About Stephen Crane
Stephen Crane (1871 - 1900) was a war correspondent, novelist, short story writer and poet. He is the author of Maggie, The Red Badge of Courage, George's Mother and The Black Riders. Ernest Hemingway on The Red Badge of Courage: "One of the finest books of our literature…it is all as much of one piece as a great poem is."
About Bret Harte
Bret Harte was born in Albany, New York, in 1836 and was raised in New York City. He had no formal education, but he inherited a love for books. In 1857, Harte moved to California and eventually wrote for the San Franciscan Golden Era paper. There he published his first condensed novels, which were brilliant parodies of the works of well-known authors, such as Dickens and Cooper. Later, he became clerk in the U.S. branch mint. This job gave Harte time to also work for the Overland Monthly, where he published his world-famous "Luck of the Roaring Camp" and commissioned Mark Twain to write weekly articles.
In 1871, Harte was 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. He moved to New England after resigning a professorship at the University of California. There he was welcomed as an equal by such writers as Longfellow and Holmes, and he received continued praise for his works. However, laden with personal and family difficulties, his work suffered. In 1878, after an unsuccessful attempt on the lecture circuit, Harte accepted consulships in Germany and, later, Scotland. In 1885, he retired to London, where he died in 1902.
About Jack London
Jack London (1876–1916) was an American author, journalist, and
social activist. Before making a living at his writing, he spent time as an
oyster pirate, a sailor, a cannery worker, a gold miner, and a journalist. He
was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and
was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large
fortune from his fiction writing. He is best known for his novels The Call of the Wild and White Fang, both set during the Klondike
gold rush, as well as the short stories “To Build a Fire,” “An Odyssey of the
North,” and “Love of Life.” He also
wrote of the South Pacific in such stories as “The Pearls of Parlay” and “The
Heathen.” He was a passionate advocate of unionization, socialism, and the
rights of workers and wrote several powerful works dealing with these topics,
including The Iron Heel, The People of the Abyss, and The War of the Classes.
About David Birney
David Birney has read a number of works for Theatreworks, NPR Playhouse and BBC dramatic recordings, including The Diary of Anne Frank, Star Wars, and Julius Caesar. His audiobook credits include narrating several Orson Scott Card books as well as reading for many AudioFile Earphones Award winning titles. Birney is also an award-winning actor and director. He has starred in many television films, among them Love and Betrayal, Long Journey Home, The Deadly Game, High Midnight, and The Champions. His extensive stage credits include starring roles on Broadway and major roles at the American Shakespeare Festival, New York's Lincoln Center Repertory Theatre, the New York Shakespeare Festival, Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum, Washington, D.C.'s Shakespeare Theatre and numerous regional theatres.
About Robert Forster
Robert Forster has appeared in a wide spectrum of roles in television, theater, and film over the past four decades. He received an Academy Award® nomination for his portrayal of Max Cherry in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, based on Elmore Leonard's Rum Punch; and starred in the television series Karen Sisco, based on characters created by Leonard.
About Arte Johnson
Arte Johnson is best known for his Emmy Award–winning work on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. His other television credits include The Dukes of Hazzard, Fantasy Island, and Love, American Style.
About Stephen Hoye
Stephen Hoye has worked as a professional actor in London and Los Angeles for more than 30 years. Trained at Boston University and The Guildhall in London, he has appeared in several feature films, television series, and on stage in London’s West End.
About Stefan Rudnicki
Stefan Rudnicki is a Grammy-winning audiobook producer and an award-winning narrator who has won several Audie Awards and been named one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices. Stefan’s early singing career included choral and solo concerts at Carnegie Hall, Judson Hall, and Lincoln Center.
About William Windom
Emmy Award winner William Windom is a consummate actor whose long career has won him critical acclaim and audience approval, although he prefers to describe it as “95 percent approval and a few arrows along the way.” His television credits include Star Trek, All in the Family, Highway to Heaven, and My World and Welcome to It, for which he won an Emmy Award as Best Actor a Comedy series. Windom lives in Northern California with his wife Patricia and youngest son, Rebel, and near (perhaps too near!) his three grown children.
About Rex Linn
Rex Linn, a winner of the prestigious Audie Award for best narration in 2014, is an American film and television actor best known for his role as Frank Tripp in the television series CSI: Miami. Besides numerous other television roles, he has had roles in Django Unchained, Trial by Fire, and other major films. He was born and raised in the Texas panhandle and earned a BA in radio, television, and film from Oklahoma State University.
