COMPLETE Life and Adventures of Jack Engle by Walt Whitman - tg

Solo or group recordings that are finished and fully available for listeners
Margaret
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Post by Margaret »

Life and Adventures of Jack Engle: An AutoBiography by Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892).

This project is now complete! All audio files can be found on our catalog page: https://librivox.org/life-and-adventures-of-jack-engle-by-walt-whitman/
This story ran as a serial in 1852 in the New York Sunday Dispatch, and for more than 160 years was buried in obscurity, unknown to the world as novel written by Walt Whitman. Zachary Turpin, a graduate student specializing in Whitman's works, had seen in his notes a sketch of a novel including the characters Covert, Wigglesworth, Smytthe and Jack Engle, but no work including these characters had ever been found. After poring over endless pages of newspapers of the era however, Turpin found this advertisement for an upcoming serial:

“A RICH REVELATION. --This week's SUNDAY DISPATCH will contain the LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF JACK ENGLE, an auto-biography, in which will be handled the Philosophy, Philanthropy, Pauperism, Law, Crime, Love, Matrimony, Morals, &c., which are characteristic of this great City at the present time, including the Manners and Morals of Boarding Houses, some scenes from Church History, Operations in Wall-st., with graphic Sketches of Men and Women as they appear to the public, and as they appear in other scenes not public. Read it and you will find some familiar cases and characters, with explanations necessary to properly understand what it is all about.”

And on finding those lines, Turpin unearthed the treasure.

The story is told in the first person by Jack Engle and has the feel of a Dickens tale set in New York City, with its rags to riches story and lively and engaging characters. ( )
  • Text source (only read from this text!): http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030362/1852-03-14/ed-1/seq-1/
    http://ir.uiowa.edu/wwqr/vol34/iss3/ (OK to PL from or verify text in above link)
  • Type of proof-listening required (Note: please read the PL FAQ): standard



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    BC Admin
  • The reader will record the following at the beginning and end of each file:
    No more than 0.5 to 1 second of silence at the beginning of the recording!
    START of recording (Intro):
    • "Chapter [number] of Life and Adventures of Jack Engle: An AutoBiography. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit: librivox DOT org"
    • If you wish, say:
      "Recording by [your name], [city, your blog, podcast, web address]"
    • Say:
      "Life and Adventures of Jack Engle: An AutoBiography, by Walt Whitman. [Chapter]"


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    • "Chapter [number] of Life and Adventures of Jack Engle: An AutoBiography by Walt Whitman. This LibriVox recording is in the Public Domain."
    • If you wish, say:
      "Recording by [your name], [city, your blog, podcast, web address]"
    • Only if applicable, say:
      "[Chapter title]"
    END of recording:
    • At the end of the section, say:
      "End of [Chapter]"
    • If you wish, say:
      "Recording by [your name], [city, your blog, podcast, web address]"
    • At the end of the book, say (in addition):
      "End of Life and Adventures of Jack Engle: An AutoBiography, by Walt Whitman. "

    There should be 5 seconds silence at the end of the recording, or 10 seconds for files longer than 30 minutes.
  • Example filename jackengle_##_whitman_128kb.mp3 (all lower-case) where ## is the section number (e.g. jackengle_01_whitman_128kb.mp3)


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Last edited by Margaret on May 23rd, 2018, 1:14 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Once a country is habituated to liars, it takes generations to bring the truth back.
~ Gore Vidal ~
TriciaG
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Post by TriciaG »

FYI, we're trying to figure out the copyright status of this. Yes, it's Whitman's work, but where did this website get the text? Did they copy it without changes from scans of the original newspaper articles?

If it's a straight transcription from the original, it should be OK to use. If it was transcribed from some other source, it may not be.

I'm going to send an email to the U of Iowa to see if they can verify the original source.
Serial novel: The Wandering Jew
Medieval England meets Civil War Americans: Centuries Apart
Humor: My Lady Nicotine
Margaret
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Joined: January 1st, 2007, 10:28 pm
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Post by Margaret »

Thank you Tricia. i think it is a straight transcription of the original because they include all of the typos and spelling errors followed by (sic). I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
Once a country is habituated to liars, it takes generations to bring the truth back.
~ Gore Vidal ~
TriciaG
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 60587
Joined: June 15th, 2008, 10:30 pm
Location: Toronto, ON (but Minnesotan to age 32)

Post by TriciaG »

Bad news. The person who submitted/published it put copyright on it:

http://ir.uiowa.edu/wwqr/vol34/iss3/2/
Introduction to Walt Whitman's "Life and Adventures of Jack Engle"

Zachary Turpin, University of Houston
Peer Reviewed

Rights
Copyright © 2017 Zachary Turpin

DOI
10.13008/0737-0679.2247

Recommended Citation
Turpin, Zachary. "Introduction to Walt Whitman's "Life and Adventures of Jack Engle"." Walt Whitman Quarterly Review 34 (2017), 225-261. https://doi.org/10.13008/0737-0679.2247
Good news is that knotyouraveragejo found this:
knotyouraveragejo wrote:It looks like the New York Sunday Dispatch issues where this was originally published are available as pdfs online. Pretty hard to read from, but not impossible for purposes of checking against the Iowa Research online version. Here's the first installment from March 14, 1852.

