About the Book
Nella Braddy (1894-1973), a pioneer among female editors, compiled this seven-story collection and published Masterpieces of Adventure: Stories of Desert Places in 1922. It features seven authors: Egerton Castle, Stephen Crane, Selma Lagerlöf, Bret Harte, Thomas Hardy, O. Henry, and W. H. Hudson. It's a stellar group.
Braddy went on to write and edit more articles and books, including two more in the Masterpieces of Adventure series, one focused on Helen Keller's breakthrough teacher, Anna Sullivan Macy, and a biography of Rudyard Kipling.
Once inside Stories of Desert Places, though, listeners will soon realize that Braddy treats the idea of desert very loosely. Perhaps it's about what's in a protagonist's mind or heart, rather than the actual setting of the story that Braddy felt evoked the idea of desert.
It's left to us to find the desert--physical or metaphorical--of an eastern European castle on a snowy night, somewhere in the American West, Norway, early day California, a rainy night in England, in Texas near the Rio Grande, and Argentina. In these stories, people strive, often foolishly, and yet they persevere in unexpected ways.
About the Author :
Bret Harte (1836-1902) wrote for the San Franciscan Golden Era paper, where he published his first condensed novels. He was later hired by the Atlantic Monthly for $10,000 to write twelve stories a year, which was the highest figure paid to an American writer at the time.
O. Henry was a prolific American short story writer known for his wit, warmth and surprise endings. To this day, he remains one of the most beloved and well-read short story authors in the world. Egerton Castle (1858-1920) was born in London to a wealthy family, which included the publishing magnate, his grandfather Egerton Smith. Castle grew up to be an author, an antiquarian, and a swordsman. He wrote important books on the art and history of fencing, and became an expert on and collector of bookplates. Many of his fiction novels were adapted into films in the early twentieth century, and he even co-wrote many other novels with his wife, Agnes Castle (née Sweetman).
Stephen Crane (1871-1900) was an American novelist, poet, and journalist. He wrote many works of fiction, poems, and accounts of war, all well received. Today he is considered one of the most innovative American writers of the 1890s and one of the founders of literary realism.
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was an English poet, dramatist, and novelist. He is best known for his novels, which featured the lives of the poor and working people of rural England. Several of his novels are considered masterpieces of tragedy.
Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) was a teacher in a girls' secondary school before she became a full-time writer. She is known around the world for her classic children's book The Wonderful Adventure of Nils Holgersson and she was the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in 1909. Others, as in, not you
Jack de Golia is the voice of character. He's a veteran stage actor and public relations professional. Jack brings depth, warmth, and a wide range of character voicing to his audiobook narrations. He's a skilled character actor, with accomplished accents in High (RP) British English, Russian, Spanish, Texan, German, Southern, New York, and rural Western American English, among many others. Jack has pleased voice-over clients with commercials, video games, and e-learning work in addition to narrating over 110 audiobooks. Jack won AudioFile magazine's Earphones Award in 2018. He was also a 2018 nominee for best mystery narration by the Society of Voice Arts & Sciences. In 2015, he also earned the special designation of Audible Approved Producer for the quality of his audiobook work. A number of his books have been given very positive reviews in AudioFile magazine, Audiobook Reviewer, and reviewer blogs. Jack holds a BA in dramatic art, and graduated with High Honors from the University of California, Davis. He's a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. He worked for over thirty-five years as a park ranger and later, a public information officer, for federal land management agencies in national parks, national forests, and other public lands in the West, as well as during wildfire emergencies nationwide. His work took him to national parks like Yellowstone, desert public lands in Arizona, and a national forest in Montana. Jack has two grown sons and a grandchild. Jack and his wife, a geoscience professor at UNLV, live in Henderson, Nevada.
Review :
This far-reaching collection of short stories featuring desert settings contains some of the most engaging tales in the Western canon. The audiobook is delivered at just the right pace by Jack de Golia. Narrating energetically, he takes on the characters' voices with a chameleon-like effect. His ability to inhabit the spirit and sound of the French, Spanish, and Russians, young and old, highborn and low, elevates these classics...Edited by Nella Braddy in 1922, these adventures have stood the test of time and keep the listener rapt.
-- "AudioFile"
