The Spoken Word: Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood on Tape

Ever wondered what some of weird fiction's finest writers sounded like? Wonder no more. A newer CD collection of voice recordings called, The Spoken Word: British Writers, carries the ghostly whispers of Algernon Blackwood and Arthur Machen. Literary horror masters from the UK and abroad are known to have produced limited recordings, but they are usually confined to family estates, as in the case of Robert Aickman. This CD captures what is believed to be Machen's only voice imprint left for posterity, and one of the handful produced by Blackwood that's still easily accessible.

Interesting enough, The Spoken Word puts Machen and Blackwood in potent literary territory. They share the stage with Kipling, Conan Doyle, Tolkien, and many other household names. Frankly, products like these do a service to British and world literature. They place weird writers with exceptional talent squarely where they belong - next to literary idols who chose to keep their use of the supernatural comparatively sparse.

-Grim Blogger

The Spoken Word: Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood on Tape

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Audio Readings from "The Yellow Sign"

A post by AudioBoo's user "mattins" contains a nicely read fragment from Robert W. Chambers' weird cycle, The King in Yellow. The piece is from the book's most notable story, "The Yellow Sign." In it, our artist narrator and his model come upon the maddening tome. The beauty of Chambers' prose is reflected in this passage, alongside his adeptness at building the tense support structures of weird atmosphere.

Unfortunately, this passionate reader's selection is short lived. For a less emotive, but full version of this story and others from The King in Yellow, listen to these readings on Librivox. The MP3 files will probably need to be downloaded, as they're in the range of several dozen megabytes or more. While the Librivox version of Chambers' tales could use a little more stylistic "umph," there is plenty of room for competition. Robert W. Chambers, like Lovecraft, is an author who has most (if not all) of his weird tales in the public domain.

-Grim Blogger

Audio Readings from "The Yellow Sign"

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Lairs of Cthulhu Lecture by James Holloway Online

Audiophile Lovecraftians at Yog-Sothoth.com have given us a Halloween treat in this recording of James Holloway's lecture at Treadwell's bookstore in London. "The Lairs of Cthulhu" focuses on the relationship between achaeology and its use by Lovecraft and his descendents in all sorts of Lovecraftian fiction and other media. The podcast is roughly an hour and a half in length, and can be streamed or downloaded for easy listening. This is an intelligent lecture, perfect for getting into the Halloween spirit before other festivities later tonight, or for recovering from said festivities.

-Grim Blogger

Lairs of Cthulhu Lecture by James Holloway Online

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H.P. Podcast

The interest in Lovecraftian podcasts has exploded into the development of a website devoted exclusively to this: H.P. Podcast, otherwise known under its extended name as the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast. This project releases regular episodes that not only recite from H.P. Lovecraft's texts, but discuss them as well.

The hosts, Chris Lackey and Chad Fifer, do a fine job of shedding light on Lovecraft's themes, style, and literary history. It appears they intend to run through his full works over time, so the collected episodes should swell into a large audio catalogue of Lovecraftian literary analysis. As with most podcasts, the episodes are available for download as MP3s or direct streams off the website.

-Grim Blogger

H.P. Podcast

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New H.P. Lovecraft Readings Recorded

Morgan Scorpion, a Lovecraftian and frequenter of Thomas Ligotti Online, has uploaded several readings of H.P. Lovecraft tales for all to enjoy. Her narration is pleasing enough, and fills a natural place in the world of Lovecraft. The Providence writer's works have been public domain for awhile now, and audio readings of his stories are not terribly common or free. Thanks to this post on the blog "Unfilmable," Ms. Scorpion has rectified the grievous scarcity of Lovecraft's fiction in spoken form.

Interesting, his classic tales take on a somewhat new edge when entering the mind through the ears instead of the eyes. The reader of his words is also giving a performance, albeit a subtle one, casting a whole new dimension of atmosphere and mood upon an otherwise internal literary process. Morgan's recordings to date include "The Festival," "The Hound," "Pickman's Model," "The Lurking Fear," and "Dreams in the Witch House." She has also pitched the idea of recording similar readings of Thomas Ligotti's stories, though it's unclear if this is possible given the question of copyrights and authorial consent that isn't a factor in Lovecraft's case. Visit the above linked Unfilmable site for links to download or stream these HPL recordings.

-Grim Blogger

New H.P. Lovecraft Readings Recorded

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The Voice of Robert Aickman

Thanks to "Julian Karswell" of Thomas Ligotti Online, who uploaded a clip of weird writer Robert Aickman reading one of his "strange stories." Aickman, unlike H.P. Lovecraft and many other masters of the weird tale, will not have his voice recede into the mists of history. Thanks to a few old tape recordings, Aickman lovers are able to know what their idol sounded like, and how he himself would have read the words he forced from his mind onto paper.

I hesitate to say that it's unfortunate the file linked above is a partial sample of Aickman reading "Larger Than Oneself." That Aickman's voice has been preserved and digitized is practically incredible enough to override any other concerns. To my knowledge, this is the only Aickman audio recording ever released (leaked?) online, though as Karswell mentions on the forum, Aickman was known to have tape recorded at least six full story readings at his private home.

-Grim Blogger

The Voice of Robert Aickman

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D.F. Lewis Readings

Easily accessible readings by weird authors of their own work are exceedingly rare. Voice records for writers like H.P. Lovecraft or Algernon Blackwood are virtually non-existent. You're not likely to hear contemporaries such as Thomas Ligotti or Ramsay Campbell retell full stories on CD or podcast either. This is why D.F. Lewis' recent series of audio readings is so notable. As anyone who has ever had the privilege of hearing an author quote his own work knows, this type of presentation can help one grasp the meaning and mood of the written words.

In the case of Lewis, who is well known for spinning thousands of short, rich tales of cultivated strangeness, these tellings of his stories are more than welcome. Although, fortunately and unfortunately, his readings do little to dispel the damnably tight mystery embedded in each of his curious works. Several Lewis shorts are available for download from his Weirdmonger website here. Hear them on your MP3 player riding the bus, or off your PC in the quiet hours of the night. However, know that you, too, will likely be trapped in the weirdmonger's nefarious wheel. Each recording is like one more spider marching into one's ear--a ticklish delight and a horror.

-Grim Blogger

D.F. Lewis Readings

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