The Life and Adventures of Alexander Selkirk: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Life and Adventures of Alexander Selkirk, credited to John Howell, 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 Life and Adventures of Alexander Selkirk, by John Howell. Read by James K. White. This work was the true story of Alexander Selkirk (1676 to December 13, 1721), a Scottish sailor who was employed in a number of different trades during his early life. As a young man, Selkirk learned the skills of tanning and shoemaking, and later became a buccaneer (a government-sanctioned pirate) on the Cinque Ports, working his way up to the position of ship's sailing master or navigator. But in the case of Selkirk, his experiences would eventually help him to survive his isolation on a deserted island in the Juan Fernández archipelago, off the coast of Chile, where he spent 52 months before being rescued. The Life and Adventures of Alexander Selkirk is a real-life “survivor man” narrative: Alone, pitted against nature with only his wits and the barest of tools at his disposal, the protagonist eventually triumphs over his adversities. Certainly this theme is at the heart of what makes it so timeless, but it includes an exploration into the story of who Selkirk was before the adventure began. In his research, Howell diligently investigated Selkirk's life through parish records from the small town of Largo in Fife, Scotland, where Selkirk was born and spent his childhood. He also conducted interviews with surviving relatives, and gleamed information from the published accounts of others with whom Selkirk had sailed, such as privateer and explorer, Captain William Dampier, and the man who ultimately rescued him, Captain Woodes Rogers. (Introduction by James K. White)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Life and Adventures of Alexander Selkirk
• Author credits: John Howell
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 9
• Listed recording duration: 3:29:40

Catalogue topics

• adventure
• biography
• sea stories

Track guide

1. 00 - Old Buccaneer's Song/Introduction — 17:56
2. 01 - Chapter I — 7:43
3. 02 - Chapter II — 40:54
4. 03 - Chapter III — 24:37
5. 04 - Chapter IV — 41:00
6. 05 - Chapter V — 18:37
7. 06 - Appendix, Description Of The Island Of Juan Fernandez — 28:33
8. 07 - Appendix, Account of Stradling's Adventures & Adventures of Captain Dampier — 8:56
9. 08 - Adventures of Clipperton and His Men/Funnel's Adventures/Account of Captain Woodes Rogers/Account of Mr. Hatley/Power of Attorney/Selkirk's Will — 21:32

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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.