On tonight's podcast, we'll be looking at a love letter written between novelist and short story writer Franz Kafka, and Felice Bauer. In the world of odd romances, this one rates somewhere in the top 10% I'm sure. Felice and Franz met in Prague on August 13th 1912 at a dinner party put on by his friend Max Brod. To call it love at first sight would be...inaccurate, in his diary a week later, Franz describes Felice as follows, "Bony, empty face that wore its emptiness openly. Bare throat. A blouse thrown on. Looked very domestic in her dress although, as it turned out, she by no means was...Almost broken nose. Blonde, somewhat straight, unattractive hair, strong chin." Yet soon after he was sending her almost daily letters, and by July of 1913 had proposed marriage to her (not for the first time). Kafka preferred to keep their romance at a distance, the few times they did meet (mostly for proposals), he was disinterested and withdrawn, seemingly disappointed in the actual flesh and blood Felice. The two were forced apart once and for all in 1917 when Kafka began manifesting symptoms of the tuberculosis that would eventually kill him. Felice would later go on to marry Moritz Marasse, a banker in Berlin, they had two children, moved to Switzerland to escape the Nazis and finally settled in the United States in 1931. Over 500 letters from this period have survived, sold by Felice in 1955 due to financial troubles from an illness, and they were published in the book Letters to Felice by Elias Canetti. This is one of them. I hope you enjoy. Background music provided by: https://soundcloud.com/michel-escaillas/classik-electro Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/steve%E2%80%A6ies/id1087197185

On tonight's podcast, we'll be looking at "A Thief and His Master," a fairy tale originally published in 1812 by the Brother's Grimm. This is a strange one, as despite the title, it's less about a thief and more about a magician -- which makes sense, as it belongs to the Aarne-Thompson 325 group of folk tales -- which are stories about magicians and their pupils which contain a transformation and a chase. The "Farmer Weathersky" from The Red Fairy Book, and "Master and Pupil" from The Pink Fairy Book are also of this type. This is a story about father trying to decide on his son's profession. After visiting a church, he discovers that a thief is what his child was meant to be, so he looks for a teacher. The rest involves a lot of animal transformations, even more fraud, and a touch violence by the end. If I had to pick one, I'd say the lesson of "A Thief and His Master" is to always accept payment for services up front, lest you end up dead. I hope you enjoy. Background music provided by: https://soundcloud.com/michel-escaillas/classik-electro Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/steve…ies/id1087197185

On tonight's podcast, we'll be looking at a rejection letter written by Peter Bentley of Bentley and Son's Publishing House, to one Herman Melville, on the subject of Moby Dick. This is one of those time where you wish there was an alternate reality where Peter had gotten his way. Because if he did, there would a version of Moby Dick out there with no whales and a lot of voluptuous, young maidens. Peter also didn't like all the messy talk of religion, unless it was about Lutherans, which I guess didn't count. While Peter passed on the book it was ultimately Richard Bentley, of the same Publishing House, who accepted Melville's manuscript in 1851. While most of Peter's revisions didn't make the cut, the British edition of the book is notable for having about 1200 words missing, because they were deemed sacrilegious. Interestingly, a number of "sexually explicit" passages were also excised, which most have been a real bee in Peter's bonnet. This letter is the story of the intersection of art and commerce, and a great example of why not every well meaning suggestion, is one you should take. I hope you enjoy.

Welcome everyone, I'm Steve Spalding and this is Season Two of Steve Reads Stories. Sorry for the long delay, but I needed some time to find new things to read to you, and a bit of energy to put behing other projects. Honestly it's probably for the best, but now I'm back and ready to hit the ground running with a folk tale I think you're going to really like. This one is called The Three Princesses of Whiteland and it was born in Norway and orginally collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe. Andrew Lang in The Red Fairy Book, published in 1890. Lang published a number of other "Fairy Books" in the same decade -- The Blue Fairy Book, The Green Fairy Book, The Yellow Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book and right at the turn of the century, The Grey Fairy Book. His other works included titles like, "The True Story Book," "The Animal Story Book," and "The Red Book of Animal Stories." While he never published, "The True Yellow Book of Animal Stories," I'm sure he was working on it. The Princesses of Whiteland is a story about a fisherman's son turned errant King who finds himself on an adventure to get back to his wife, one of the Princesses as you might suspect. On the way, he takes a lot a bad advice, steals a number of things, and yet somehow makes it out with his head still attached. Some people have all the luck. In the end, I think this is a tale about the importance of listening to directions, which is a lesson we all can use every once in a while. I hope you enjoy.