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030362/1852-03-14/ed-1/seq-1.pdf

You can advance to the next issue, and so on, from this page
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030362/1852-03-14/ed-1/seq-1/
In this case, since they confirmed we couldn't use the U of IA edition, you'd need to read from the newspaper scan. I found it readable when I downloaded it and zoomed in to 200%.

What do you think?
Serial novel: The Wandering Jew
Medieval England meets Civil War Americans: Centuries Apart
Humor: My Lady Nicotine
Margaret
Posts: 1070
Joined: January 1st, 2007, 10:28 pm
Location: Orlando, Florida
Contact:

Post by Margaret »

Thanks to Jo for finding the original! I can read that just fine so I'd like to proceed.
Once a country is habituated to liars, it takes generations to bring the truth back.
~ Gore Vidal ~
TriciaG
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 60587
Joined: June 15th, 2008, 10:30 pm
Location: Toronto, ON (but Minnesotan to age 32)

Post by TriciaG »

Okay!

A few minutes ago, one of the admins countered the copyright claim on the easier-to-read version. :roll: But if you are able to read the scan, let's just do that. If you run into difficulties with it (illegibility), feel free to go back to the easier-to-read one to get the correct words. :)

Be back in a bit with the MW...
Serial novel: The Wandering Jew
Medieval England meets Civil War Americans: Centuries Apart
Humor: My Lady Nicotine
TriciaG
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 60587
Joined: June 15th, 2008, 10:30 pm
Location: Toronto, ON (but Minnesotan to age 32)

Post by TriciaG »

OK, you're all set.

I changed the file name to simply "jackengle". :)

EDIT: You know what? I think I want to DPL this as well. 8-)
Serial novel: The Wandering Jew
Medieval England meets Civil War Americans: Centuries Apart
Humor: My Lady Nicotine
Margaret
Posts: 1070
Joined: January 1st, 2007, 10:28 pm
Location: Orlando, Florida
Contact:

Post by Margaret »

Oh thank you Tricia!
Once a country is habituated to liars, it takes generations to bring the truth back.
~ Gore Vidal ~
Margaret
Posts: 1070
Joined: January 1st, 2007, 10:28 pm
Location: Orlando, Florida
Contact:

Post by Margaret »

Once a country is habituated to liars, it takes generations to bring the truth back.
~ Gore Vidal ~
TriciaG
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 60587
Joined: June 15th, 2008, 10:30 pm
Location: Toronto, ON (but Minnesotan to age 32)

Post by TriciaG »

PL OK!

I'm all ooey-gooey over this already. LOL!

Moving to Going Solo.
Serial novel: The Wandering Jew
Medieval England meets Civil War Americans: Centuries Apart
Humor: My Lady Nicotine
Margaret
Posts: 1070
Joined: January 1st, 2007, 10:28 pm
Location: Orlando, Florida
Contact:

Post by Margaret »

https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/jackengle_02_whitman_128kb.mp3
14:55

I'm really digging this too - it makes me wonder why Whitman didn't do more in the way of prose. Kind of Dickensian, don't you think?
Once a country is habituated to liars, it takes generations to bring the truth back.
~ Gore Vidal ~
TriciaG
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 60587
Joined: June 15th, 2008, 10:30 pm
Location: Toronto, ON (but Minnesotan to age 32)

Post by TriciaG »

Sounds like a good way to describe it. :)

13:44 - "and chid Nathaniel severely" - I hear "Nathanlee"

FYI, you used the full intro on this one; you are allowed to use the shortened one, if you prefer:
"Chapter [number] of Life and Adventures of Jack Engle: An AutoBiography by Walt Whitman. This LibriVox recording is in the Public Domain."
If you wish, say:
"Recording by [your name], [city, your blog, podcast, web address]"
Only if applicable, say:
"[Chapter title]"
Serial novel: The Wandering Jew
Medieval England meets Civil War Americans: Centuries Apart
Humor: My Lady Nicotine
Margaret
Posts: 1070
Joined: January 1st, 2007, 10:28 pm
Location: Orlando, Florida
Contact:

Post by Margaret »

I fixed and reuploaded section 2, and here's the next:


https://librivox.org/uploads/triciag/jackengle_03_whitman_128kb.mp3
12:57
Once a country is habituated to liars, it takes generations to bring the truth back.
~ Gore Vidal ~
TriciaG
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 60587
Joined: June 15th, 2008, 10:30 pm
Location: Toronto, ON (but Minnesotan to age 32)

Post by TriciaG »

I just noticed when spot checking section 2, that the intro has "Chapters 4 and 5" rather than 3 and 4.

0:22 says "Chapter 4"
7:45 says "Chapter 5"
14:48 says "end of chapter 5"

Now section 3 is for chapters 5 and 6.

In section 3, chapter 5 is the same text as in the second part of section 2. So I guess we're missing chapter 3 in section 2.

I apologize for not catching this before!

Section 3 is all OK; it's the skipped chapter in section 2 that is the issue.
Serial novel: The Wandering Jew
Medieval England meets Civil War Americans: Centuries Apart
Humor: My Lady Nicotine
Margaret
Posts: 1070
Joined: January 1st, 2007, 10:28 pm
Location: Orlando, Florida
Contact:

Post by Margaret »

Thank you for those finds! I'm glad you're on my team. :-)
Once a country is habituated to liars, it takes generations to bring the truth back.
~ Gore Vidal ~
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