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The Reading Hour

The Reading Hour

Written by: Andrew Osborn
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About this listen

On The Reading Hour, a weekly radio program and podcast, I read aloud from novels, stories, essays, and poems in the public domain—works of literary accomplishment published mostly before 1930. I begin each episode with part of a long work read serially over a number of weeks. During the final twenty-minute segment, one or more shorter works are shared. Welcome!

Andrew Langworthy Osborn 2025 Art
Episodes
  • H. D. Thoreau, The Maine Woods, "Chesuncook," §6; Sarah Orne Jewett, A Country Doctor, ch. 14

    H. D. Thoreau, The Maine Woods, "Chesuncook," §6; Sarah Orne Jewett, A Country Doctor, ch. 14
    May 6 2026

    In this episode, Thoreau tries to determine from several Native Americans in a Maine camp what some of the Abenaki place names mean; then, in ch. 14 of A Country Doctor, we move to Dunport and make the acquaintance of Nan's aunt, Miss Anna Prince.

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    1 hr
  • H. D. Thoreau, The Maine Woods, "Chesuncook," §5; Sarah Orne Jewett, A Country Doctor, ch. 13

    H. D. Thoreau, The Maine Woods, "Chesuncook," §5; Sarah Orne Jewett, A Country Doctor, ch. 13
    Apr 29 2026

    Episode 25's substantial reading from Thoreau's "Chesuncook" includes some of the most moving prose of the essay as Thoreau moralizes about hunting and poetry; he also expresses Transcendentalist enthusiasm for "the living spirit of the [pine] tree." The episode concludes with Jewett's thirteenth chapter of A Country Doctor, "A Straight Course."

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    59 mins
  • H. D. Thoreau, The Maine Woods, "Chesuncook," §4; Sarah Orne Jewett, A Country Doctor, ch. 12

    H. D. Thoreau, The Maine Woods, "Chesuncook," §4; Sarah Orne Jewett, A Country Doctor, ch. 12
    Apr 22 2026

    Episode 24 (2.12) includes only a short passage from Thoreau's second essay in The Maine Woods, "Chesuncook," to leave time for the whole of Jewett's long chapter 12.
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    59 mins
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