02/09/2024
Haunted London
London: one of the oldest and most populous cities in the world. Surely it holds a few secrets within its ancient walls and the stories of ghostly presences abound. [chương_files]
02/09/2024
Letters From America
“[Rupert Brooke] started in May 1913 on a journey to the United States, Canada, and the South Seas, from which he returned next year at the beginning of June. The first thirteen chapters of this book were written as letters to the Westminster Gazette. He would probably not have republished them in their present form, as he intended to write a longer book on his travels; but they are now printed with only the correction of a few evident slips.” The listener interested in Brooke’s work may want to skip over Henry James’ “so affectionate and desperately unintelligible a preface” (Christopher Morley in Modern Essays) and listen to those four tracks later. (Tracks 2 – 5) ( Book’s Prefatory Note and david wales) [chương_files]
02/09/2024
Under The Sky In California
This is a 1913 travelogue by a then-well-known botanist who wrote many books about the American Southwest and California in particular. This popular book went into three printings. “…the main concern of the author has been to draw attention to an immensity of almost unexplored mountain, desert, canon and flowery plain,… This is the real California…. Like all genuine things, it has the compelling charm of the primitive and to the lover of the unartificial it appeals with freshness and power.” ( Author’s Preface and david wales) [chương_files]
01/09/2024
Young Americans Abroad
It’s 1851 and the Crystal Palace Exhibition is on in England. English American the Reverend Dr. Choules leaves Newport, Rhode Island with three teenaged students – James Robinson, George Vanderbuilt, and Weld French, who are forced to leave the fourth member of their blue-blooded quartet at home – and all four travelers promise to write to “Dear Charley”, Charles Duston, of later fame. The boys meet the Duke of Wellington, travel down the Rhine, and meet many friends along the way. While the letters are filled with some prejudice against the Catholic religion, they are a product of their time – a sometimes ignorant, but often dazzling, period of our history. (Summary by Sibella Denton) [chương_files]
01/09/2024
New Jerusalem
The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of anyone involved in the production of this book, and are not the views of LibriVox. Dale Ahlquist calls the book a “philosophical travelogue” of Chesterton’s journey across Europe to Palestine. “On the road to Cairo one may see twenty groups exactly like that of the Holy Family in the pictures of the Flight into Egypt; with only one difference. The man is riding on the ass.” “The real mistake of the Muslims is something much more modern in its application than any particular passing persecution of Christians as such. It lay in the very fact that they did think they had a simpler and saner sort of Christianity, as do many modern Christians. They thought it could be made universal merely by being made uninteresting. Now a man preaching what he thinks is a platitude is far more intolerant than a man preaching what he admits is a paradox. It was exactly because it seemed self-evident, to Muslims as to Bolshevists, that their simple creed was suited to everybody, that they wished in that particular sweeping fashion to impose it on everybody.” (Summary from Wikipedia) [chương_files]
01/09/2024
National Geographic Magazine Vol. 05
National Geographic Magazine Volume 5, articles published in 1893. Contents: Discoverers of America: Annual Address by the President, Gardiner G. Hubbard The Movements of our Population Rainfall Types of the United States: Annual Report by Vice-President General A. W. Greely The Natural Bridge of Virginia The geographical Position and Height of Mount Saint Elias The Improvement of Geographical Teaching An undiscovered Island off the northern Coast of Alaska The Geologist at Blue Mountain, Maryland The great populous Centers of the World Our youngest Volcano Proceedings of the International Geographic Conference in Chicago, July 27-28, 1893: * The Relations of Air and Water to Temperature and Life * The Relations of Geography to History * Norway and the Vikings * Geographic Instruction in the public Schools * The Relations of Geology to Physiography in our educational System * The Relations of the Gulf Stream and the Labrador Current * The arid Regions of the United States * Recent Explorations in Alaska * The Caravels of Columbus * In the Wake of Columbus * Recent Disclosures concerning pre-Columbian Voyages to America in the Archives of the Vatican * Early Voyages along the northwestern Coast of America [chương_files]
01/09/2024
Western United States
“In preparation of this book the author has had in mind the needs of the upper grammar grades. The subject matter has not been selected with the object of covering the field of Western geography in a systematic manner, but instead the attempt has been made to picture as graphically as may be some of its more striking and interesting physical features, and the influence which these features have exerted upon its discovery and settlement.” (from the Preface of The Western United States) [chương_files]
01/09/2024
Piloting Directions for the Gulf of Finland
Norie’s series of piloting and sailing directions was something of a staple in the chart-room of 19th century British (and other) merchant vessels. The description of landmarks and ports, as well as the rules and regulations provide another viewpoint to an earlier age. Please note that these piloting directions are rather completely out of date. They are given here for purposes of historical interest only, and should not be used for navigation purposes. (Summary by P Hirvonen) [chương_files]
01/09/2024
Lady’s Visit to the Gold Diggings of Australia in 1852-53
“If you have visions of a middle-aged parasol-bearing lady smiling sweetly from her carriage as she tours Bendigo think again. In 1852, 20 year old clergyman’s daughter Ellen and her brother boarded ship for Melbourne then set off to walk to Bendigo. Dressed in her blue serge skirt which doubled as nightwear, she camped under a tent made of blankets, had mutton, damper and tea most meals and on arrival lent her hand to gold washing. And seemed to enjoy it ! And amongst other things she tells of colonial life , transportation, emigration and other gold-fields. But you will need to listen to hear more about bush-rangers and orphans as well as what she did with her parasol.” (summary by annise) [chương_files]
01/09/2024
Through Glacier Park, Seeing America First with Howard Eaton
This is about a three-hundred mile trip across the Rocky Mountains on horseback with Howard Eaton. It is about fishing, and cool nights around a camp-fire, and long days on the trail. It is about a party of all sorts, from everywhere, of men and women, old and young, experienced folk and novices, who had yielded to a desire to belong to the sportsmen of the road. And it is by way of being advice also. Your true convert must always preach. (Introduction by Mary Roberts Rinehart quoted from the text.) [chương_files]