This is Buxom Blondes with Ray Guns, a show highlighting science fiction by female authors on KCSB-FM Santa Barbara 91.9, and I'm Hannah Wolfe. This week I read two stories by Dorothy de Courcy with her husband John de Courcy, "Don’t Mention it!" and "Foundling on Venus." I played contemporaneous music from 1946 when "Don’t Mention it!" was published. "Don’t Mention it!" was actually the first book published by the duo in 1946 and "Foundling on Venus" was the last in 1954. They published 21 short stories in eight years. Literally I could find nothing about the couple other than their publishing record, and that they resided in Vista California and Seattle Washington. We’ve been listening to Etude in C and Etude in A composed by Bohuslav Martinů in 1946 and performed by Rudolf Firkušný.
The first story read was "Don’t Mention it!" by Dorothy de Courcy and John de Courcy, which was first published in Amazing Stories volume 20 number 2 in May of 1946. Due to time constraints the story was shortened. In the background was a mix of Charles Ives: String Quartet No.2 part 3. "The Call Of The Mountains" performed by the Emerson String Quartet and John Cage’s Three Dances for Two Prepared Pianos: III. performed by Edmund Niemann and Nurit Tilles. As you can probably guess the percussive portion was composed by Cage, and the strings portion was composed by Ives. Both of these works were first premiered in 1946, though Ives’ work was originally written in 1913-15. Ives did not gain notoriety until the 30s, after he stopped composing, winning the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1947. During the break between stories we listened to Tuning Up composed by Edgard Varèse.
Next, I read "Foundling on Venus" by Dorothy de Courcy and John de Courcy, which was first published in Fantastic Universe, March 1954. Due to time constraints the story has been shortened. In the background you heard Milton Babbitt’s Three Compositions performed by Robert Taub, Igor Stravinsky’s Concerto In D For String Orchestra - 1. Vivace performed by Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Herbert von Karajan, Ernest Krenek’s Piano Concerto No.3 op.107 performed by pianist Mikhail Korzhev and the English Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kenneth Woods. Lastly we listened to Luciano Berio’s Divertimento per violino, viola e violoncello, performed by Francesco D'Orazio, Alessandro Tampieri, and Mauro Valli.