COMPLETE: Short Nonfiction Collection Vol. 31 - jo

[Sue Anderson]

Short Nonfiction Collection Vol. 031
This project is now complete! All audio files can be found on our catalog page: http://librivox.org/short-nonfiction-collection-vol-031-by-various/

This collection is dedicated to recordings of short nonfiction works in English. Nonfiction includes essays and speeches; letters and diaries; biography and history; film, book and music reviews; descriptions of travel, politics and sports; instructional manuals, even a favorite cookie recipe from a public domain cookbook! Your nonfiction recording can be on any topic. Some suggestions for source material can be found here: http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Short_Nonfiction_Suggestions


Please select and record any short nonfiction piece in the public domain. Try to stick to works that run less than 60 minutes. You are welcome to contribute as many as you wish, and there is no need to "sign-up" before recording...as long as the work is clearly in the public domain, just start recording. Multiple versions are always welcome, so don't worry whether someone else has recorded your selection already; we're happy to hear your version too.

After 15-20 recordings are submitted, we will prooflisten, catalog and make them available to the public.

Basic Recording Guide: http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Newbie_Guide_to_Recording

1. RECORD

• Be sure to set your recording software to: 44100Hz, 16-bit
• At the BEGINNING Say: "[Title of Work], by [Author Name]" "This is a Librivox recording. All Librivox Recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit Librivox.org"
• At the END, say: "End of [Title], by [Author Name]"
• If you wish, you may also say: "Read by...your name."
• Please leave 5 seconds of silence at the end of your recording or 10 seconds if longer than 30 minutes.

2. EDIT and SAVE your file:

• Need noise-cleaning?Listen to your file through headphones. If you can hear distracting background noise, you may want to clean it up a bit. The free beta version 1.3.x of Audacity (Mac/Win) has much improved noise-cleaning. See this LibriVox wiki page for a complete guide. Note: Noisecleaning with other versions of Audacity is not recommended.
  
  
• Save or export your recording to an mp3 file at 128kpbs using the following filename and ID3 tag format:
  
• File Name: (all lower case. Please omit a, the, etc from title): snf031_titleofwork_authorlastname_yourinitials_128kb.mp3
  
• ID3 Tags:
  • • Title/Name: [Title]
    • Artist: [Author Name]
    • Album: LibriVox Nonfiction Collection Vol. 031

3. SUBMIT your recording:

Please upload your finished recording using the LibriVox uploader (when your upload is complete, you will receive a link - please copy to post in this thread):
http://librivox.org/login/uploader

If you have trouble reading the image above, please send a private message to any admin
You'll need to select the MC, which for this project is: knotyouraveragejo.
*If this doesn't work, or you have questions, please check our How To Send Your Recording wiki page.

4. POST the following information in this thread:

• • The link you copied from the uploader to your file
  • Source from which you read (i.e. Gutenberg or other etext url. NOTE: If posting a Gutenberg link please provide the link to the download page, e.g. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/# where # is the PG project number for the book.)
  • Length in minutes.
  • If this is your first Librivox recording, I will also need your name as you would like it to appear on the catalog page and the URL of your homepage if you have one and would like it linked to your name on the catalog page.

Want to see if what you plan to record has been done already?
http://librivox.org/newcatalog/search.php?
Search by keywords in the Catalog Search
http://librivox.org/newcatalog/
But don't let this stop you from recording your own version!

Magic Window:

BC Admin
**Please note that the recordings in this collection will appear in the catalog in alphabetical order by title, although they will be initially entered into the magic window in the order they are submitted.

[Sue Anderson]

Welcome to the 31st volume of the Short Nonfiction Collection. This is a place to share a special interest by recording a short work of public domain nonfiction. If you haven't something already in mind that you'd like to record, there are many bookshelves at Gutenberg.org filled with public domain nonfiction to explore http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Category:Bookshelf. The bookshelves for Countries, Education, Fine Arts, History, Music, Periodicals, and Technology are some places to start.

