The Golden Book of Springfield: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Golden Book of Springfield, credited to Vachel Lindsay, 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 Golden Book of Springfield by Vachel Lindsay. Read in English by Chuck Williamson The Golden Book of Springfield is American poet Vachel Lindsay's strange and mystical odyssey through the Springfield, Illinois of 2018, where the residents of that city strive to turn their home into a democratic utopia. It is a "Springfield a hundred years hence," a dreamlike space of spiritual and social awakenings. But when the threat of international war begins to loom over the horizon, the citizens of Springfield must find new ways to protect their city and keep it a "practical City of God." This is Vachel Lindsay's only long-form narrative work and a fascinating entry into the utopian fiction subgenre that came about after the publication of Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward. - Summary by Chuck Williamson

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Golden Book of Springfield
• Author credits: Vachel Lindsay
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 19
• Listed recording duration: 9:22:18

Catalogue topics

• utopian fiction

Track guide

1. 01 - Chapter I - The Campbellite, the Florist, and the Hostess — 11:21
2. 02 - Chapter II - The Prognosticator's Club — 13:38
3. 03 - Chapter III - How People in 1920 Think the Book Will Come, in 2018 — 49:24
4. 04 - Chapter IV - History of the Michaels — 27:33
5. 05 - Chapter V - I Myself Enter into the Springfield of 2018 — 39:21
6. 06 - Chapter VI - Kopensky versus Boone — 20:13
7. 07 - Chapter VII - The Drug Stores, Coffee Houses, and Dance Halls — 22:21
8. 08 - Chapter VIII - The Springfield Flag — 32:56
9. 09 - Chapter IX - The Beginning of the Flying Machine Riots — 28:30
10. 10 - Chapter X - The End of the Flying Machine Riots — 29:02
11. 11 - Chapter XI - St. Friend, and His Two Religious Orders — 36:12
12. 12 - Chapter XII - The Yellow Dance Halls Are Abolished — 31:39
13. 13 - Chapter XIII - Surto Hurdenburg is Lynched — 30:14
14. 14 - Chapter XIV - In the House of the Man From Singapore — 29:40
15. 15 - Chapter XV - Further Experiences in That Strange Mansion — 43:00
16. 16 - Chapter XVI - The Return of Joseph Bartholdi Michael — 37:51
17. 17 - Chapter XVII - The Lynching of Boone. The Interregnum of the Diary. The Golden Book Appears — 33:27
18. 18 - Chapter XVIII - St. Friend and Avanel Read From the Golden Book — 23:46
19. 19 - Chapter XIX - Avanel and I Ascend to the Jungles of Heaven — 22:10

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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.