Celebrated in their time, forgotten in ours

Read by Eric Meyers, Darrell Joe, Christopher Ragland(Unabridged: 10:03mins)

Featuring stories by William Austin, Charles W Chesnutt, Uriah Derick D'Arcy, Rudolph Fisher, Henry Harland, Robert E Howard & 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 - The American Men - An Introduction

02 - Peter Rugg, The Missing Man - Part 1 by William Austin

03 - Peter Rugg, The Missing Man - Part 2 by William Austin

04 - The Wife of His Youth by Charles W Chesnutt

05 - The Black Vampyre by Uriah Derick D'Arcy

06 - The City of Refuge by Rudolph Fisher

07 - A Responsibility by Henry Harland

08 - Skulls in the Stars by Robert E Howard

09 - The Golden Honeymoon by Ring Lardner

10 - Speed by Sinclair Lewis

11 - The Eidoloscope by Robert Duncan Milne

12 - The Tachypomp by Edward Page Mitchell

13 - His Unconquerable Enemy by W C Morrow

14 - Spurs by Tod Robbins

15 - His Wife's Deceased Sister by Frank R Stockton

16 - Ariel's Triumph by Booth Tarkington

17 - The Grist in the Mill by Wallace Thurman