The Making of an American: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Making of an American, credited to Jacob A. Riis, 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 Making of an American by Jacob A. Riis. Read in English by Lee Smalley; Ann Boulais Jacob Riis was an esteemed reporter and documentary photographer in New York City. In his autobiography he movingly recounts his early life and unrelenting attempts at courtship in Denmark followed by his later experiences in the United States, first as a struggling itinerant immigrant and later as a journalist. He describes how he became a reporter and how his work in lower Manhattan’s teeming, squalid immigrant communities sparked his passion and activism for social reform. In his opening note he writes: “To those who have been asking if they are made-up stories, let me say here that they are not.” NOTE: Elizabeth's letter (In Chapter 7) is read by Ann Boulais. – Lee Smalley

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Making of an American
• Author credits: Jacob A. Riis
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 17
• Listed recording duration: 9:59:08

Catalogue topics

• love
• immigration
• journalism

Track guide

1. 01 - The Meeting On The Long Bridge — 43:50
2. 02 - I Land In New York And Take A Hand In The Game — 31:44
3. 03 - I Go To War At Last, And Sow The Seed Of Future Campaigns — 27:01
4. 04 - Working And Wandering — 31:56
5. 05 - I Go Into Business, Headlong — 32:44
6. 06 - In Which I Become An Editor And Receive My First Love Letter — 37:38
7. 07 - Elizabeth Tells Her Story, Part 1 — 20:41
8. 08 - Elizabeth Tells Her Story, Part 2 — 11:19
9. 09 - Early Married Life; I Become An Advertising Bureau; On The ''Tribune'' — 36:04
10. 10 - Life In Mulberry Street — 46:01
11. 11 - My Dog Is Avenged — 39:18
12. 12 - The Bend Is Laid By The Heels — 46:21
13. 13 - I Become An Author And Resume My Interrupted Career As A Lecturer — 37:19
14. 14 - Roosevelt Comes—Mulberry Street's Golden Age — 46:27
15. 15 - I Try To Go To The War For The Third And Last Tlme — 43:07
16. 16 - When I Went Home To Mother — 38:01
17. 17 - The American Made — 29:36

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.