The Autobiography of a Thief: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Autobiography of a Thief, credited to Hutchins Hapgood, 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 The Autobiography of a Thief by Hutchins Hapgood. Read in English by Ben Adams I met the ex-pickpocket and burglar whose autobiography follows soon after his release from a third term in the penitentiary. For several weeks I was not particularly interested in him. He was full of a desire to publish in the newspapers an exposé of conditions obtaining in two of our state institutions, his motive seeming partly revenge and partly a very genuine feeling that he had come in contact with a systematic crime against humanity. But as I continued to see more of him, and learned much about his life, my interest grew; for I soon perceived that he not only had led a typical thief's life, but was also a man of more than common natural intelligence, with a gift of vigorous expression... I therefore proposed to him to write an autobiography. He took up the idea with eagerness, and through the entire period of our work together, has shown an unwavering interest in the book and very decided acumen and common sense. The method employed in composing the volume was that, practically, of the interview. From the middle of March to the first of July we met nearly every afternoon, and many evenings, at a little German café on the East Side. There, I took voluminous notes, often asking questions, but taking down as literally as possible his story in his own words; to such a degree is this true, that the following narrative is an authentic account of his life, with occasional descriptions and character-sketches of his friends of the Under World. Even without my explicit assurance, the autobiography bears sufficient internal evidence of the fact that, essentially, it is a thief's own story. - Summary by Hutchins Hapgood (from the Preface)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Autobiography of a Thief
• Author credits: Hutchins Hapgood
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 16
• Listed recording duration: 6:14:55

Track guide

1. 00 - Intro - Editor's Note — 5:52
2. 01 - Chapter I - Boyhood and Early Crime — 20:54
3. 02 - Chapter II - My First Fall — 18:38
4. 03 - Chapter III - Mixed-Ale Life in the Fourth and Seventh Wards — 25:24
5. 04 - Chapter IV - When the Graft Was Good — 17:33
6. 05 - Chapter V - Mamie and the Negotiable Bonds — 18:55
7. 06 - Chapter VI - What the Burglar Faces — 26:56
8. 07 - Chapter VII - In Stir — 23:55
9. 08 - Chapter VIII - In Stir (continued) — 30:37
10. 09 - Chapter IX - In Stir and Out — 21:08
11. 10 - Chapter X - At the Graft Again — 27:39
12. 11 - Chapter XI - Back to Prison — 30:09
13. 12 - Chapter XII - On the Outside Again — 50:18
14. 13 - Chapter XIII - In the Mad-House — 35:54
15. 14 - Chapter XIV - Out of Hell — 18:39
16. 15 - Editor's Postscript — 2:24

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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.