A GOLDEN HOPE CHRISTMAS was famed pulp writer Robert E. Howard's first commercial sale of sorts, as he won a cash prize for publishing it in the local school newspaper.
It seemed in keeping with the season.
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A GOLDEN HOPE CHRISTMAS was Robert Howard's first commercial sale (of sorts), as he won a cash prize for having it published in the Tattler (the Brownwood High School Newsletter). GOLDEN HOPE was the December 2012 "Group Read" for the Robert E. Howard fans group on Goodreads, and it seems appropriate for the Christmas season.
Standard Podcasts: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (Loading)I will depart from usual practice of narrating my own posts on Airy Persiflage and post an excellent Librivox recording of the signature work of a hero of mine, General Smedley Butler. General Butler was the real thing. A Major General in the United States Marine Corps, he participated in several campaigns and little "Banana Wars" around the turn of the century and was twice awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. During his 34-year career as a Marine, he participated in military actions in the Philippines, China, in Central America and the Caribbean during the Banana Wars, and France in World War I. By the end of his career, he had received 16 medals, five for heroism. He is one of 19 men to twice receive the Medal of Honor, one of three to be awarded both the Marine Corps Brevet Medal and the Medal of Honor, and the only man to be awarded the Brevet Medal and two Medals of Honor, all for separate actions.
In his 1935 book War is a Racket, he described the workings of the military-industrial complex and, after retiring from service, became a popular speaker at meetings organized by veterans, pacifists and church groups in the 1930s. Attached to this post is a recording of WAR IS A RACKET, read by a Librivox reader named Jules Harlock. The recording is posted under the Creative Commons License.
Standard Podcasts [00:53:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (Loading)Jubilate Agno (Latin, "Rejoice in the Lamb") is a religious "list" poem by Christopher Smart, and was written between 1759 and 1763, during Smart's confinement for insanity in St. Luke's Hospital, Bethnal Green, London. The poem was first published in 1939, under the title Rejoice in the Lamb: A Song from Bedlam, edited by W. F. Stead from Smart's manuscript, which Stead had discovered in a private library.
Perhaps the most repeated and cited portions of of Jubilate Agno concern themselves with the unique affection Smart had for his cat Jeoffry, which is repeated here.
Music bumps at front and end are from the Gregorian Chant "Christus Factus Est", taken from the Old Time Radio Free Podcast collection
Standard Podcasts [00:07:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (Loading)This is a slight deviation from what I normally put up on Airy Persiflage. This post is a reading of the text of a leaflet dropped on Nazi Germany by RAF bombers in the Summer of 1942. Although famed Strategic Bomber visionary Arthur "Bomber" Harris signed it, he subsequently denied its authorship.
I apologize for not attempting this in a proper British accent; it did seem called for considering the subject matter. However, my first attempt was so comical I thought it took away from the sense of the piece!
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Past followers of Airy Persiflage (and oddly enough there might be a few), probably realize we are great fans of the rambling discourse of Mr. Frank Key, of HOOTING YARD fame, and the author of several fine monographs which have occasionally contributed material for audio reads here on Persiflage. Mr. Key has been kind enough to say some nice words about Airy Persiflage on the Hooting Yard, I was honored to hear the encomiums continue on a recent broadcast of Hooting Yard on Resonance FM 104 in the United Kingdom. Mr. Key played the version of Ambrose and Mister Ploppo we recorded on 27 July 2011. I was honored to be included!
Here is the relevant link:
From what I hear on the recording, other segments of Hooting Yard material we have recorded may show up on Resonance FM in the near future.
A little change of pace for this week. My son Garrett, whom you may have heard on a couple of short story reads on Airy Persiflage before (he was the voice of Ambrose in "Ambrose and Ploppo", recently) and I were at the Udvar Hazy museum in Chantilly, Va today to watch the Shuttle Discovery arrive at her new home, and to say goodby to the Shuttle Enterprise. I recorded a little audio of Discovery moving down the track to go nose to nose with the Enterprise. It was a historic moment, seeing two shuttles that close together.
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The following amusing, short piece was written by Mr. Terry Bisson and first published in Omni Magazine in April of 1991. This story was nominated for a Nebula Award
The full text is available on East of the Web, HERE. Please give it a read.
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I'll make no bones about it, Mr. Joe R. Lansdale is one of my favorite writers, bar none. I had wanted to screw up the courage to ask permission to record a shorter piece of his for a very long time now, but didn't know how to go about it. Well, sometimes, you just have to ask, I reckon. Mr. Lansdale very graciously gave me permission to put this shorter piece up (recently available on the "free stories!" section of his website, but out of rotation now). I love this short story. Like a lot of Joe's stuff, full of melancholy, observations about life and not a little bit of humor. I hope I didn't screw it up. Thank you, Mr. Lansdale!
THE WINDSTORM PASSES, copyright, 1986. Recorded with permission of the author.
If you like Joe's stories, I recommend EDGE OF DARK WATER, recently published, which I just picked up. It's a cracking good read.
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In August of 1865, a Colonel P.H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee, wrote to his former slave, Jourdon Anderson, and requested that he come back to work on his farm. Jourdon — who, since being emancipated, had moved to Ohio, found paid work, and was now supporting his family — responded spectacularly by way of the letter seen below (a letter which, according to newspapers at the time, he dictated). As a postscript, it turns out that Jourdon and Mandy lived to a ripe old age, and had 11 children! Nothing is recorded as to whether they ever visited Tennessee again.
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