Book collectors tuned in to Radio for the November 2024 meeting. General books about radio and radio broadcasting ranged from dramas during the golden age of radio to the importance of news broadcasts during World War II. Most of the books and manuscripts shown focused on specific radio programs and notable broadcasts, starting with the infamous 1938 Halloween Eve broadcast of The War of the Worlds.
Radio Broadcasts
The War of the Worlds
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| The War of the Worlds |
Wells, H. G. The War of the Worlds. London: William Heinemann, 1898. First edition. H. G. Wells's classic science fiction alien invasion story was first published in serialized form in 1897. The full novel was published in 1898 by William Heinemann in the UK and by Harper & Brothers in the US. The story has been adapted and dramatized numerous times into various media including film, television, comics, audio recordings, live concerts, and, most notably, radio.
On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles directed and narrated a radio drama of The War of the Worlds for the Halloween episode of The Mercury Theatre on the Air, a CBS Radio Network program. The show was performed and broadcast live and lacked commercial interruptions. While the Mercury show was introduced in its normal style, the 60-minute dramatic interpretation was presented mainly as a series of news bulletins and on-the-scene reports of a violent Martian invasion. Some listeners misunderstood the dramatization and believed the news bulletins were real; other listeners who tuned in late or only heard a portion of the broadcast mistook it as a genuine news broadcast. Panic and hysteria ensued from coast to coast, and telephone switchboards not only at CBS but also at newspaper desks, police stations, and hospitals all over the country were inundated with panic-stricken callers. CBS, other broadcast networks, newspapers, and police departments across the country worked all through the night to restore calm, convince people they were safe, and assure the public that the broadcast was fictional.
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| The War of the Worlds (Classics Illustrated) |
Wells, H. G. The War of the Worlds. Classics Illustrated, Number 124. New York: Gilberton Company, 1955. Adapted by Harry G. Miller. Illustrated by Lou Cameron. This Classics Illustrated comic adaptation of The War of the Worlds includes a full-page description on the inside cover of the 1938 radio broadcast, including some anecdotes of panicked reactions to the show.
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| The Panic Broadcast |
Koch, Howard. The Panic Broadcast: The Whole Story of the Night the Martians Landed. New York: Avon Publications, 1970. Howard Koch wrote the now-infamous radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds presented by Orson Welles. His book The Panic Broadcast covers the aftermath of the October 30, 1938, radio broadcast. It includes an introductory interview with Arthur C. Clark along with newspaper articles, political cartoons, photographs, and other materials documenting the pandemonium caused by the presentation. It also includes the full text of the original radio script.
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| The War of the Worlds (Deluxe Illustrated Edition) |
Holmsten, Brian and Alex Lubertozzi. War of the Worlds: Mars’ Invasion of Earth, Inciting Panic and Inspiring Terror from H.G. Wells to Orson Welles and Beyond. New York: Sourcebooks Inc., 2003. Deluxe illustrated edition. Foreword by Ray Bradbury and Afterword by Ben Bova. Audio narration by John Callaway. This is a revised and updated edition of Holmsten and Lubertozzi's The Complete War of the Worlds (2001). The book contains an overview of the broadcast and its aftermath along with the radio play script and biographical information on H. G. Wells and Orson Welles. The book is accompanied by an audio CD which contains the complete October 30, 1938, radio broadcast, Orson Welles's press conference the following day, and a recording of an interview between Orson Welles and H. G. Wells.
Other Broadcasts
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| Flash Gordon and the Power Men of Mongo |
Raymond, Alex. Flash Gordon and the Power Men of Mongo. Racine, WI: Whitman Publishing Company, 1943. Flash Gordon first appeared in a King Features Syndicate comic strip on January 7, 1934. The space adventure was created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. In 1935, Flash Gordon appeared on radio over the Mutual Broadcasting System on the west coast. The Amazing Interplanetary Adventures of Flash Gordon aired in 26 fifteen-minutes episodes broadcast from April 27 to October 26, 1935. The first four episodes quickly encapsulated the first year of the syndicated comic strip, and the remaining episodes concurrently followed the printed comic's storyline. In the final installment of the radio serial, the principal human characters, Flash Gordon, Dale Arden, and Dr. Hans Zarkov, land in a wilderness where they encounter Jungle Jim. Like Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim was another comic strip series being adapted to radio, and the final Flash Gordon episode transitioned into the Jungle Jim replacement series.
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| The Story of Charlie McCarthy and Edgar Bergen |
Packer, Eleanor. The Story of Charlie McCarthy and Edgar Bergen. Racine, WI: Whitman Publishing Company, 1938. The Big Little Book 1456. Edgar Bergen (1903 – 1978) was an American radio performer, comedian, and ventriloquist best known for his routines with a wooden dummy, Charlie McCarthy. In 1937, Bergen became a regular cast member of The Chase and Sanborn Hour, a radio program on NBC's Syndicated Radio Network which aired from 1929 to 1948, performing sketches with Charlie McCarthy. In 1949, Bergen moved to CBS with a weekly television program The Charlie McCarthy Show. Packer's The Story of Charlie McCarthy and Edgar Bergen includes four illustrated stories in which Charlie McCarthy is more like a real person interacting with Edgar Bergen in something of a father-son relationship. The stories are retellings of classic vaudevillian Bergen-McCarthy radio sketches, including "Charlie's School Days," "Two-Gun McCarthy," "Charlie's Lemonade Stand," and "Charlie Goes to the Doctor."
