Non-fiction

Originally published in 1922, this work details the history and importance of one of Great Britain’s grandest rivers, the River Thames. It includes information on the river’s geography and its role in the founding of London. This is a fascinating read for anyone with an interest in the history of the river. The River Thames takes its name from the Middle English Temese, which is derived from the Celtic name for river. Originating at the Thames Head in Gloucestershire, it is the longest river in England, flowing a total length of 236 miles, out through the Thames Estuary and in to the North Sea. On its journey to open water it passes through the country’s capital, London, where it is deep enough to be navigable for ships, thus allowing the city to become a major international trade port. – Summary by jhedrick

LibriVox First Chapter Collection 003 – a collection of the first chapters of 15 different books, chosen by LibriVox volunteers. This volume includes the first chapters of books by Andrew Murray, William Dean Howells, Charles Dickens, Frederick Marryat, and others, plus Bible readings from the Reina Valera (Spanish) and King James versions, and more! (Summary by Rachel)

The first chapter of a book is often the hook to draw a reader in. It could make you eager for more or realize it isn’t for you. Here we offer the seventh “First Chapter Collection” in which readers share the first chapters of a variety of fiction and non-fiction works.

The first chapter of a book is often the hook to draw a reader in. It could make you eager for more or realize it isn’t for you. In this, the 8th First Chapter Collection, we offer you old favorites, such as Pride and Prejudice and The Call of the Wild. We tour the world, with Mexico and The Natural History of Selbourne, contemplate philosophy with Knowing and Being and relax with a Dissertation on Oriental Gardening with a side of Cakes and Cookies.

This year is the 13th anniversary of our beloved LibriVox. The readings in this collection celebrate that “bunch of volunteers” who make up the worldwide LibriVox community. The readings are held together by their connection to the number “13” or to the word “luck.” The collection is multilingual, with recordings in English, German, and Romanian. Readings can be in any language. The selections, which are chosen by the readers, include fiction, nonfiction, poems, short stories, and articles.

What do you do for a fifth anniversary? We decided to have a collection of short works with a difference. We challenged our readers to find any short works which had ‘five’ in the title – in any language. They have done us proud, and the collection extends to three volumes of short stories, poems, fairy tales, memoirs, non-fiction and bible readings, in six languages. This is the first volume. (Summary by Ruth Golding) See also Volume 2 & Volume 3.

What do you do for a fifth anniversary? We decided to have a collection of short works with a difference. We challenged our readers to find any short works which had ‘five’ in the title – in any language. They have done us proud, and the collection extends to three volumes of short stories, poems, fairy tales, memoirs, non-fiction and bible readings, in six languages. This is the second volume. (Summary by Ruth Golding) See also Volume 1 & Volume 3.

Fifteen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include philosophy and thought–Phtah-Hotep, Petrarch, Diderot, Bertrand Russell, and the Weymouth New Testament; adventure and travel–a survival story by Mark Twain and a woman’s sojourn in Saltillo, Mexico; immigration and war–Benjamin Franklin on the assimilation of German speakers, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, the League of Nations, and an essay on potatoes and war; geology–on the origins of chalk; a critique of one-act plays, a biography of H.H. Munro (Saki), and Emerson’s advice to Thoreau to clear his brain by writing poetry. Aphorisms by Diderot was translated by Margaret Jourdain Petrarch’s Secret was translated by William H. Draper The Instruction of Ptah-Hotep was translated by Battiscombe G. Gunn

Sixteen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include science and natural history–carnivorous plants, tadpoles, tent caterpillars, flights of birds, horse training, dogs, children’s sign language, trees in winter, and night noises in the woods; philosophy–Roger Bacon and Nicholas of Cusa; satire and literary criticism–the movies as “stupies,” bustles, and facetious plots for short stories by Dorothy Parker; also an appraisal of Conrad Aiken’s poetry, and an intimate look at Abraham Lincoln’s early life in Illinois. (Summary by Sue Anderson)

