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  Blood - From their pens to your...

  Hanns Heinz Ewers

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  Hanns Heinz Ewers was born on 3rd November 1871 in Düsseldorf, Germany. 
  His first published poem was at 17 on the death, after a reign of only 99 days, of the German Emperor Frederick III. 
  A stint in the German military was cut short after only 44 days because of his myopia.  Writing was to be the way forward for him with a book of satiric verse published in 1901. At the same time he co-founded a literary vaudeville troupe that toured central and eastern Europe before censors and expenses forced its closure.  An inveterate traveller he was in South America when the Great War enveloped Europe and he relocated to New York. 
  From here his story darkens. Although by now a successful and admired author he was arrested in the U S in 1918 as a German Agent on the pretext of his travels and a falsified Swiss passport. Interned, he was released in 1921 and returned to Germany.  He claimed only to be raising money for the German Red Cross. 
  His literary fame is decidedly easier to clarify. His novels beginning with ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ in 1910 are dark, they bristle with evil intent and are littered with characters who have a dubious moral compass and yet, along with his short stories, are brazen, brilliant feats of literary narrative. 
  He also wrote and published plays, fairy tales, opera librettos, critical essays and lectured for many years on ‘The Religion of Satan’ and was one of the first to write scripts for the cinema, which he considered a legitimate art form. 
  As the Weimar republic began its chaotic death throes Ewers became attracted to the rising Nazi Party.  At first he was warmly received despite disagreeing with its anti-semitism (his most famed literary character had a Jewish mistress) and he was even commissioned by Hitler to write a biography of the Nazi martyr Horst Wessel.  This together with his own homosexuality culminated with his works being banned in 1934 and his assets and property seized.  It took him many years to have the ban lifted.  This association rightfully clouds his personal reputation but has meant his literary contributions are also overlooked and neglected. 
  Hanns Heinz Ewers died of tuberculosis on 12th June 1943 in his Berlin apartment.

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  The Daughter of Lilith - From...

  Anatole France

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  François-Anatole Thibault was born on the 16th April 1844 in Paris, France, the son of a bookseller and bibliophile. 
  He studied at the Collège Stanislas, a private Catholic school, and after graduating joined his father in the bookstore, which specialised in works on the French Revolution.  Several years later he secured a position as cataloguer at Bacheline-Deflorenne and at Lemerre before being appointed librarian for the French Senate in 1876. 
  His literary career had begun as a journalist and as a poet before publishing his novel ‘Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard’ in 1881.  Praised for its elegant prose, it won him a prestigious prize from the Académie Française, which later elected him to its storied ranks. 
  His works were profound and thoughtful and often couched in surreal and outlandish expressions; whether penguins baptized by a near-blind Abbott transformed themselves into humans or of a guardian angel who becomes an atheist, his stories turned established thought into startling literature. 
  His short stories run in the same vein.  The premise may seem plausible but his distinctive style turns them into an individual viewpoint which invokes both discussion and admiration. 
  In his private life his relationships with women were often turbulent.  A Socialist, he was a fervent supporter of the Russian Revolution and the early years of the French Communist party. 
  He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1921 but the following year his entire canon of works was placed on the prohibited list of the Catholic Church, which he thought of as a credit to his name. 
  Anatole France died on the 12th October 1924 in Tours.  He was 80.

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  Edna Ferber: Long Distance -...

  Edna Ferber

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  Telephone lineman in the early 1900s were known for their very vocal appreciation of any and all female beauty as it walked below on the street. From their lofty perch they felt safe to whistle and shout their thanks to the lovely ladies who passed anywhere within their visual range. The women thus admired often expressed distain and dislike of this outward expression by the men but they usually walked away with their complexions a bit rosier than before. This, as we now know of course, was very inappropriate and something to be sternly discouraged but at the time all parties involved somehow to managed survive and even thrive. This story is about such an encounter. But the lady involved did not just blush and walk away, she stopped and invited the man on the pole to come down and get his face slapped for his impudence. She was of Irish descent and did not put up with uppity and distasteful men. 
  Well, the man did come down and did indeed get a resounding slap from her. What happened after this I will let the listener discover in this delightful tale of men and women and their mysterious doings.

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  Jatadhar Bakshi Samagra :...

  Rajshekhar Basu

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  Jatadharer Bakshi Samagra is a comic anthology (trilogy) based on a facetious cheat, penned by the legendary humorist - Rajshekhar Basu alias Parashuram, whom he constructed as one who used to get people under his spell with his gift of the gab. Spontaneity and imagination were such a natural disposition of this cheat that the gullible fell for his sleight repeatedly and almost happily and voluntarily till they realized it again.  
  One of the leading lights among the Bengal intellectuals of that era, Rajshekhar Basu alias Parashuram, served us well with his characteristic humor-coated sarcasm that made fun of the irrationality and deep superstitions that were plaguing the society and its people. Yet his writings ring as foresight even in this age of information overflow. 
  Discover many more such Bengali audio stories by typing mystorygenie in the search bar without leaving any space between the different English alphabets.

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  Palmetto

  Martin Hicks

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  It is 1861 and Thomas Grover has resigned from the US Navy to go with his native state of South Carolina which has left the Union. 
  For two years his career in the new Confederate Navy is tedious and unrewarding. He is posted to Britain as a naval attaché, again denied his wish for active service, until he is transferred to Liverpool where he is offered command of a new warship. 
  Grover must get to sea on the ship and see her armed and commissioned as CSS Palmetto, whose mission will be that of a predator, to range the oceans, seeking out and destroying American vessels wherever they are to be found.

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  The Brandy Mud

  Rozi Peters

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  The year is 1840 and the perilous trade of whaling threatens to dash both fortune and sanity against the rocks for seasoned schooner Captain Stanley Knowles. Professionally adrift and beset by passionate entanglements, Stanley charts a course through hazardous waters, seeking to salvage his affairs while clinging to personal morals amidst mounting turmoil.
   
  When ship and shore alike promise danger, every decision carries gut-wrenching risk. Stanley’s path requires outmanoeuvring lethal storms, hostile pirates, political schemes and amorous pitfalls alike with equal dexterity. One false move could reduce all – his principles, his mind, and his crew’s very lives – to flotsam in the winds of fate.
   
  This steamy and exciting historical saga captures the adventures of a desperate captain warring within while struggling to steer crew and lovers toward a better life. Yet time and chance wait for no one. On the waves or in the sheets, one thing is certain: explore forbidden treasures at your own peril, lest the rising tide swallow you whole.

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