Recollections of a Busy Life: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Recollections of a Busy Life, credited to William Forwood, 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 Recollections of a Busy Life by William Forwood. Read in English by DPranitis Liverpool in the second half of the 19th century was burgeoning with rich merchants and swollen with poor immigrants. It was known variously as the "New York of Europe" and the "Black Spot on the Mersey." Waist-deep in this mosaic we find William Bower Forwood making a busy life for himself, making his fortune in cotton trading (including running the American blockade of the Southern States) and then delving into public affairs. We see the civic leader, dedicated to the betterment of "the good old town and the trade thereof," and we see the statesman and tourist, dining with kings and wrestling with presidents. We see the effect that social environment has on a man's view of the world, with Sir William's casual categorization of the various races' assumed work habits, from the Caribbean 'Negro' to the Indian 'Coolie,' his breezy dismissal of the Jamaican rebellion, his confidence in the steady hand of the Mexican dictator and his pride in the English superiority of business sense and management. But we also see the profound effect that a man can have on the society around him, working tirelessly to build libraries, parks and gardens, public transport, housing for the poor and a great cathedral for Liverpool. Forwood records these memoirs for his family members, and anyone they care to share them with, "to inspire them to make some effort on behalf of our great and glorious city—to elevate its social and intellectual life, to adorn and beautify its public streets and places, to brighten the lives and homes of the people, to carry forward and onward the great temple we are building to the glory of God," at a time when such things mattered to people. (Summary by DPranitis)

Recording facts

• Recording title: Recollections of a Busy Life
• Author credits: William Forwood
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 21
• Listed recording duration: 7:38:29

Catalogue topics

• politics and diplomacy
• business development and management
• travel and leisure
• philosophy of life
• personal development

Track guide

1. 00 - Preface and Foreword — 6:40
2. 01 - Chapter I, Part 1 — 25:04
3. 02 - Chapter I Part 2 — 16:10
4. 03 - Chapter II — 9:53
5. 04 - Chapter III, Part 1 — 19:54
6. 05 - Chapter III, Part 2 — 37:04
7. 06 - Chapter IV — 23:18
8. 07 - Chapters V and VI — 23:52
9. 08 - Chapter VII, Part 1 — 16:02
10. 09 - Chapter VII, Part 2 — 14:44
11. 10 - Chapter VIII — 30:33
12. 11 - Chapter IX — 19:23
13. 12 - Chapter X — 21:26
14. 13 - Chapters XI and XII — 27:47
15. 14 - Chapter XIII — 27:58
16. 15 - Chapter XIV — 30:57
17. 16 - Chapters XV, XVI and XVII — 26:52
18. 17 - Chapter XVIII, Part 1 — 20:27
19. 18 - Chapter XVIII, Part 2 — 30:28
20. 19 - Chapter XIX — 13:39
21. 20 - Chapter XX (Obiter Dicta) — 16:16

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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.