The Nonfiction Collection also has a Wiki page with recording suggestions you might enjoy:
http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Short_Nonfiction_Suggestions.

[ToddHW]

Sue wrote, in the collection 30 forum (which folks ought to take a look at cuz there are some great ideas mentioned there!):

When the Statue of Liberty re-opened this July 4th, I almost wrote something about that event, taking as my starting point your intriguing reading about the "other" Washington monument! There is a full account of the opening ceremonies for the Statue of Liberty at http://archive.org/details/inaugurationofs00newy -- Inauguration of the Statue of Liberty enlightening the world : by the President of the United States, on Bedlow's Island, New York, Thursday, October 28, 1886 (1887). Proceedings were very similar to those for the Washington monument, fog horns and fireworks drowning out the speakers, lots of speeches and drama.

And somehow, I think you might enjoy this one: http://archive.org/details/statuelibertyen00bartgoog -- The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World, written by the sculptor, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904), for the "benefit of the pedestal fund," in which he talks about his motivatations in designing the statue. Bartholdi begins" One evening, twenty years ago, I had been dining at the home of my most regretted and illustrious friend, M. Laboulaye, and his guests were smoking in the conservatory of his charming retreat, Glavigny, near Versailles... The talk fell upon international relations, upon the sentiments of Italy toward France... " I can imagine the scene dramatized.

Okay Sue, I'm going to record both of these for you (unless you want to do the first one).

Thanks, Todd

[knotyouraveragejo]

All set here, Sue. Have fun!

[Sue Anderson]

Sue wrote, in the collection 30 forum (which folks ought to take a look at cuz there are some great ideas mentioned there!):

When the Statue of Liberty re-opened this July 4th, I almost wrote something about that event, taking as my starting point your intriguing reading about the "other" Washington monument! There is a full account of the opening ceremonies for the Statue of Liberty at http://archive.org/details/inaugurationofs00newy -- Inauguration of the Statue of Liberty enlightening the world : by the President of the United States, on Bedlow's Island, New York, Thursday, October 28, 1886 (1887). Proceedings were very similar to those for the Washington monument, fog horns and fireworks drowning out the speakers, lots of speeches and drama.

And somehow, I think you might enjoy this one: http://archive.org/details/statuelibertyen00bartgoog -- The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World, written by the sculptor, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904), for the "benefit of the pedestal fund," in which he talks about his motivatations in designing the statue. Bartholdi begins" One evening, twenty years ago, I had been dining at the home of my most regretted and illustrious friend, M. Laboulaye, and his guests were smoking in the conservatory of his charming retreat, Glavigny, near Versailles... The talk fell upon international relations, upon the sentiments of Italy toward France... " I can imagine the scene dramatized.

Okay Sue, I'm going to record both of these for you (unless you want to do the first one).

Thanks, Todd

Todd, you know they're yours! And, hey, take a look at the CD Cover for Vol. 30; you're in for a surprise. Designed by the current book coordinator, it features "your" monument---and Jo, our metacoordinator and computer genius, worked overtime last night to get the cover to show up here: http://archive.org/details/nonfiction030_1308_librivox. After the new Librivox system goes into place, it will also show up in the catalog.
Best wishes, Sue

[ToddHW]

Oh that is wonderful!! "Designed by the current book coordinator" would, I guess, be you! Thank you!

Todd

[ArabellaG2013]

Hi Sue:

I'd love to contribute to this project. Charles Waddell Chesnutt's 1903 essay "The Disfranchisment of the Negro" (The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line, and Selected Essays) is still relevant, and timely, given the recent changes in the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Please count me in.

Best,
ArabellaG

[Sue Anderson]

Hi Sue:

I'd love to contribute to this project. Charles Waddell Chesnutt's 1903 essay "The Disfranchisment of the Negro" (The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line, and Selected Essays) is still relevant, and timely, given the recent changes in the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Please count me in.

