July | 2014 | LibriVox 2014 July | free public domain audiobooks

Listen to LibriVox Community Podcast #136 commemorating the outbreak of the First World War on 28^th July 1914 hosted by Ruth Golding [RuthieG].

Duration: 40:15

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Featuring ExEmGe, MaryAnnSpiegel, J_N, Sebey, mhhbook, commonsparrow3, Tlaloc, lynnet, Sue Anderson, WordyCause, ShiNeko, MartinGeeson, k5hsj.

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00:00 Oh, It’s a Lovely War by J.P. Long and M. Scott, a soldiers’ favourite, sung by Courtland and Jeffries, 1918.

00:22 Introduction by Ruth Golding.

03:25 Andy Minter [ExEmGe] reads an extract from No Man’s Land: A Point of Detail, by Sapper.

05:07 MaryAnn [MaryAnnSpiegel] talks about her recordings, including her solo recording of An English Woman-Sergeant in the Serbian Army.

7:21 Julia Niedermaier [J_N] tells us a little about her solo recording of Menschen im Krieg. An English translation of this book is available at Project Gutenberg: Men in War by Andreas Latzko.

09:07 Sebastian Stephenson [Sebey] tells us about his reading, Neutral Nations and the War by Viscount Bryce.

11:29 Mary in Arkansas [mhhbook] explains why she chose her contributions.

13:08 Maria Kasper [commonsparrow3] tells us of her interest in the experience of non-combatant journalists covering the war.

15:32 What soldiers liked to read: Herman Roskams’ [Tlaloc] recording of Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke by Rilke, a favourite book of German soldiers at the Front; the British War Library (Ruth).

18:28 The effect of the war on all areas of life:

19:12 Lynne Thompson [lynnet] reads from her recording of The Children of our Dead by Thomas Tiplady.

21:33 War as a catalyst in advances in surgery; MaryAnn reads an excerpt from Early Care of Gunshot Wounds of the Jaws and Surrounding Soft Parts.

22:35 The experiences of nursing staff, featuring excerpts of recordings by Sue Anderson (The Last Ride from Fanny Goes to War by Pat Beauchamp) and MaryAnn (Eighteen Months in the War Zone, Chapter 1 by Kate Finzi).

23:40 The logistics of war, with an excerpt from Feeding an Army by Albert Kinross.

24:08 Advances in technology, including communications.

25:08 Frank Lennon [WordyCause] talks about his reading of a selection of letters home from a young American airman (The American Spirit by Briggs Kilburn Adams).

26:35 Herman talks about his other recordings for the collection: Avec une batterie de 75: Ma pièce, souvenirs d’un canonnier 1914 and Alphabet de la grande guerre, 1914-1916 pour les enfants de nos soldats. Herman refers also to a website about André Hellé, the author and illustrator of that alphabet. It can be seen at http://amisdhelle.blogspot.fr/.

29:19 The multilingual character of the collections; languages represented; excerpt from Anastasiia Solokha’s [ShiNeko] recording of Мама и убитый немцами вечер (Mama and the Evening Killed by the Germans) by Mayakovsky.

30:42 Notes on poetry.

31:07 Martin Geeson reminisces about his grandfather, and reads The Chances by Wilfred Owen, in the speech of the Lincolnshire/Nottinghamshire border.

35:22 Ruth remembers the effect of the war on her own grandfather.

36:36 Edmund Blunden, a poet who ‘survived’; the war poets who did not.

38:06 Winston Tharp [k5hsj] speaks of Wilfred Owen’s poetry, and reads his Preface from the Poems.

39:54 Excerpt from For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon.

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The LibriVox First World War Centenary Collections may be found here:

Poetry: http://librivox.org/ww1-poetry/

Prose: http://librivox.org/ww1-prose-vol-i/

Other LibriVox recordings of books of First World War interest are listed on this page of the LibriVox Wiki.

We are interested in whatever feedback – positive or constructively critical – anyone has about our podcasts. Add a comment below or pop over to this forum thread. Any member of the community who has contributed readings to the LibriVox catalog can host a podcast and is most welcome to do so. Visit this thread on the forum to express an interest and float your ideas.

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To Subscribe to the Librivox Community Podcast, go to: http://feeds.feedburner.com/LibrivoxCommunityPodcast Or hit this itunes link to get you to the subscribe page: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=203970211

Recent past LibriVox Community Podcast files can be found at our spot on: Archive.org and archived shows for previous years can be found at: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.

Archived shownotes for the Community Podcast can be found at: http://librivox.org/category/librivox-community-podcast/ And the rss feed for those shownotes is: http://librivox.org/category/librivox-community-podcast/feed

On July 28th 1914, World War I began in Europe. Let’s look back at what happened 100 years ago with 10 gems from our catalog.

Many soldiers of all nations documented the Great War in diaries, drawings and photographs, and poetry. One of the most famous war poems, For the Fallen, was written by Robert Laurence Binyon, and is included in The Winnowing Fan – Poems on the Great War.

When the Great War began, people were almost enthousiastic and thought it would not last long. Legends like The Angels of Mons, written down by Arthur Machen, where angels supposedly protected British soldiers, did their part in strengthening people’s convictions.

Of course, reality was much different, as the Diary of a Nursing Sister on the Western Front 1914 – 1915 shows. An anonymous nurse writes about her routines caring for the wounded in France from the beginning of the war until she went back home in May 1915.

Everybody out there In the Field went through the same, regardless of where and for which side they were fighting. Marcel Dupont wrote about his impressions of the nine months he spent on the front line as an officer in the French light cavalry.

Soon it became clear that the war was here to stay. The Pretty Lady, tells about Christine, a French prostitute who fled Ostend and set up her business in London. Written in the typical style of Arnold Bennett, the novel gives an excellent insight into how the war affected the daily life of civilian society.

At this time, in all nations there was the fear of foreign spies infiltrating the country. In the short pamphlet Spy Proof America! J. Francis Logan urges American civilians to volunteer for an anti-spy organisation to help the war effort from within the country.

However, it is decidedly too late for that in England, where a vast German spy network is operating practically openly, in E. Phillips Oppenheim’s novel. After falling afoul of his superiors, the British diplomat Francis Norgate is recruited by the Germans – and becomes The Double Traitor.

He may have been one of the spies The Brighton Boys in the Radio Service had to deal with, along with other enemy soldiers. The novel by James. R. Driscoll tells of three American college friends who enter the military and work as radio operators all over Europe.

When the men are gone, the women have to do their work. Four girls, called The Friendly Terrace Quartette prepare for the war by joining the Land Army, and work in the fields. More and more girls arrive on the scene in Harriet Lummis Smith’s novel to do their bit for the war.

Much more dark is “the bit” that Amelia is to do for her country. She is expected to join the ranks of the War Brides: marry a soldier, get pregnant before he leaves, and soon bear a boy to repeat the cycle. Her sister Hedwig though, is determined to break the chain and thus send a sign to all other women in the short drama by Marion Craig Wentworth from our One-Act Play Collection 004.

Remember – and do not forget!

Librivox

free public domain audiobooks

July, 2014

First World War Centenary Community Podcast 136

World War I – Beginnings

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