California Sketches New And Old: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

California Sketches New And Old, credited to Oscar Penn Fitzgerald, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of California Sketches New And Old by Oscar Penn Fitzgerald. Read in English by David Wales Here we meet all sorts of characters and situations in California’s early history: gunmen, outlaws, lynch mobs, raging storms, mining camps, lost clergymen, freed slaves, Northern sympathizers, Southern sympathizers, soldiers…. Oscar Penn Fitzgerald was a Methodist clergyman, journalist and educator. He served as California Superintendent of Public Instruction (1867–1871). His California Sketches were published in two series (1879 and 1881) and a consolidated volume (1895). This reading is based on the consolidated volume (Sections 1-48) with the addition of the sketches from the first books that were omitted in the last one (First, Sections 49-50; Second, Sections 51-57). The listener is alerted that the author exhibits the very common nineteenth century white man’s low opinion of Native Americans. The sketches are of church and nonchurch folk. Even those not interested in religious matters may be entertained by this view into the psychology and culture of early Californians, as well as the challenges and rewards of the land and climate themselves. (Summary by Wikipedia and David Wales)

Recording facts

• Recording title: California Sketches New And Old
• Author credits: Oscar Penn Fitzgerald
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 57
• Listed recording duration: 11:13:32

Catalogue topics

• history
• California

Opening tracks: first 24 of 57

1. 01 - My First Sunday In The Mines — 9:14
2. 02 - Cissaha — 18:55
3. 03 - Lost On Table Mountain — 16:06
4. 04 - Fulton — 9:09
5. 05 - The Fatal Twist — 7:51
6. 06 - Stranded — 8:21
7. 07 - Lockley — 12:57
8. 08 - An Interview — 11:40
9. 09 - Father Cox — 11:02
10. 10 - The Ethics Of Grizzly Hunting — 9:05
11. 11 - Stewart — 12:58
12. 12 - A Mendocino Murder — 7:47
13. 13 - My First California Camp Meeting — 14:09
14. 14 - The Tragedy At Algerine — 10:25
15. 15 - The Blue Lakes — 8:41
16. 16 - Old Tuolunme — 2:09
17. 17 - Ben — 5:29
18. 18 - A Youthful Desperado — 6:14
19. 19 - North Beach, San Francisco — 15:48
20. 20 - My Mining Speculation — 5:54
21. 21 - Dick — 11:19
22. 22 - The Diggers — 21:08
23. 23 - Father Fisher — 17:18
24. 24 - Th California Madhouse — 15:55

Listen to this recording

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.