Celebrated in their time, forgotten in ours

Read by Lisa Bowerman, Darrell Joe, David Shaw-Parker(Unabridged: 12:38mins)

Featuring stories by William E Burton, Mary Butts, Bernard Capes, Charles W Chesnutt, Mary Cholmondeley, Frederick Cowles & 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 - Volume 2 - An Introduction

02 - The Secret Cell - Part 1 by William E Burton

03 - The Secret Cell - Part 2 by William E Burton

04 - With & Without Buttons by Mary Butts

05 - An Ugly Customer by Bernard Capes

06 - The Wife of His Youth by Charles W Chesnutt

07 - Let Loose by Mary Cholmondeley

08 - The Horror of Abbot's Grange by Frederick Cowles

09 - The Last House in C Street by Mrs Craik

10 - Extradited by Isabella Valancy Crawford

11 - An Outcast of the People by Bithia Mary Croker

12 - The Death Mask by Ella D'Arcy

13 - The Black Vampyre by Uriah Derick D'Arcy

14 - The Sumach by Ulric Daubeny

15 - The Siege of Berlin by Alphonse Daudet

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 Spider by Hanns Heinz Ewers

20 - The City of Refuge by Rudolph Fisher

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

22 - In the Séance Room by Lettice Galbraith

23 - White Bread by Zona Gale