[COMPLETE] WWI Centenary Prose Collection Vol. II-RuthieG

MaryinArkansas · Post by **MaryinArkansas** » November 19th, 2015, 10:09 pm

This is the link to Section 47, A Selection from "The Worn Doorstep". Time/length is 19:12.

https://librivox.org/uploads/ruthieg/wwi2_theworndoorstep_sherwood_mh_128.kb_.mp3

A brief description:

“The Worn Doorstep” is a novel written in the form of a journal. The writer is an American engaged to a British soldier, who loses his life in the early days of the war. In her grief she seeks refuge by renting a small cottage in a village, hoping to live as they would have lived when married. She writes in her journal each day, as though communicating with her deceased fiancé. Eventually the people of the village, soldiers, refugees, and others give her a new appreciation of life.

Two main characters in the book are the housekeeper Madge and her husband Peter. A former soldier in the South African War, Peter at first refuses to fight in this war. The selections I chose to record concern the changes the war has on Peter, his decision to fight for his country, and the changes it brings to his life and the lives of others.

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » November 20th, 2015, 2:07 am

Thank you, Mary!

Ruth

Post by **MaryAnnSpiegel** » November 23rd, 2015, 10:02 am

And the Worn Doorstep is PL OK.
MaryAnn

MaryinArkansas · Post by **MaryinArkansas** » November 23rd, 2015, 10:19 am

MaryAnnSpiegel wrote:And the Worn Doorstep is PL OK.
MaryAnn

Thank you, Mary Ann. Have a nice, snow free Thanksgiving.

commonsparrow3 · Post by **commonsparrow3** » December 19th, 2015, 10:53 pm

May I claim a section to read this?
"Masks and Faces"-- from The Happy Hospital by Ward Muir.
It's a chapter from a book written by a WWI medical orderly, describing the art of making sculptured prosthetic masks for soldiers who have suffered disfiguring facial wounds.

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » December 20th, 2015, 2:30 am

Thank you, Maria. It will make a most interesting addition. It makes me wonder whether there is anything available about the work of Dr Harold Gillies who pioneered plastic surgery on facial wounds.

Ruth

Post by **MaryAnnSpiegel** » December 22nd, 2015, 7:34 pm

Ruth,

When you get a chance, beginning at p. 149 and running through p. 168, this book includes poems about WWI: https://archive.org/details/anthologymagazi06braigoog

What do you think about me reading a selection of these poems as a single section for the collection?

MaryAnn

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » December 23rd, 2015, 1:22 am

I was thinking of maybe doing a Vol 2 of the WWI Poetry Collection a little later on, MaryAnn. Do you think it would be better to keep these for that one?

Ruth

Post by **MaryAnnSpiegel** » December 23rd, 2015, 6:33 am

That's fine Ruth.

I've had this printed off for a while, and have been on the fence about it. I don't think they are fantastic poems, but it does show the spirit of the day that there was so much poetry published about the war that year.

MaryAnn

commonsparrow3 · Post by **commonsparrow3** » December 28th, 2015, 3:54 pm

Here's "Masks and Faces" from The Happy Hospital (1918) by Ward Muir (1878-1927)
Link to text: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89079715389;view=2up;seq=142

Link to Uploaded File: https://librivox.org/uploads/ruthieg/wwi2_masksandfaces_muir_mk_128kb.mp3
(Length 24:46)

Short Synopsis:
Ward Muir was a Liverpool-born British journalist, novelist, and photographer. During WWI, he volunteered for the Royal Army Military Corps (R.A.M.C.) serving as an orderly at the 3rd London General Hospital and also as editor of the hospital 'Gazette'. He published two books based on his wartime hospital service: 'Observations of an Orderly' (1917) and 'The Happy Hospital' (1918). From the latter book is taken the chapter 'Masks and Faces', which describes the work of the hospital's 'Masks for Facial Disfigurements Department'. This department sculpted prosthetic masks disguising soldier's disfigurements from facial wounds too horrific to be entirely fixed by surgery alone.

RuthieG wrote:It makes me wonder whether there is anything available about the work of Dr Harold Gillies who pioneered plastic surgery on facial wounds.

I looked up your link on Dr. Gillies, and it made for very interesting reading! I suppose where the 'Tin Noses Shop' took over was at the point where plastic surgery had to give up. I found this little item about a woman artist at another mask-making department on our National Public Radio site, and this longer but very informative article at Oxford Journals.

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » December 28th, 2015, 4:19 pm

Thank you, Maria. It is all very interesting, particularly as it was a taboo subject for so long. I had never seen one of the masks before. I have found one of the books referred to in the article:

A surgeon's fight to rebuild men, an autobiography
Fred H. (Fred Houdlett) Albee (1876-1945)
http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b3089978

It was published in 1943, but is fully visible on Hathi Trust - probably copyright wasn't renewed.

Ruth

SonOfTheExiles · Post by **SonOfTheExiles** » December 28th, 2015, 8:22 pm

“Merchantmen-At-Arms: Independent Sailings – How lone merchantmen fought back against the U-Boats before the convoy system was established.”

“Merchantmen-At-Arms: Independent Sailings" (1919), by David W. Bone (1874-1959)
https://ia601408.us.archive.org/22/items/merchantmenatarm00boneuoft/merchantmenatarm00boneuoft.pdf
Duration: 11:43
https://librivox.org/uploads/ruthieg/wwi2_merchantmenatarms_bone_sote_128kb.mp3

Son of the Exiles

SonOfTheExiles · Post by **SonOfTheExiles** » December 29th, 2015, 12:12 am

Is there going to be a Volume 3? I have an item which I've just found, but I doubt my ability to get it done before the collection's imminent closure. (50 items / 6 months)

https://archive.org/stream/notesonantiaircr00armyiala#page/n0/mode/2up

SOTE

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » December 29th, 2015, 2:26 am

Thanks, SotE. Yes, there will almost certainly be a volume 3. I may not open it immediately after this one closes, though.

Re the text link, for future ref. please would you use the permanent Internet Archive URL? In this case https://archive.org/details/merchantmenatarm00boneuoft. The reason is that things can move from server to server on Internet Archive, and the URL for a particular server e.g. https://ia601408.us.archive.org/ may not be correct in years to come.

Ruth

RuthieG · Post by **RuthieG** » December 29th, 2015, 6:44 am

We are getting close to cataloguing this volume now and I am still missing short summaries of the following sections for addition to a PDF to be catalogued with the project. I think this adds greatly to the value of these collections, as far more information can be included than can appear in the project summary alone. Could the readers oblige, please? You know the pieces better than I. For items in other languages, please do write the summary in your own language if you wish. If you'd like to see the kind of thing needed, take a look at the PDF included with Volume I: https://archive.org/download/wwiprose1_1407_librivox/wwiprosesummary.pdf

filp: The War and The Churches: Preface and Chapter III - The Apologies Of The Clergy
Tlaloc: Grodek
SweetPea: The Liberty Girls from 'Mary Louise and the Liberty Girls'
adonis: Mary Postgate
GordieFletcher: Selections from 'War Flying' (Gordie, are you still intending to record this?)
AaronWalsh: The Soul of a Nation

Thank you

Ruth