ende.app.

Audiobooks narrated by Sally Barron can be found at:

• audible
• Spotify
• Nook
• Kobo
• Libro.fm
• storytel
• ...

We're stepping straight into the smoky, sharp-witted world of early 1930s crime detection.

We are sharing a collection of fast-paced brainteasers from H.A. Ripley’s legendary 1932 book, Minute Mysteries. These short puzzles—originally called "detectograms"—challenged readers to act as the detective, using pure logic to solve crimes in under sixty seconds.

This episode includes:

• A Crack Shot
• Fatal Error
• The Poison Murder Case
• Upstairs and Down
• Hot Pursuit
• Death in the Office
• A Question of Identity
• Murder at Coney Island
• Too Clever
• Death Back-Stage
• The Jewel Robbery

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Thanks for listening!  Rate & Review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast provider. SUBSCRIBE for at least 2 Bonus Episodes each month.

Send requests for authors or short stories to: [email protected] or www.narratedarchives.com

All music courtesy of Ende.app.

Audiobooks narrated by Sally Barron can be found at:

• audible
• Spotify
• Nook
• Kobo
• Libro.fm
• storytel
• ...

In this episode, we’re diving into the psychological and atmospheric worlds of Alfred Coppel, a master of mid-century speculative fiction. 

First, we travel to the lunar surface in 'First Man on the Moon', originally published in a 1950 issue of Planet Stories. But this isn't a story of triumphant exploration; it is a dark, gripping look at an obsession so blinding that it leads to murder. 

Then, we shift our gaze to 'Touch the Sky', a 1955 tale of existential dread and anticipation that follows pilot Pete Moore on the final night before his own historic moonshot mission.

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Thanks for listening!  Rate & Review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast provider. SUBSCRIBE for at least 2 Bonus Episodes each month.

Send requests for authors or short stories to: [email protected] or www.narratedarchives.com

All music courtesy of Ende.app.

Audiobooks narrated by Sally Barron can be found at:

• audible
• Spotify
• Nook
• Kobo
• Libro.fm
• storytel
• ...