My First Book: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

My First Book, credited to Various, 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 My First Book, by various authors. Read by Ruth Golding and Patti Cunningham. This is not a children's book, as may be supposed from the title, but a collection of essays first published in The Idler magazine, in which over twenty well-known writers describe with characteristic style and humour their experiences in producing their first book... and getting it published. The book is profusely illustrated, not only with portraits of the authors, but also with scenes and illustrations from the books discussed. Authors include Jerome K. Jerome, R. L. Stevenson, Bret Harte, Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Mary Braddon. Full of charm, humour and pathos, this book is like a fireside chat with authors of the past, as well as being a fascinating insight into the literary scene of the late 19th century. Details of authors and links to online texts of the books discussed by their authors in this book may be found on the LibriVox catalogue page for this item. The listener is warned that a few of the chapters contain spoilers, especially in cases where the publisher insisted on the author changing the ending of his book. (Summary by Ruth Golding)

Recording facts

• Recording title: My First Book
• Author credits: Various
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 23
• Listed recording duration: 9:09:01

Catalogue topics

• audio book
• literary
• memoirs
• author
• writing
• publishing
• Walter Besant
• James Payn

Track guide

1. 00 - Introduction — 17:09
2. 01 - Ready-Money Mortiboy — 20:59
3. 02 - The Family Scapegrace — 18:47
4. 03 - The Wreck of the 'Grosvenor' — 21:05
5. 04 - Physiological Aesthetics and Philistia — 20:41
6. 05 - The Shadow of a Crime — 36:05
7. 06 - The Social Kaleidoscope — 25:07
8. 07 - Departmental Ditties — 11:02
9. 08 - Juvenilia — 18:39
10. 09 - The Trail of the Serpent — 24:49
11. 10 - The House of Elmore — 15:42
12. 11 - Dawn — 30:11
13. 12 - Hudson's Bay — 17:58
14. 13 - The Premier and the Painter — 28:25
15. 14 - The Western Avernus — 16:29
16. 15 - A Life's Atonement — 24:13
17. 16 - A Romance of Two Worlds — 31:13
18. 17 - On the Stage and Off — 35:58
19. 18 - Cavalry Life — 31:22
20. 19 - Californian Verse — 22:03
21. 20 - Dead Man's Rock — 22:12
22. 21 - Undertones and Idyls and Legends of Inverburn — 31:12
23. 22 - Treasure Island — 27:45

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.