Happy New Year and welcome to the first annual edition of Public Domain Theatre in which I kick off the year with a reading of an important work of American literature that entered the public domain on January 1st of the current year.

And looking at the publications of 1930, wondering what Stone Cold Classic novella, and it's a novella because I'm not going to read

for dozens of hours at a time,

it might be that there was really only one choice,

in part because 1930 was actually a little bit of a thin year

in terms of enduring literature,

and in part because there was no way

I was going to do 30 different accents

for a Faulkner novel. So I got a fun one for

you today to kick off this new tradition. The first Nancy Drew Mystery, the secret of the old

clock, which I have never read, at least and not until I press record on this here recording.

And you will notice that I'd never read it

because about two hours and 15 minutes in,

you will encounter me,

encountering for the first time

a wildly, wildly racist depiction

of the book's only black character.

He makes a mercifully brief appearance.

But I read him as best as I was able to, without giving in to the insane characterization.

So word of warning, that is in chapter 17.

But I did so, I just continued on.

Because part of the interest in reading old books is the way that it gives you a window into

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