The Black Mass 22: Proof Positive by Graham Greene
Join us on Friday at a little after 12 noon or 4pm Pacific time, 8pm or midnight in the UK , for another episode in the landmark radio drama series The Black Mass, created by the late Erik Bauersfeld and his colleagues at the Pacifica radio station KPFA in Berkeley, California, over fifty years ago. In 30 chilling tales of mystery, imagination and the human mind, The Black Mass brings you some of literature’s most haunting stories, by masters of the craft — many of whom are best-known in other fields. Many thanks to John Whiting, co-producer of many of these recordings, and Erik Bauersfeld himself, for permission to broadcast these classic recordings.
Note that the programme will not begin until the track playing at the top of the hour has finished, so the actual start time of the episode may be a few minutes after the hour.
Graham Greene
Today: “Proof Positive” by Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene OM CH (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquired a reputation early in his lifetime as a major writer, both of serious Catholic novels, and of thrillers (or “entertainments” as he termed them). He was shortlisted, in 1966 and 1967, for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Through 67 years of writing, which included over 25 novels, he explored the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world. He was awarded the 1968 Shakespeare Prize and the 1981 Jerusalem Prize.
“Proof Positive” is a short story by Graham Greene written in 1930 and first published in 1931 as the winner of the first prize (10 Guineas) in a newspaper ghost story competition. The story was collected in Greene’s 1947 collection Nineteen Stories. It was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” (1845) and was dramatized for The Black Mass radio series broadcast on KPFA on June 3, 1964.
The Black Mass artwork was created by Terry Lightfoot.
