Celebrated in their time, forgotten in ours

Read by Lisa Bowerman, Laurel Lefkow, Kelly Burke(Unabridged: 07:39mins)

Featuring stories by Gertrude Atherton, Lady Augusta Gregory, Aphra Behn, Helena Blavatsky, Marjorie Bowen & many more

Throughout the long centuries of human history is the want, and the need, to share information, to exchange ideas and for that knowledge and experience, for curiosity and learning, to be the basis of a civil society.

In literature the ambition is much narrower. In order to be known, to be popular, you had to be published. And for that people had to know you existed and your ideas worth reading. Obviously for most of humanity’s time people couldn’t read and texts couldn’t be published in any great number.

In the 15th Century Gutenberg’s printing press began the revolution to address the second and by the 19th century had gathered pace with startling speed and mass distribution. Education for the many was brought in to help people understand more of their world and, with new skills, how to have a better place within it. Now, if the powers that owned the presses and means of distribution agreed an audience would now be able to avail themselves of your ideas, your printed words.

Whilst male authors were the overwhelming majority of beneficiaries in having their work printed time was their constant enemy. Your work could be immensely talented but if it was not to lure money into the coffers by gaining an audience of readers then your career would be one of pleasing yourself and was soon forgotten.

But the printed word is rarely without someone, somewhere busying themselves through piles of papers and books rediscovering what a good story is, whatever its age.

In this volume we offer up a small selection of talents whose time has now come again.

01 - The Neglected Authors - Women - The Complete Edition - An Introduction

02 - The Striding Place by Gertrude Atherton

03 - Cuchulain of Muirthemne. The Only Son of Aoife by Lady Augusta Gregory

04 - The Unfortunate Bride or The Blind Lady a Beauty by Aphra Behn

05 - A Witch's Den by Helena Blavatsky

06 - The Bishop of Hell by Marjorie Bowen

07 - The Face in the Glass by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

08 - Clairvoyance by D K Broster

09 - The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth by Rhoda Broughton

10 - With & Without Buttons by Mary Butts

11 - Let Loose by Mary Cholmondeley

12 - The Last House in C Street by Mrs Craik

13 - Extradited by Isabella Valancy Crawford

14 - An Outcast of the People by Bithia Mary Croker

15 - The Death Mask by Ella D'Arcy

16 - They Don't Wear Labels by E M Delafield

17 - The White Pigeon by Maria Edgeworth

18 - A Garland of Earth by Dorothy Edwards

19 - The Shadows on the Wall by Mary E Wilkins Freeman

20 - In the Séance Room by Lettice Galbraith

21 - White Bread by Zona Gale

22 - The Difference by Ellen Glasgow

23 - The Preposterous Motive by Susan Glaspell

24 - A Spirit Elopement by Clotilde Graves

25 - Two Offers by Frances Watkins Harper

26 - Fantomina or, Love in a Maze by Eliza Haywood - Part 1

27 - Fantomina or, Love in a Maze by Eliza Haywood - Part 2

28 - The Voice of God by Winifred Holtby

29 - Talma Gordon by Pauline E Hopkins

30 - The Operation by Violet Hunt

31 - The General's Will by Vera Jelihovsky

32 - The Indian Orphan. A Tale by Letitia Elizabeth Landon

33 - Diary of a Plain Girl by Amy Levy

34 - Ben Pitcher's Elly by Mary E Mann

35 - Passed by Charlotte Mew

36 - A Redeeming Sacrifice by Lucy Maud Montgomery

37 - Luz by Elinor Mordaunt

38 - Betty Brown, the St Giles Orange Girl by Hannah More

39 - The Ghost at the Rath by Rosa Mulholland

40 - The Open Door - Part 1 by Margaret Oliphant

41 - The Open Door - Part 2 by Margaret Oliphant

42 - Since I Died by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

15 - Lucy Wren by Ada Radford

44 - The Last of Squire Ennismore by Charlotte Riddell

45 - A Dream of Wild Bees by Olive Schreiner

46 - All Souls Eve by Dora Sigerson Shorter

47 - Young Magic by Helen Simpson

48 - Where Their Fire Is Not Quenched by May Sinclair

49 - The Wooing of Pastor Cummings by Georgia F Stewart

50 - Far Above Rubies by Netta Syrett

51 - The Octoroon's Revenge by Ruth D Todd

52 - Blessed Are the Meek by Mary Webb

53 - The Oculist by Catherine Wells

54 - Why I Live at the PO by Eudora Welty

55 - Inquest by Leonara Wodehouse