Nota bene: Legend around Orson Welles's 1938 broadcast of The War of the Worlds (above) holds that some listeners who mistook the broadcast as real may have been listening to The Chase and Sanborn Hour with Edgar Bergen on NBC, which aired at the same time as The Mercury Theatre on CBS, and switched over during the musical interlude, thereby missing the show's introduction and thinking the news bulletins were real.
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| The Great Jowett |
Greene, Graham. The Great Jowett. London: The Bodley Head, 1981. The Great Jowett was first written as a radio play for the BBC, and was broadcast on Saturday, 6 May 1939. It was produced and narrated by Stephen Potter. It was first published in 1981 in a limited signed and numbered edition of 525 copies, of which 500 were for sale. This copy, number 121, is accompanied by a typed signed letter, dated 27 October 1981, from the publisher's marketing director informing the bookseller:
As you know, this edition is limited to 500 copies.
The book has been greatly over-subscribed and we are therefore able to supply only a part of the order you placed with us.
The edition has now been exhausted.
The play focuses on Benjamin Jowett (1817-1893), a classics scholar at Balliol College, Oxford, and his struggle to serve as Master of the school while working on his translation of Plato. Greene attended Balliol from 1922 to 1925, thirty years after Jowett's mastership, but Jowett's legacy still loomed large. Greene wrote the radio play in the 1930s, when "the old school" alumni spirit was still strong. It is the only radio play penned by Greene.
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| From the Third Programme |
Morris, John, ed. From the Third Programme: A Ten-Years' Anthology. London: Nonesuch Press, 1956. The BBC Third Programme was a British national radio station broadcasting from 1946 to 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 3. It focused on intellectual and cultural movements; its programming included dramatic plays, author conversations, poetry readings, and documentary features. It was criticized for its high-brow or elitist content and panned as "two dons talking." To commemorate its first ten years of broadcasting, the network published this anthology of some of its favorite programs, including contributions by noted authors such as V. S. Pritchett, Elizabeth Bowen, Graham Greene, Bertrand Russell, E. M. Forster, André Gide, Maxim Gorky, Edward Sackville-West, T. S. Eliot, and Thomas Mann. This copy is from a limited edition of 1300 tall copies issued in a custom slipcase. This copy is number 123.
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| The Fallen Idol |
Greene, Graham and Charles Hatton. The Fallen Idol by Graham Greene: Adapted from the Film Story by Charles Hatton: Produced by Ronald Mason. BBC Home Service. 16 and 18 March 1968. Original typescript of the radio play broadcast on BBC Home Service Saturday, 16 March, and Monday, 18 March 1968. The radio play was adapted by Charles Hatton from the 1948 film The Fallen Idol, which was an adaptation of Graham Greene's 1935 short story "The Basement Room." Among the cast of this production, Dame Judi Dench is the most recognizable actor today. This was Hatton's own copy, later gifted to journalist Jack Haden.
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| Yes and No |
Greene, Graham. Yes and No by Graham Greene: Directed by John Tydeman. BBC Radio 3. 25 January 1983. Yes and No is a short one-act stage play written by Graham Greene, inspired by his observations of interactions between Sir John Gielgud, director, and Sir Ralph Richardson, actor, during rehearsals for the original 1959 production of Greene's The Complaisant Lover. Yes and No was first performed at The Haymarket Studio Theatre, Leicester on 20 March 1980. In August 1981, actor Clive Francis, wrote to John Tydeman, the Assistant Head of Drama, Radio, at the BBC, suggesting Yes and No as a radio play; Tydeman wrote back immediately asking for a copy of the script (which had not yet been published) and thanking him for the suggestion, calling it a "smashing idea." The project came to fruition and Yes and No was recorded for radio on 25 January 1983, with Clive Francis as the Director and Alex Jennings as the Actor; the production was directed by Tydeman himself. For the radio play, only the opening line, spoken by the Director, was altered. In the stage play, the Director begins, "Ah, punctual I see. A great virtue in a young actor. Have you been here long?" For the radio play, the Director's opening line was adapted to, "On stage waiting. Punctuality is a great virtue in a young actor. Have you been here long?"
This original typescript was the property of Clive Francis and was the script used by Alex Jennings during the studio recording. It contains the alteration of the first line in Francis's hand and prompts and voice notes in Jennings's hand. The script is accompanied by Tydeman's typed signed letter of 13 August 1981 to Francis. This script and letter were obtained directly from Clive Francis in 2019.