On today's episode, I introduce you to the secret project I've been talking about for the last few months. It's a serialized fiction collaboration between me and Jessica Kinghorn called, At the Midnight. If you like stories about hotel desk managers combating eldritch horrors, you'll like this.  You'll find new episode of this and more on Inside Fictions main channel: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/inside-fictions/id1159779864?mt=2 Music by: https://soundcloud.com/michel-escaillas

On today's episode, I briefly discuss Season 2 of Steve Reads Stories, and I give you a preview of a full episode of a new project I've been working on, Inside Fictions. Take a listen, I think you'll like it.  If you're interested in more Inside Fictions, you can subscribe here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/inside-fictions/id1159779864?mt=2 Music by: https://soundcloud.com/michel-escaillas

On tonight's podcast, we'll be looking at a letter written in 1956 by C.S. Lewis to a young fan named Joan Lancaster. C.S. Lewis is best known as the person who brought the Chronicles of Narnia, but he also wrote many other fascinating novels, including the Cosmic Trilogy, which was a part of a deal he made with J.R.R Tolkien. He would write a "space travel" story, if Tolkien wrote one about time travel. Unfortunately, Tolkien never never finished his. It's unfortunately because his plan was to link Middle-Earth to the modern world, which could have changed the world as we know it. 1956 was the year the very last book in the Chronicles of Narnia, The Last Battle was published, and the same year he published Till We Have Faces, a re-telling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche. This is a letter about writing, from a writer, to an aspiring writer, and I love it not only because it offers some very good advice on craft, but also because it's exactly the sort of thing I needed to read tonight. This is a good letter, filled with good ideas. I hope you enjoy! Background music provided by: https://soundcloud.com/michel-escaillas/classik-electro Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/steve-reads-stories/id1087197185

On tonight's podcast, we'll be looking at Bearskin, a German folk tale brought to us by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen.  Bearskin was originally published in 1670, under the title, "The Origin of the Name Bearskin." It's a folk tale of type 361, which are stories about people who get into deals with the Devil, and come out at the other side with wealth and a beautiful bride -- a rarity indeed.  Before getting into the rest, it's worth taking a moment to mention that Hans Jakob is also the author of, "The life of an odd vagrant named Melchior Sternfels von Fuchshaim: namely where and in what manner he came into this world, what he saw, learned, experienced, and endured therein; also why he again left it of his own free will." which is not only one of the longest subtitles I've ever had the pleasure of relating, but is also said to be one of the finest pieces of German literature of the 17th century. Bearskin is a story about a soldier who desserts, runs off to the woods, nearly starves to death, meets the Devil, neglects his hygiene and marries a princess.  It's also one of those rare times when the Devil gets his due, but not on the person who actually made the deal. This is ultimately a tale about how failing to listen to your father, can be more dangerous than taking up with Satan himself. I hope you enjoy. Background music provided by: https://soundcloud.com/michel-escaillas/classik-electro Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/steve-reads-stories/id1087197185

On tonight's podcast, we'll be looking at a letter written in 1586 by an unnamed and pregnant widow to her dead husband Eung-Tae Lee.  This letter was discovered in 1996 in a tomb in Andong City, South Korea. Eung-Tae Lee, who was a member of the ancient Goseong Yi clan, was found with it along with a pair of sandals -- apparently woven from hemp bark and his wife's own hair. This is a moving and deeply affecting letter, and I hope I've done it justice. And I hope you enjoy.  Background music provided by: https://soundcloud.com/michel-escaillas/classik-electro Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/steve-reads-stories/id1087197185

On tonight's podcast, we'll be looking at The Singing Sword, an Eastern European folk tale brought to us from Estonia via Brooklyn.  It was written in 1928 by Frances Jenkins Olcott, who was born in Paris and later moved to New York to become an assistant librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library. She left that position to head up the first Children's Department at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, returning to New York in 1911 to write children's books, including Wonder Tales From Baltic Wizards -- where we find this piece.  The Singing Sword is a brilliantly energetic tale, opening with a breathless description of our hero, the Giant Kalevide, and his titular weapon. It goes on to describe how he loses the sword first at the hands of crafty wizard, and then more permanently to a Water Nymph. Honestly, it has been a while since I've had this much fun with a read. The Singing Sword is a fast-paced story about giants, wizards, magic, and the beauty of Nymphs.  I hope you enjoy.  Background music provided by: https://soundcloud.com/michel-escaillas/classik-electro Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/steve-reads-stories/id1087197185

