Your Humble Blogger came across the following lines in a work of speculative fiction written for juveniles:
[T]he room was of dazzling brilliance and beauty, for it was lined throughout with an exquisite metal that resembled translucent frosted silver. ... [F]rom the metal itself was radiated the soft light which flooded the room. “That’s radium.... We ... spend all our time digging radium from the mines under this mountain, and we use it to decorate our homes and make them pretty and cosy. It is a medicine, too, and no one can ever be sick who lives near radium.”
So, Gentle Readers, any guesses? I can tell you (a) you have heard of the author, (2) that bit was not, so far as I can tell, written tongue-in-cheek, or as a joke, and (iii) it was written in the English language by an American.
So. Points for the book title, for the author, for the year and, y’know, for knowing an amusing story about Beethoven.
Redintegro Iraq,
-Vardibidian.
It sounds like it’s from one of the Oz books by Lyman Frank Baum. I don’t have them here at work (surprise, surprise) but I’d guess it’s from either Patchwork Girl (1913) or Tik-Tok (1914).
A quick search on Gutenberg shows that the quote is indeed from chapter 23 of The Patchwork Girl of Oz. Hooray for public-domain archives!
[Note: Your Humble Blogger hid the right answer above; highlight it to read it, or keep guessing. Thank you,-V.]