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| Tolkien's Gown and Outside of a Dog |
Gekoski, Rick. Tolkien's Gown & Other Stories of Great Authors and Rare Books. London: Constable & Robinson Ltd., 2004. First edition. Rick Gekoski is a rare and antiquarian book dealer, author, and bibliographer. He conceived and recorded a series of short 15-minute segments titled Rare Books, Rare People for BBC Radio 4 which aired in 2003. He revised those broadcasts into chapters for this book. Each chapter tells the story of a particular book Gekoski acquired, catalogued, and sold. Each book is a stunning copy, often with an exceptional provenance, inscription, or other feature which makes it highly valuable. Gekoski tells the fascinating stories behind not only the books themselves, but also, in some cases, the notable people who sold the books to him and the people who bought those books from him. This copy is signed by the author on the title page.
Gekoski, Rick. Outside of a Dog: A Bibliomemoir. London: Constable & Robinson Ltd., 2009. First edition. Like Tolkien's Gown, Gekoski's next book offers more stories of acquisitions and sales of some remarkable books. Outside of a Dog, however, is more of a memoir of Gekoski's own career told through a few specific sales. The book shows his evolution from a general antiquarian bookseller to a dealer highly specialized in the papers and archives of prominent writers and his work to get those archives into the special collections of leading libraries and institutions. This book is a revision of Gekoski's BBC Radio 4 series Lost, Stolen or Shredded.
General Radio
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| Berlin Diary |
Shirer, William L. Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1934-1941. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1941. First edition. William L. Shirer (1904 – 1993) was an American journalist and war correspondent who began his career in radio in Europe. He first worked for the Berlin bureau of Universal Service, before being hired by Edward R. Murrow for the CBS Radio team, known as "Murrow's Boys." During the pre-war period, Shirer, based in Berlin, attended Hitler's speeches and party rallies in Nuremberg. When Germany annexed Austria, Shirer quickly left for London where he broadcast the first uncensored eyewitness account of the Anschluss. He returned to Berlin and began to produce and broadcast 30-minute radio news segments from five European Capitals—Berlin, Vienna, Paris, Rome, and London—using telephones and the available radio technology. Shirer was the first to broadcast these "world news roundup" segments, a format still used by news broadcasters today. By 1940 Shirer knew he had to leave Germany, as the Gestapo was building an espionage case against him. He left in December 1940, smuggling his diaries and notes—firsthand accounts of events in Nazi Germany—which became the basis for this book. Shirer later returned to Europe in 1945 to report on the Nuremberg trials.
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| Radio Plays and How to Write Them |
Hatton, Charles. Radio Plays and How to Write Them. St. Ives: Matson's Publications, 1948. First edition. Forward by film director Martyn C. Webster. Charles Hatton was an accomplished author, theatre critic, and scriptwriter. He authored several novels, a children's book, and two stage plays. He wrote more than 500 sketches and plays for radio. His full-length radio plays consisted of both original stories and adaptations of other works, including The Fallen Idol, and adaptation of the film of the same name based on Graham Greene's short story "The Basement Room" [see above]. In Radio Plays and How to Write Them, Hatton draws from his broadcasting experience and offers tips for writing various types of radio plays. The book includes two of Hatton's original radio plays along with notes and analysis of each.
Matson's Publications was a short-lived publisher focused on how-to guides for aspiring writers, releasing a handful of books between 1946 and 1949 with such other titles as Breaking into Fiction, Writing for Broadcasting, Encyclopedia of Article Ideas, The Writers' and Photographers' Reference Guide, and Money from Entertaining. These books are scarce and difficult to find today.
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| The Great Radio Heroes |
Harmon, Jim. The Great Radio Heroes. New York: Doubleday & Company, 1967. First edition. Harmon looks back to the recent past to the golden age of radio to consider the role radio dramas played in the lives and imaginations of its young listeners. He examines the love affair people had with radio programs and postulates how young listeners used their imagination to conjure up better images of their storied heroes than the representations later depicted by television. The Great Radio Heroes provides analysis and reprinted scripts from such radio dramas as I Love a Mystery, Gangbusters, The Shadow, Inner Sanctum, Batman and Robin, Superman, Tom Mix, The Lone Ranger, The Green Hornet, and Adventures by Morse.
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| On the Air |
Dunning, John. On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. First edition. Hardcover with illustrations. This 840-page encyclopedic reference book in one volume contains more than 1500 entries on classic radio shows which aired from the 1920s through the 1960s. Entries include such broadcasts as Amos 'n' Andy, Fibber McGee and Molly, Ozzie and Harriet, Sam Spade, Major Bowes' Original Amateur Hour, Father Knows Best, and The March of Time. Each entry contains such information as broadcast dates, casts and personnel, anecdotes, and a detailed overview of each show's background, format, and content. Beyond the facts and details, Dunning's entries provide a fascinating account of each program by taking the reader behind the scenes to capture the feel of the performance and providing engrossing biographies of the people involved in the show.
