COMPLETE: Short Nonfiction Collection, Vol. 085 - jo

Solo or group recordings that are finished and fully available for listeners
Sue Anderson
Posts: 5190
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Location: Midwest, USA

Post by Sue Anderson »

Short Nonfiction Collection, Vol. 085

This project is now complete.  All audio files can be found on our catalog page here:

https://librivox.org/short-nonfiction-collection-vol-085-by-various/


This is an ongoing collection of short nonfiction works in English, chosen by the readers, which are in the Public Domain (generally meaning that they were published prior to 1926). 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 recipe from a Public Domain cookbook! Your recording can be on any topic. Some suggestions for source material can be found here.

For clarification of what "in the Public Domain" means read this. Try to stay with works that run less than 60 minutes [74 minutes is the absolute max]. You may read a maximum of 2 selections per volume. There is no need to sign-up before recording, as long as the work is clearly in the Public Domain. But please note: Wikisource CAN NOT be used as a source. See "Our policy on text sources."

After 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, 32-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 no more than 1 second of silence at the beginning of your recording. Add about 5 seconds of silence at the end of your recording.
2. EDIT and SAVE your file:
  • Need noise-cleaning? See this LibriVox wiki page for a complete guide.
  • Save or export your recording to an mp3 file at 128kbs. The uploader will add the mp.3 to the end of your file name when it uploads. Please use the format shown. Your file name should have this format before you upload it:

    snf085_titleofwork_authorlastname_yourinitials_128kb
  • After it is uploaded, it should have this format:
    https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf085_titleofwork_authorlastname_yourinitials_128kb.mp3
  • FILE NAMES HAVE RULES!
    Just a word or two to identify the title. Omit "a," "the," etc. Author's LAST NAME only. Everything lower case, including author's last name & your initials!
3. UPLOAD your recording:
  • Upload your finished recording using the LibriVox uploader: http://librivox.org/login/uploader. When your upload is complete, you will receive a link - copy and post it to the current nonfiction thread. If you don't post that you've uploaded your recording, the nonfiction book coordinator won't know that you did it!
    Image
  • If you have trouble reading the image above, please send a private message to any admin.
  • To upload, you'll need to select the MC, which for the Short Nonfiction Collection 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:
  • Title of the work.
  • Author of the work.
  • The link to your file you copied from the uploader.
  • A URL link to the source from which you read (etext URL). If posting from Gutenberg, please provide the link to the download page, e.g. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/# (where # is the Gutenberg project number for the book). Note: WikiSource is not accepted as a source for a recording.
  • Length in minutes.
  • If this is your first Librivox recording, we will also need your name as you would like it to appear in the LibriVox catalog, and, if you have a web page and want it linked to your name in the catalog, the URL of the web page.
5. PROOF LISTENING AND DEADLINE FOR EDITS on recordings you have submitted:
  • The SNF Collection has SPECIAL STANDARDS for PLing, which reflect our concern for accuracy in reading nonfiction material.
  • We proof listen for the following:
    • Has the recording passed "Checker?" This LibriVox app looks for common problems associated with LibriVox recordings. https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Checker
    • Does the recording have errors that change the meaning of the text? This includes words accidentally added, omitted, mispronounced, or misread!
    • Does the recording have the LibriVox into? Are there any long silences or pauses, stumbles or repeats that need to be edited out? Are there 5 seconds of silence at the end of the recording?
  • We ask that you complete any editing requested by the Dedicated Proof Listener within two weeks of the request, or, if you need more time, that you post in this thread to request an extension. There’s no shame in this; we’re all volunteers and things happen. Extensions are, however, at the discretion of the Book Coordinator. To be fair to the other readers, sections which cannot be edited in a timely manner will be deleted from the current volume of the Nonfiction Collection, but they can always be included in a future volume when the edits are complete.

Magic Window:



BC Admin
Last edited by Sue Anderson on September 15th, 2021, 7:12 am, edited 3 times in total.
Sue Anderson
Posts: 5190
Joined: July 24th, 2008, 11:48 am
Location: Midwest, USA

Post by Sue Anderson »

Welcome to Volume 085 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 to explore http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/. The bookshelves for Countries, Education, Fine Arts, History, Music, Periodicals, and Technology are some places to start.