On tonight's podcast, we'll be looking at a letter written in 1964 from George R.R. Martin to Stan Lee.  George was 16 when he wrote this, and despite the generally gloomy tone his more recent works have taken, here you find a young man bursting at the seams. It's a letter than bleeds joy onto the page, written by someone whose looking at comics with the eye of a connoseiur. It's also sophisticated, you can tell that this was penned by a person who cares about stories and their structure. It'd be another 12 years before he published his first full length work, a short story collection called A Song for Lya, but this is George already building worlds. I hope you enjoy. Background music provided by: https://soundcloud.com/michel-escaillas/classik-electro Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/steve-reads-stories/id1087197185 Follow us on Twitter @StoriesCast

On tonight's podcast, we'll be looking at The Raven, another German folk tale from the collection of the Brother's Grimm. The version we are interested in is found in the 1905 edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales, and is of type 401, as classified by the Aarne-Thompson system. For those keeping score, these are tales where young girls are transformed into animals. In our particular case, that animal is a Raven. This is one of those stories where I find myself questioning the translation a little. In the very first scene, the princess is transformed into a Raven and flies off into the dark, dark woods. Yet, throughout the rest of the telling, she rides around in carriages, hands out magical foodstuffs and golden rings, and generally gets on about her business just fine. I don't know a lot of Ravens who could pull off half the tricks that she manages.  This is also a fairy tale that manages to pack in witches, giants and highwaymen all at the same time, which is quite a feat when you think about it. The Raven is a story of magic sticks, magic food, and incredibly talented bird women. I hope you enjoy.  Background music provided by: https://soundcloud.com/michel-escaillas/classik-electro Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/steve-reads-stories/id1087197185 Follow us on Twitter @StoriesCast

On tonight's podcast, we'll be looking at a letter written by Jean-Paul Sartre to Simone de Beauvoir. Satre was famous for popularizing existentialism, and de Beauvoir for writing -- The Second Sex -- a book that formed the philosophical underpinnings of second-wave feminism.  While they were deeply in love, and were considered a power couple in their time, they never lived in the same place and they famously had an open relationship.  I love this letter, because it takes all the strangeness and incongruities of their affair and packages it into a few short paragraphs. You can see at once how Satre is trying to hold her close and push her away at the same, and the cool logic he uses to do it. It's art and essay at once. I hope you enjoy.  Background music provided by: https://soundcloud.com/michel-escaillas/classik-electro Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/steve-reads-stories/id1087197185 Follow us on Twitter @StoriesCast

Tonight, we'll be looking at How The Devil Married Three Sisters, an Italian Folk Tale.  Unfortunately, I didn't have time to write an intro for this one, since it's after 2AM and I've spent the last week lugging boxes into my new apartment.  Even so, this is a great story about the trials and tribulations of satanic marriage, and well worth a listen.  I hope you enjoy.  Background music provided by: https://soundcloud.com/michel-escaillas/classik-electro Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/steve-reads-stories/id1087197185 Follow us on Twitter @StoriesCast

On tonight's podcast, we'll be looking at a letter written in 1958 by John Steinbeck to his son Thom. In it, Steinbeck, the author of the seminal book of American literature -- The Grapes of Wrath -- offers advice to his son on falling in love.  It's beautiful, both in it's simplicity and it's completeness.  It's a documentarians description of love, one that still manages to hold onto it's poetic core.  It's also one of my favorites. I hope you enjoy.  Background music provided by: https://soundcloud.com/michel-escaillas/classik-electro Additional Sounds: "My One and Only Heart by Perry Como," John Steinbeck reading, "The Snake" Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/steve-reads-stories/id1087197185 Follow us on Twitter @StoriesCast