Seventeen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include science and natural history–the donkey, forestry, grape vines, astronomy, historian Agnes Mary Clerke, and Greek botanist Theophrastus ; philosophy– Nicholas of Cusa and Emmanuel Kant; Sommerset Maugham’s reminiscences of Spain; Joseph Conrad’s sea stories; an encounter with a long-ago companion who has contracted leprosy (Joe of Lahaina); working in the dead-letter office; a dinner the painter Benjamin Hayden hosted for Wordsworth, Keats, and Charles Lamb; a portrait of Margaret Fuller by R.W. Emerson; a 19th century account of English character written for the Chinese; and celebrations of American ideals of freedom and self government–Makers of the Flag, An Oration on Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson’s 4th of July letter. – summary by Sue Anderson

Twenty short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include History–Jocelyn de Brakelond’s 13th century chronicle of the Bury St. Edmund monastery, Lorenzo de Medici’s Florence, the voyage of the Mayflower, and Mark Twain’s essay Stirring Times in Austria; Philosophy–Kierkegaard and Leibniz; Speeches, Sermons, and Diary Entries from Abraham Lincoln, Robert Ingersoll, and Queen Victoria; Literature–a tribute to George Meredith and a critique of Mencken’s The American Language; and Nature and the Natural World–George Mallory outlining the route to the summit of Mt. Everest, Newton’s proof of the elliptical orbits of planets, native bees, pear tree blight, fruit soups, and a description of a grain of wheat. Panegyric on Abraham was translated by Lee M. Hollander. (Summary by Sue Anderson)

Fifteen short nonfiction works in the public domain, independently chosen by the readers. Topics include the impact of World War I on human society and endeavor: In 1916, Woodrow Wilson declares that “real glory” comes from wartime “self-sacrifice,” and Wilson’s call is taken up by an American officer on the front ranks who writes that he could “not have wished a better way to die than for a righteous cause and one’s country.” Meanwhile, German industrialists experiment with textile fibers made from wood pulp and nettles, as cotton supplies are cut off, and an American sculptress, Anna Chapman Ladd works with the Red Cross to create portrait masks for soldiers, whose faces have been maimed in battle. Other topics include science: teaching children about static electricity by rubbing a cat’s fur, a 1945 tsunami that destroyed the Scotch Cap lighthouse in Alaska and killed the five coast guardsmen stationed there, and photographer Wilson Bentley explaining how he captures images of snowflakes on film. Eastern and Western philosophy are represented with excerpts from Lau Tzu, Soren Kierkegaard, and Thomas Browne. Finally, there is a humorous essay from Robert Benchley: “Coffee, Meggs, and Ilk.” -summary by Sue Anderson The Experiment with the Cat was translated by Florence Constable Bicknell. Preliminary Expectoration was translated by Lee M. Hollander. The Sayings of Lao Tzu was translated by Lionel Giles.

Fifteen short nonfiction works in the public domain independently chosen by the readers. Volume 60 features excerpts from two German philosophers, Christian von Wolff and Hegel, as well as British theologian Edward Stillingfleet. It contains essays on women as inventors (Matilda Joslyn Gage) , Uruguayan society (W. H. Hudson), political economy (Frederick Bastiat) pipe smoking (Sewell Ford) and personal dislikes (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.). Days to remember are chronicled in first hand accounts of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake (James Stetson), and a 1830’s hydrogen balloon ascension over New York City (Charles Durant). Natural history is highlighted in accounts of Brazilian ants and monkeys (Henry Bates) and North American raccoons (N. M. Pairpoint). Last but not least, American journalist William Allen White writes a moving tribute to his 17-year old daughter Mary, who died after after being hit in the head by an overhanging tree limb while she was riding her horse. (Summary by Sue Anderson) Rational Psychology was translated by Edward Kennard Rand. The Contrite Consciousness was translated by Josiah Royce.