Best,
ArabellaG

Hi ArabellaG,

Chestnutt's essay will be an excellent contribution to this collection. I see that there is a public domain copy of "The Disfanchisment of the Negro" at Gutenberg here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15041/15041-h/15041-h.htm. All you need to do to participate in the nonfiction collection, is to prepare your recording (less than 60 minutes long) according to the instructions above and send it on up to us in the format snf031_titleofwork_authorlastname_yourinitials_128kb.mp3 to the mailbox of our metacoordinator knotyouraveragejo. When your essay arrives here, I will put it in the magic window, and our proof listener, Hugh, will take a listen.

We look forward to your participation!
Sue

[ArabellaG2013]

Hi Sue:

Great! I downloaded the Gutenberg file last night, in hopes that it would be a good choice for the collection.

Have a wonderful weekend.

ArabellaG

[Sue Anderson]

A man in a suit, commuting to work on a skateboard (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/23/nyregion/skateboards-for-work-and-working-out.html?smid=pl-share), turned my thoughts to the history and many permutations of urban transportation. Horsecars, street railways, subways, cable cars . . . fascinating stuff, and lots to read about. Here are just a very few of the interesting short reads I’ve found.

Charles P. Shaw, Esq.’s purple prose argument in defense of “Cable Railways vs. Horse Railways for Intramural Transit in the City of New York" will have you laughing, I guarantee.

“The Evolution of the Modern Subway,” is just one of many interesting chapters in The Air and Ventilation of Subways (1908).

If you’ve wondered how subways were constructed, Subways and Tunnels of New York (1912) will fascinate you. The chapter, “The Original Hudson Tunnel” has this to say: "A serious blowout occurred in July 1880. The door of the airlocks had become wedged by falling earth and plates, cutting off the escape of the men, twenty of whom were drowned. This accident had an unfavorable effect upon the financial aspect of the undertaking."

Ending on a more positive note, why not take a rollicking ride on the San Francisco cable cars in 1902, just before the great fire of 1906. It’s all there in “Vignettes of City Streets,” from San Francisco and Thereabout (1902). “The bell rings, the gripman throws back his lever which clutches the cable. Amid the rumble of the start you can hear the grip work. The gripman hammers away at his foot gong, and off we roll!”

[Sue Anderson]

The Nonfiction Collection now has it's own LibriVox Wiki page: http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Short_Nonfiction_Suggestions. You'll find lots of reading suggestions there. Many thanks to our metacoordinator Jo (knotyouraveragejo) for setting this up!

[Sue Anderson]

Novelist Kristopher Jansma has an amusing muse on his first name: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/21/a-star-is-born/?smid=pl-share. His mother admits she named him Kris after ogling Kris Kristofferson in the movie A Star is Born. Which brings to mind that my mother named me after Scarlett O’Hara’s whiny younger sister in Gone with the Wind. . .

The Romance of Names (1922) by Ernest Weekley is fun and informative on such topics as “Names Desirable or Undesirable,” “Occupative Names,” and “Mythical Etymologies.” Weekley was formerly the head of the modern language department at the University College, Nottingham, so these are knowledgeable chapters: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24374

If you’ve ever stopped to read the names on old tombstones in a cemetery, you’ll enjoy W.D. Prime’s essay “Epitahs and Names,” in his collection of letters Along New England Roads (1892). http://archive.org/details/alongnewenglandr00prim . What about Smilinda as a name for a girl? Many other letters in this volume would make nice short reads.

I’m wondering if any Librivoxers besides myself were named after their parents’ favorite characters in books?

[Sue Anderson]

http://dev.librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf031_uphillinfog_prime_sa_128kb.mp3
5:24

Uphill in Fog
from Along New England Roads, by William Cowper Prime (1825-1905)
Source: http://archive.org/details/alongnewenglandr00prim

[HughGil]

Hi Sue,

Did you intentionally stop before the end of the chapter? There were two more paragraphs to go before the end of the chapter.
If you did intend to stop short, than PL is okay.

Hugh

[Sue Anderson]

Hi Hugh, thanks for PLing; yes, I intended to stop . . .