Early Radio

Emilie Morin is Professor of Modern Literature at the University of York, UK. Her interests revolve around transnational modernisms, forms of political writing, literatures of exile and migration, and the intersections between literature and technology. Her most recent monograph is Beckett’s Political Imagination (2017). Emilie Morin is Professor of Modern Literature at the University of York, UK. Her interests revolve around transnational modernisms, forms of political writing, literatures of exile and migration, and the intersections between literature and technology. Her most recent monograph is Beckett’s Political Imagination (2017). Marielle Sutherland is a freelance translator (German to English). Her key areas are contemporary literature, arts and humanities. Her recent translations include Rainer Maria Rilke’s Selected Poems, with Susan Ranson (2011), Bauhaus Architecture 1919-1933, by Hans Engels (2018), and Rulantica: Hidden Island, by Manuela Hanauer (2021). Nicoletta Asciuto is Lecturer in Modern Literature at the University of York, UK. A passionate linguist with knowledge of ten languages, she specialises in comparative literature, and has particular interests in modernism and technology. She is currently completing a monograph entitled Brilliant Modernism: Cultures of Light and Modernist Poetry, 1909-1930.

It’s almost impossible to overstate the amount of labor that has gone into the assembling ofEmilie Morin’s valuable new anthology, Early Radio[...] all of these have produced an anthology unprecedented in its scope, one that will be essential for any scholar of modernist radio studies.

• AcknowledgementsNote on the Selection, Translation and Presentation of TextsIntroductionPart One: Radio as Technology, Radio as Art1.1 Hilda Matheson, from Broadcasting1.2 Walter Ruttmann, New Compositional Modes for Sound Film and Radio. Programme for an Art of Acoustic Photography1.3 Paul Deharme, from For a Radiophonic Art1.4 Pierre Keszler, Is There Such a Thing as a Radiophonic Art?1.5 Paul Dermée, Will We Have a Radiophonic Art?1.6 Suzanne Malard, Radio, An Autonomous Art1.7 Pierre Schaeffer, The Problem Central to Radio Broadcasting1.8 Enzo Ferrieri, Radio as Creative Force1.9 From Radio Investigation: F. T. Marinetti, A Futurist Radio; Ottorino Respighi, Radio and Art; Eugenio Colorni, Radio’s Artistic Possibilities; Lucio D’Ambra, Life, Poetry, RadioPart Two: Behind the Microphone2.1 Anon., On Emotion and Life Before the Microphone2.2 Paul Dermée, Microphone Rudiments for Radio Actors2.3 France Darget, How to Act in Front of the Microphone2.4 Anon., The Speaker’s Qualities2.5 Sheila Borrett, Scene – and Unseen!2.6 Mabel Constanduros, My First Broadcast2.7 Victor Margueritte, Facing the Microphone2.8 Walter Benjamin, On Time to the Minute2.9 Egon Erwin Kisch, Woe Betide the One Who Sees2.10 Florence Milnes, A Day in the Life of the BBC LibrarianPart Three: The Art of Listening3.1 Fernand Divoire, The Zone of the Storms3.2 Fernand Divoire, The Don Juan of the Air Waves3.3 Guido Sommi Picenardi, Murmurs from the Ether3.4 Rose Macaulay, The Arm-Chair Millennium3.5 Fritz Zoreff, Radio Drama and the Inner Vision3.6 Enrico Rocca, from A Geography of the Invisible3.7 Rolf Gunold, The Seventh Sense3.8 Ella Fitzgerald, Wireless and Women3.9 Camilla, The Woman Listener3.10 Ernst Hardt, The Echo of the Listeners’ Needs3.11 Annette Kolb, from Book of Complaints3.12 Carlos Larronde, Radio Drama3.13 Anton Kuh, Fear of Radio3.14 Colette, An Interview About the WirelessPart Four: Radio Genres4.1 Hans Flesch, The Future Shape of Radio Programming4.2 Hermynia Zur Mühlen, Radio Programmes for Women4.3 Alfred Döblin, Literature and Radio4.4 Barbara Burnham, Adaptations4.5 Anon., The Broadcasting of Poetry4.6 Kurt Weill, On the ‘Musical Radio Play’4.7 Paul Dermée, The Broadcasting of Silence4.8 Alex Virot, Reflections on Radio-Reportage4.9 Hermann Kasack, Micro-Reportage4.10 Olive Shapley, Night Romance of the Roads4.11 B.E.N., Feature Programmes4.12 Laurence Gilliam, ‘Actualities’ and ‘Features’4.13 Charles Siepmann, Talks4.14 Desmond MacCarthy, The Art of Broadcasting Talks4.15 André Saudemont, The Radio Interview4.16 Henry Lytton, The Mystery of Radio Humour4.17 Grace Wyndham Goldie, Listening to Comedy4.18 Robert Desnos, ‘The Key to Dreams’ on the Poste ParisienPart Five: A Theatre for the Ear5.1 George Bernard Shaw, The Drama and the Microphone5.2 Augustin Habaru, We Must Discover the Radio5.3 René Christauflour, Will Radio Create ‘Superhearing,’ as Cinema Created ‘Superimposition’?5.4 R. E. Jeffrey, Wireless Drama5.5 Rolf Gunold, Routes to Acoustic Drama5.6 Gabriel Germinet, from Radio Drama: A New Mode of Artistic Expression5.7 Lance Sieveking, from The Stuff of Radio5.8 Tristan Bernard, For the Invisible Blind Public5.9 Hans Kyser, How Do We Create Radio Plays and a Dramatic Literature for Radio?5.10 Alida and Pierre Calel, A Conception of Radio Drama5.11 Tyrone Guthrie, Introduction to Squirrel’s Cage and Two Other Microphone Plays5.12 Marc Denis, An Essay on Radio Drama5.13 Lugné-Poë, Radio Drama’s Marvellous Resources5.14 Georges Colin, In the Service of Radio Drama5.15 Madeleine Montvoisin, On the Possibilities and Exigencies of Radio Drama5.16 Carlos Larronde, The Poetry of Space5.17 Carlos Larronde, A Lesson in Attempting a Radio Play5.18 Grace Wyndham Goldie, Let Us Be Thrilled5.19 Leopold Jessner, Radio and Theatre5.20 Ernst Hardt, DramaPart Six: Radio Politics and Radio Frontiers6.1 Suzanne Cilly, Women and Radio6.2 Yvane Arthaud, Women’s Voice in the World6.3 Egon Erwin Kisch, Radio Reporter from Red Square: ‘The Moscow Microphone Never Lies!’6.4 Alfons Paquet, Radio and the State6.5 Kurt Tucholsky, Free Radio! Free Film!6.6 Kurt Tucholsky, Radio Censorship6.7 René Schickele, A Pan-Europe of Radio Stations6.8 Louis Le Crestois, Radio and Peace6.9 Gabriel Germinet, Radiophonic Art in the Service of Moral Disarmament6.10 Paul Vaillant-Couturier, Radio and Peace6.11 Ernst Toller, International RadioSelect Bibliography