Seventeen short nonfiction works in the public domain independently chosen by the readers. Volume 61 features articles and essays on both current and timeless topics, ranging from whether marijuana is addictive (U.S. Gov.) to what constitutes foolish behavior (Erasmus, Gelett Burgess). Sermons in Stone, an essay by Oscar Wilde on classic sculptures displayed at the British Museum, is complemented by an actual sermon (The Carnal Mind, Enmity Against God by Spurgeon), while Frederick William Shelton muses on the fleeting beauty of a ripe peach (Incidents in a Retired Life). Truth and lies, luck, and individuality are essay topics by Mark Twain and John Stuart Mill. Festive food (a recipe for Snow Pudding and Chocolate Sauce) is juxtaposed to a graphic account of Poisoning by Canned Goods, while A.A. Milne writes on the joys of fresh celery as an Autumn treat. Vol. 61 includes two historical accounts of tragedies: the wreck of the steamship Princess Sophia off the coast of Alaska in 1918 and the murder of abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy in Alton, Illinois in 1837. Finally, a retelling of how British landscape artist John Constable sold his first painting rounds out this nonfiction collection. – Summary by Sue Anderson

Twenty short nonfiction works chosen by the readers. Eucken’s “The Failure of Speculative Philosophy,” is one of several essays devoted to timeless questions. Others are by James Howell on man, nature and the universe, Samuel Johnson on procrastination and the flight of time, Schleiemacher on the social element in religion, Ambrose Bierce on immortality, and Thomas Paine and Jonathan Swift with their famous essays, “The Age of Reason” (1794-1795) and “A Modest Proposal” (1729). Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Pearl Harbor “Day of Infamy” speech is one of various commentaries on war, politics and the polity. Others are Bierce’s moving description of a solitary Civil War hero, Woodrow Wilson speaking to capitalism’s spiritual crisis, Rev. Jee Gam presenting a Chinese Christian’s thoughts on the Boxer Rebellion, and a partisan, Eugene Weeks, eulogizing Calvin Coolidge. Intuitive self-direction is the theme of Lafcadio Hearn’s essay “A Mystery of Crowds.” Other selections that touch on personal development are Robert Louis Stevenson on literary style, Gelett Burgess on creativity and the art of play, Brann on the relative worth of the sexes, and Mary Wood-Allen on what a woman should know in picking a husband. For the musically inclined, Lawton Mackall has an amusing look at pianos, while sports enthusiasts will enjoy Benjamin Richardson’s treatise on what to avoid in cycling. Artists should be interested in the biography of designer William Kilburn, who, in the late 1700s, was the first artist to seek copyright for his original textile designs. Summary by Sue Anderson William Tudor Jones translated “The Failure of Speculative Philosophy.” George Ripley translated “On the Social Element in Religion.”

Twenty short nonfiction works chosen by the readers. A review of William Carlos Williams’ “Kora in Hell” by Robert McAlmon is one of several selections devoted to literature and learning. Others are H. P. Lovecraft’s “Literary Composition;” George Herbert Betts’s “The Mind and Its Education;” William Wells Newell’s “Michelangelo as Poet;” and Thoreau’s “Wild Apples.” Humor receives its due in “The Methods of Mr. Sellyer: A Book Store Study” (Stephen Leacock); “The Plumber” (Charles Dudley Warner); “The Yawn of the Computer Age” (NSA Cryptolog); and an unnamed boy’s “Essay on Girls.” Innovation and inquiry are treated in a 17th century study “Of a Deaf Man’s Capacity to Speak;” a 1794 description of color blindness (John Dalton); and an 1896 exposition on scientific kite flying. Historical topics include the status of Palestine and Syria in the 1920’s; democratic socialism (Victor Considerant); Letters to Muriardachus (11th century, Anselm of Canterbury), and an Illinois flour mill’s change over from horse team to gas powered delivery truck in 1913. Politics meet history in readings of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainee death notification letter and two selections from the 2019 Mueller Report–the executive summaries from volumes 1 and 2. Finally, for those with the munchies or a sweet tooth, Vol. 65 has recipes from Maria Parloa’s “Chocolate and Cocoa and Homemade Candy Recipes.” Summary by Sue Anderson.