Hathi Trust and Archive.org are good resources:

https://archive.org/
https://www.hathitrust.org/

The Online Books Page has over 2 million PD listings! It was suggested by LibriVoxer Soupy.
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/lists.html

The Biodiversity Heritage Library is a great source for natural history. It was suggested by LibriVoxer MillionMoments. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/

The Linda Hall Science, Engineering, and Technology Library has some unique items in its Digital Collection https://www.lindahall.org/collections/

Please note: Wikisource CAN NOT be used as a source. See "Our policy on text sources." If you are interested in reading a text you have found on Wikisource, I will be happy to help you locate an alternative reading source. Just post me a query on the thread.

If you have any doubts about the public domain status of anything you want to read for the collection, please feel free to post the source along with your query in the thread, and I will be glad to help you! Thanks!

Please note: There is a limit of two selections per reader for this volume of Short Nonfiction.

Please check the "vitals" of your recording with Checker https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/Checker before sending it up to the Nonfiction Collection! :) Checker is an easy to use "open source tool that looks for common problems with recordings for LibriVox... Checker saves time by checking contributions for common issues before files are uploaded." Thanks! :) :)

Sue (Book Coordinator, Short Nonfiction Collection)
Sue Anderson
Posts: 5190
Joined: July 24th, 2008, 11:48 am
Location: Midwest, USA

Post by Sue Anderson »

Grothmann wrote: July 27th, 2021, 10:55 pm Hi Sue:

The Borgias
By Frederick Robert Buckley
From Adventure, June 30, 1925
Read by Dale Grothmann
Time 4:36

Audio at:
https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf085_borgias_buckley_dg_128kb.mp3

Text at:
https://archive.org/details/AdventureV053N0319250630/page/n91/mode/2up

Frederick Buckley is an interesting guy -- But I don't see any of his work in Librivox...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Robert_Buckley

Anyway, Thank you for your time in putting these collections together,
Dale
Hi Dale, Thanks for getting vol. 085 to a great start with this selection from Frederick Robert Buckley's' oeuvre! :D Buckley is a fantastic writer to add to the Librivox catalog!

"In 1922 Buckley won the O' Henry Prize for his short story Gold-Mounted Guns published in Red Book Magazine, March 1922. His story Habit, honorably mentioned in the O'Henry Memorial Volume for 1923 and published in the April 30, 1923 issue of Adventure was adapted for the July 18, 1948 episode of the CBS radio program Escape." Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Robert_Buckley

There are just a couple of small slips that need your attention. At 0.43.5 and 2:21 the text says Alexander VI, and you say Alexander 4 [IV]. Also, in the first sentence of Buckley's essay, where he writes: "Of all the names in the vast rogues' gallery of history, none shines with such sinister effulgence as that of Borgia," at 0.32.0 you left out the word "rogues."
Grothmann
Posts: 1506
Joined: March 20th, 2017, 2:44 pm

Post by Grothmann »

Good Morning Sue:

I have made the corrections and reloaded. Thank you for your listening. (Reading Roman numerals has never been one of my strong suits, and doing so while announcing...)

anyway, the new file name is exactly the same as the old file name --

https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf085_borgias_buckley_dg_128kb.mp3

and everything else is the same.

I didn't want to rush you into a new volume, I just wanted to provide you with an alternative on 84.

Thanks
Dale
Sue Anderson
Posts: 5190
Joined: July 24th, 2008, 11:48 am
Location: Midwest, USA

Post by Sue Anderson »

Hi Dale, Thanks for the edits; all is PL OK now! :thumbs:

I get stumped by Roman Numerals too. At least now-a-days, Google will translate them into regular dates, which is helpful.
MaryinArkansas
Posts: 1402
Joined: October 4th, 2008, 8:06 pm
Location: Arkansas

Post by MaryinArkansas »

Following is the link to a humorous article “Literature” by Irvin S. Cobb from the August 31, 1912 issue of “The Saturday Evening Post”. Recording time is 24:01. Word count is approximately 4680 ("Traveling Saleswomen" is not part of this item)

https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf085_literature_cobb_mh_128kb.mp3

Online link to text:
Aug 31, 1912 Saturday Evening Post Page 276-277
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112033785723&view=1up&seq=276&q1=Literature

And yes, I had to look up “letting the cat die.”
“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.”
―Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard.

Mary :)📚
Sue Anderson
Posts: 5190
Joined: July 24th, 2008, 11:48 am
Location: Midwest, USA

Post by Sue Anderson »

MaryinArkansas wrote: August 1st, 2021, 9:28 am Following is the link to a humorous article “Literature” by Irvin S. Cobb from the August 31, 1912 issue of “The Saturday Evening Post”. Recording time is 24:01. Word count is approximately 4680 ("Traveling Saleswomen" is not part of this item)

https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf085_literature_cobb_mh_128kb.mp3

Online link to text:
Aug 31, 1912 Saturday Evening Post Page 276-277
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112033785723&view=1up&seq=276&q1=Literature

And yes, I had to look up “letting the cat die.”
Hi Mary, Thanks for this humorous look at the "all sides of literature!" :D When Irving writes "There are some books that are meant to be read and others that are meant to be recommended to others to read," I couldn't help but remember my freshman college year and the long reading lists distributed for the "Western Civ" survey...

