The Reader Reads

In honor of the arrival of Autumn, we offer you this poem by Miss Fanny Kemble. Kemble was a British actress and author during the mid-19th Century. This poem she wrote one October during a trip to the Schuylkill River in Eastern Pennsylvania. “Autumn” by Miss Fanny Kemble The Reader TRT: 04:18 The musical accompaniment … Continue reading TRR EXTRA: “Autumn” by Miss Fanny Kemble →

Jack Williamson wrote science fiction stories from the 1920’s until his death in 2006. He was known for writing in a realistic style that won many admirers in the genre, including a young Issac Asimov. In this episode, we’ll hear one of his short stories from the August 1963 issue of “Worlds of Tomorrow” magazine. … Continue reading TRR: Episode 52, “The Masked World” →

Author, editor, and critic William Dean Howells was known by his friends and contemporaries as “The Dean of American Letters.” He was a proponent of “Realism,” a new “documentary” style that slowly eclipsed Romanticism in American writing. In this episode, we hear one of his descriptive essays of a fading summer on the coast of … Continue reading TRR: Episode 51, “Staccato Notes of a Vanished Summer” →

Many states have a legend of a so-called “lost pond,” a place found by the early pioneers and woodsmen, but never marked properly on a map. All that remained were the stories told by the old-timers, the location itself lost to the wilderness. In this episode, we follow a pair… Continue reading

No regular show this week, as I was hit with a cold mid-week, and was in no shape to record anything. Instead, I managed to put this together for you, another set of poems by Nora May French. “Oh, Dryad Thoughts” & “The Nymph” by Nora May French The Reader… Continue reading

Naturalist and conservationist John Burroughs was one of the most influential men in his field at the turn of the last century. He wrote in a lyrical romantic style which made his observations on Nature accessible. In this episode, we present one of his essays on the bee and hunting… Continue reading

As an extra offering this month, we present two poems by Nora May French from a collection of her work posthumously published by her literary colleagues and admirers in 1910. “My Nook” and “You” by Nora May French The Reader TRT: 03:56 Continue reading

Sara Willis was one of the most popular and successful newspaper columnists of her time. She was born into a family of publishers, but when her older brother refused to print any of her work in the Home Journal magazine that he published, she worked under a pen name to… Continue reading

Once as well-known as other fairy tales, “Bluebeard” has perhaps fallen by the wayside in the last fifty years or so. In this episode, we examine the story of “Bluebeard,” one of the most famous tales of a murderer in literary history. His specialty was wives with too much curiosity.… Continue reading

Journalist, critic, and author Ambrose Bierce penned a collection of short stories about war which was considered one of the best anti-war fiction ever written. Bierce served in the Union army during the Civil War, and his real life experiences helped to lend an air of authenticity to his writings.… Continue reading