Twenty short nonfiction works selected by the readers. ?Shall we ever be able to visit the moon?? queries journalist Charles Nevers Holmes in 1920. Holmes was hopeful. Technology had come a long way since 1862, when balloonist James Glaisher made a daring ascent to 37,000 feet above the earth and passed out for lack of oxygen [Travels in the Air]. Glaisher had to best-guess the altitude to which his balloon had climbed while he was unconscious. Technology requires a rational system of accurate measurement [A Metric America]. Societies, however, are not rational. Some past eras were filled with horror [The Blues and Greens of Justinian; An Accursed Race]; others with heroism [Not to be Forgotten]. Some men view the public weal through stoic’s eyes [Of Seneca’s Writings] and some in a more hopeful frame of mind [Theodore Roosevelt on Applying the 9th Commandment]. Days of public observance tell a nation’s concerns [Veteran’s Day; 5th of November Act 1605]. Myths and legends speak to the importance of loyalty [King Arthur’s Table] and to our trust that truth will win out [Merlin the Magician]. Sometimes a humorist like Mark Twain can make us laugh at ourselves [Poets as Policemen]. At other times grief overwhelms us [The Burning of Peshtigo, Wisconsin]. The single woman or man, wondering their place in this complexity, can make a difference: a woman stops to think about the food she buys for her family [How Much Shall We Spend for Food]; another woman sparks a bit of self-assertive feminism in a friend [The New Stove]. And, ever and again, in our search for meaning, we turn to artists [A Talk with Mr. Oscar Wilde; Oscar Wilde and the Aesthetic Movement; Post Impressionism in the Prose of Gertrude Stein]. – Summary by Sue Anderson

Twenty short nonfiction works chosen by the readers. “Suffrage for women will not usher in a millennium of peace and leisure” was the editorial opinion of the Boston Cooking School Magazine in May, 1914. [Woman’s Problems]. Disillusionment with easy answers is the theme of several Vol. 071 readings [On Thinking for Oneself; Limitations of Truth-Telling; On Demagogues]. Rebellion and war, heroics and aftermath, are treated in Alexander at Gordium; Before Grant Won His Stars; Draft Riots in Wisconsin; The Truth About Greece; and Sophie Treadwell Interviews Pancho Villa. Humor provides relief in a lighthearted look at home heating [The Furnace]; bicycling [A Despicable Trick; Healthy But Not Social], grammar [The Woman’s Press Club] and The Beauty of Unpunctuality. Exploration then and now is contrasted in Tasman Explores Australia and A California Motor Tour. The arts–literature, drawing, and the cinema–are celebrated in Mary Pickford’s Beginnings, Rendering Reflections in Window Glass, and On the Tomb of Keats. Lastly, a biography of British fossil finder Mary Anning (1795-1847) throws light not only on ichthyosaurs, but on the remarkable life of a self-taught woman scientist. – Summary by Sue Anderson

Twenty short nonfiction works chosen by the readers. “Salve! ye dumb hearts. Let us be still and wait by the roadside.” With these words, Kate Chopin decries the “crushing feet, the clashing discords, the ruthless hands and stifling breath? that power the ?mad pace” of everyday life. Broadway: the Backbone of New York presents a more up-beat view of city life. Reflections on difficult times are the substance of several volume 073 readings (The Influenza Epidemic of 1918; Plague in Ireland in the Tudor Period; Soren Kierkegaard in his Life and Literature; and Remarks to Madame Curie); while the clash of people and cultures is examined in Everyday Japan (1903), the Passing of Princess Kaiulani, Inca Land, Northern Europe and the Swiss Confederation, the Struggle between the Teutonic Order and Poland, and Pan-Turanism. Individual response to life’s stresses and demands is the theme of Women Friendships, The Unadmiring, Spittler’s Prometheus and Epimetheus, and Martha Maxwell, Taxidermist. Imagining the pleasures of home, Robert Louis Stevenson, in his The Ideal House, writes that “Bold rocks near hand are more inspiriting than distant Alps,” and concludes “even greatness can be found on the small scale; for the mind and the eye measure differently.” The mind-eye divide is what allows the illusionist to create amusing hand shadows (Dog and Rabbit); the novelist to create worlds from words (John Galsworthy, A Notable Englishman); and the mathematician Sir William Rowan Hamilton, to inscribe, with his pocket knife, in the stone of Brougham Bridge, the fundamental formula for quaternion multiplication, which had come to him in a flash of inspiration as he was out walking with his wife. Summary by Sue Anderson Northern Europe and the Swiss Confederation and The Struggle Between the Teutonic Order and Poland were translated by John Henry Wright –