"Letting the cat die" ... well, you pique'd my curiosity there; and I had to look the phrase up also. A bit rough, maybe, but, shall we say, a swashbuckling conjuring of the rusty sound of the porch swing slowing to a stop. "Oh gosh! those Sunday afternoons in the summertime, when the dusty street drowsed in the heat and the only sounds that came in at the window were the remarks of the katydid...and the creak-creak-cr-e-e-ak of warped hickory as my little sister sat in a wooden swing letting the cat die."
MaryinArkansas
Posts: 1402
Joined: October 4th, 2008, 8:06 pm
Location: Arkansas

Post by MaryinArkansas »

Sue Anderson wrote: August 1st, 2021, 10:59 am
MaryinArkansas wrote: August 1st, 2021, 9:28 am Following is the link to a humorous article “Literature” by Irvin S. Cobb from the August 31, 1912 issue of “The Saturday Evening Post”. Recording time is 24:01. Word count is approximately 4680 ("Traveling Saleswomen" is not part of this item)

https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf085_literature_cobb_mh_128kb.mp3

Online link to text:
Aug 31, 1912 Saturday Evening Post Page 276-277
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112033785723&view=1up&seq=276&q1=Literature

And yes, I had to look up “letting the cat die.”
Hi Mary, Thanks for this humorous look at the "all sides of literature!" :D When Irving writes "There are some books that are meant to be read and others that are meant to be recommended to others to read," I couldn't help but remember my freshman college year and the long reading lists distributed for the "Western Civ" survey...

"Letting the cat die" ... well, you pique'd my curiosity there; and I had to look the phrase up also. A bit rough, maybe, but, shall we say, a swashbuckling conjuring of the rusty sound of the porch swing slowing to a stop. "Oh gosh! those Sunday afternoons in the summertime, when the dusty street drowsed in the heat and the only sounds that came in at the window were the remarks of the katydid...and the creak-creak-cr-e-e-ak of warped hickory as my little sister sat in a wooden swing letting the cat die."
When I was a kid my cousins and I swung on the porch swing at our grandparents and made it creak. I don’t remember any expressions about letting the cat die. Just, “You kids quit swinging so hard. You’re gonna break it.”


I vaguely remember my folks mentioning Mr. Cobb a few times and laughing about some of the things he wrote. I didn’t read any of his stuff until I was an adult. When my mom mentioned “The Duke of Paducah” I just assumed it was some old relative as she was born in Kentucky and had a few relatives in Paducah.
“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.”
―Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard.

Mary :)📚
lurcherlover
Posts: 1206
Joined: November 10th, 2016, 3:54 am
Location: LONDON UK

Post by lurcherlover »

https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf085_somematerialsandapossibility_chesterton_pt_128kb.mp3

Some Materials and a Possibility by Cecil Chesterton (1879-1918)

Duration: 20:39

Source: https://gutenberg.org/files/65915/65915-h/65915-h.htm#SOME_MATERIALS_AND_A

Interesting political essay and criticism of the British Labour Party and left wing politics.

Peter
Sue Anderson
Posts: 5190
Joined: July 24th, 2008, 11:48 am
Location: Midwest, USA

Post by Sue Anderson »

lurcherlover wrote: August 2nd, 2021, 1:51 am https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf085_somematerialsandapossibility_chesterton_pt_128kb.mp3

Some Materials and a Possibility by Cecil Chesterton (1879-1918)

Duration: 20:39

Source: https://gutenberg.org/files/65915/65915-h/65915-h.htm#SOME_MATERIALS_AND_A

Interesting political essay and criticism of the British Labour Party and left wing politics.

Peter
Hi Peter, Thanks for your contribution to vol. 085! :D

Cecil Chesterton's polemic has a "feel" about it that was comprehensible to me, even though, as a U.S. citizen, I am not conversant with the intricacies of British political history. Listening to your recording, what came to mind was a mental vision of a truck I was driving behind yesterday. The truck was what we call a "workman's van" [ladders strapped on the roof] and it sported a huge decal on the back reading "Liberty or Death: Defend the 2nd Amendment."