On tonight's podcast, we'll be looking at The Riddle, a German folk tale written by none other than the Brother's Grimm.  This version orginally appears in the 1857 edition of "Children's and Household Tales -- Grimms' Fairy Tales," which was the final edition of that particular anthology. It was orginally sourced from Dorothea Viehmann, a storyteller and the daughter of a tavern owner, who brought us more than forty of the Grimm's tales, including: Trusty John, The Goose Girl, The Devil and His Grandmother, and The Little Peasent.  The Riddle is a story of a Prince who decides to take a trip around the world with his trusty servant. Along the way, he runs into a witch, some murderers, and a princess with a penchant for riddles.  What I like about this story, is just how well the Prince takes his misfortune. No matter how many times he is almost killed, he just seems to shrug and moves on.  It kind of makes you wonder what his life was like back in the palace.  The Riddle is a tale of witches, inn keepers, and the lengths some will go to in order to avoid marriage.   I hope you enjoy.  Background music provided by: https://soundcloud.com/michel-escaillas/classik-electro Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/steve-reads-stories/id1087197185 Follow us on Twitter @StoriesCast

Welcome everyone, I'm Steve Spalding and this is another episode of Steve Read's Stories. Tonight, we'll be looking at a letter written in 1998 by Ren and Stimpy creator John K to a 14 year old Amir Avni. Today Amir works as a professional animator, and has helped produce shows like Grojband and Total Drama All Stars. In 1998, however, he was just a kid with a dream, and John K not only took the time to write him back, but also gave him some pointers on drawing and sent him a book! I love this letter not only because of the story behind it, but also because it's a nice How To guide for burgeoning animators, from one of the legends in the field. I hope you enjoy.  Background music provided by: https://soundcloud.com/michel-escaillas/classik-electro Additional Sounds: Ren and Stimpy television show Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/steve-reads-stories/id1087197185 Follow us on Twitter @StoriesCast

On tonight's podcast, we'll be looking at The Witch of Treva, a Cornish folk tale first brought to us by Robert Hunt.  This version was published in 1881, in the third edition of, "Popular Romances of the West of England; or, The Drolls, Traditions, and Superstitions of Old Cornwall," and is -- like Little Red Cap -- actually two stories in one. Both relate the life and times of a not unkindly Witch.   What makes this story a little different, is that instead of the Witch being a solitary figure, sitting around a hut somewhere hunting children to stew up in her pot -- the Witch of Treva is actually married, to a husband, who doesn't seem to give a whit about her powers. He seems much more concerned about getting a good meal, than he is about having a necromancer for a wife.  I guess you take the good with the bad. The second half of the story is my favorite though, because it reads like a documentary, and if you remove the thought of magic from the mix -- it's about a clutch of old men terrified of rabbits.  The Witch of Treva is a tale of marriage, meat, and a very clever hare. I hope you enjoy.  Background music provided by: https://soundcloud.com/michel-escaillas/classik-electro Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/steve-reads-stories/id1087197185 Follow us on Twitter @StoriesCast

On tonight's podcast, we'll be looking at a letter written in 1940 from a 12 year old Fidel Castro to president Franklin Roosevelt. All things considered, the fact that this letter even exists is pretty amazing, not because of anything in it, but because somehow a message from a twelve year old boy who would just happen to become one of Cuba's most important leaders, found it's way to a U.S. President, just as the opening bells of World War II were ringing.  After asking for, well, I'll let you hear that for yourself -- Fidel even gives President Roosevelt some military advice in the post-script. It's a bizarre and prophetic couple of paragraphs. I hope you enjoy. Background music provided by: https://soundcloud.com/michel-escaillas/classik-electro Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/steve-reads-stories/id1087197185 Follow us on Twitter @StoriesCast

On tonight's podcast, I'll be looking at For Ten Thousand Years, the fourth piece I wrote in January as a part of my Year of Stories project.  When I'm recording this, it's somewhere near the end of April, and I've managed to gain a bit of perspective on some of the patterns that have developed in my writing since I began this project. One of them started here, the Thursday "letter." When you write like I do, between late and very late at night, you sometimes find yourself grasping at narrative threads. You want them strong enough to hold a story together, but not so long that you find daybreak on the other side.  Letters, especially late in the week -- when the Muse decides to toddle off on vacation -- can really help. They carry less narrative baggage than many other formats, but still have enough room in them to provide some emotional heft.  For Ten Thousand Years is a letter, and the emotional heft comes from three of my favorite places: dark magic, delightfully strange hand's behind the curtain, and vivid descriptions of deeply unpleasent things.  It was also a fun read, how often do you get to talk about jars of human fear? I hope you enjoy.   Background music provided by: https://soundcloud.com/michel-escaillas/classik-electro Additional Sounds by: Mike Koenig Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/steve-reads-stories/id1087197185 Follow us on Twitter @StoriesCast