Per Wikipedia, Cecil Chesterton (1879-1918) was a theorist of the ideas of "distributism." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Chesterton. Whatever notions of reform politicians may have, Chesterton points out that they need to stop and really listen to the concerns of those they seek to win over. "If in a word we go on insulting and bewildering those whom we wish to convert ... someday we shall be faced in this country by the appearance of a man who understands the working classes and can make them follow..." (Chesterton)

PL OK! :thumbs:
Sue Anderson
Posts: 5190
Joined: July 24th, 2008, 11:48 am
Location: Midwest, USA

Post by Sue Anderson »

John Burroughs' Memories of His Boyhood, Part 1
by John Burroughs (1837-1921) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Burroughs

https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf085_boyhood_burroughs_sa_128kb.mp3

from Harper's Magazine, January 1922
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112100652780&view=1up&seq=151&skin=2021

Timing: 73:16

This essay from the January 1922 issue of Harper's Magazine is the first of three that Harper's devoted to nature writer John Burroughs' autobiography, composed in late life at the urging of his son. Burroughs lived from 1837-1921. Burroughs grew up on a dairy farm in the Catskill region of New York state. The farm was a two-days journey by oxcart from the Hudson River, where steamboats landing at the town of Catskill linked to urban markets. At this distance, selling milk was out of the question, and butter was the product that provided a living for the family. Burroughs writes lively sketches about the sugar bush that supplied the family with maple sugar, about the 100 tons of meadow hay that the men cut by hand each summer to fodder the cows in winter, and about the one-room school house which he attended, along with Jay Gould (later in life a famous financier). I enjoyed this reading a lot, and I intend to continue with the other two sections of Burroughs' autobiography.

:help: I'm hoping to entice somebody to proof listen this selection for me, so it can be included in snf085. Since I'm the dedicated proof listener for the SNF, I can't very well proof listen my own work. The recording just squeaks in under the SNF limit of 74 minutes, but I, at least, was never bored by Burroughs' story telling...

Sue
MaryinArkansas
Posts: 1402
Joined: October 4th, 2008, 8:06 pm
Location: Arkansas

Post by MaryinArkansas »

Sue Anderson wrote: August 2nd, 2021, 5:05 pm

:help: I'm hoping to entice somebody to proof listen this selection for me, so it can be included in snf085. Since I'm the dedicated proof listener for the SNF, I can't very well proof listen my own work. The recording just squeaks in under the SNF limit of 74 minutes, but I, at least, was never bored by Burroughs' story telling...

Sue
I can listen to it, but probably won't be able to until the weekend or the beginning of next week.
“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.”
―Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard.

Mary :)📚
Sue Anderson
Posts: 5190
Joined: July 24th, 2008, 11:48 am
Location: Midwest, USA

Post by Sue Anderson »

MaryinArkansas wrote: August 2nd, 2021, 8:19 pm
Sue Anderson wrote: August 2nd, 2021, 5:05 pm

:help: I'm hoping to entice somebody to proof listen this selection for me, so it can be included in snf085. Since I'm the dedicated proof listener for the SNF, I can't very well proof listen my own work. The recording just squeaks in under the SNF limit of 74 minutes, but I, at least, was never bored by Burroughs' story telling...

Sue
I can listen to it, but probably won't be able to until the weekend or the beginning of next week.
Thanks, Mary! :D There's no hurry!
lurcherlover
Posts: 1206
Joined: November 10th, 2016, 3:54 am
Location: LONDON UK

Post by lurcherlover »

Sue Anderson
Posts: 5190
Joined: July 24th, 2008, 11:48 am
Location: Midwest, USA

Post by Sue Anderson »

lurcherlover wrote: August 6th, 2021, 3:28 am https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/snf085_preface_conrad_pt_128kb.mp3

A Familiar Preface by Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)

Duration: 22:25

Source: https://gutenberg.org/files/38280/38280-h/38280-h.htm#page_081

Peter
Hi Peter, Thanks for your contribution! Your reading is PL OK! :D

Conrad's preface to his autobiography is certainly complex! In a few dense paragraphs, he speaks to the art of novel writing, cautions authors to maintain their personal integrity, offers a rebuttal to critics of his style, and offers up some nuggets of wisdom for the well-lived life. Well-worth reading!

"No artist can be reproached for shrinking from a risk which only fools run to meet and only genius dare confront with impunity. In a task which mainly consists in laying one's soul more or less bare to the world, a regard for decency, even at the cost of success, is but the regard for one's own dignity which is inseparably united with the dignity of one's work." (Joseph Conrad).
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