The Old Soak, and Hail And Farewell: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Old Soak, and Hail And Farewell, credited to Don Marquis, 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 Old Soak, and Hail And Farewell by Don Marquis. Read in English by volunteer readers. Published in 1921 (Prohibition went into effect in January 1920), "Hail and Farewell" is a collection of poems in honour of alcohol, drunkenness, and all things related. In "The Old Soak", an old codger grumbles and connives to get alcohol in the age of Prohibition. Part is narrative, and part is installments from The Old Soak's papers. “I'm writing a diary. A diary of the past. A kind of gol-dinged autobiography of what me and Old King Booze done before he went into the grave and took one of my feet with him. In just a little while now there won't be any one in this here broad land of ours, speaking of it geographically, that knows what an old-fashioned barroom was like. They'll meet up with the word, future generations of posterity will, and wonder and wonder and wonder just what a saloon could have resembled, and they will cudgel their brains in vain, as the poet says." “Have you got any of it written?” we asked him. “Here's the start of it,” said he. We present it just as the Old Soak penned it. - Summary by TriciaG & from the text

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Old Soak, and Hail And Farewell
• Author credits: Don Marquis
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 51
• Listed recording duration: 2:52:59

Catalogue topics

• humor
• 1921
• prohibition
• alcohol
• nostalgia
• drunkenness
• saloons
• taverns

Opening tracks: first 24 of 51

1. 01 - Introducing the Old Soak — 4:27
2. 02 - Beginning the Old Soak's History of the Rum Demon — 6:40
3. 03 - Liquor and Hennery Simms — 4:21
4. 04 - The Old Soak's History—The Barroom as an Educative Influence — 5:05
5. 05 - Look Out For Crime Waves! — 5:43
6. 06 - Continuing the Old Soak's History—The Barroom and the Arts — 8:52
7. 07 - An Argument With the Old Woman — 2:58
8. 08 - The Old Soak's History—More Evils of Prohibition — 5:27
9. 09 - Preparing for Christmas — 8:07
10. 10 - Continuing the History—the Old Soak Fears for the Growing Children — 5:39
11. 11 - Jabe Potter's Optimism — 4:06
12. 12 - More of the History—As It Used to Be of a Morning — 6:21
13. 13 - Peace and Contentment — 3:47
14. 14 - Continuing the History of the Rum Demon—Unfermented Grape Juice — 7:10
15. 15 - Political Talk — 2:32
16. 16 - The History Continued—Prohibition and Winter Weather — 5:38
17. 17 - The Old Soak Finds a Way — 3:07
18. 18 - The History Continued—the Barroom's Good Influence — 3:38
19. 19 - A House Divided — 4:19
20. 20 - Continuing the History of the Rum Demon—the Barroom and Manners — 3:24
21. 21 - Sympathy Wanted — 5:42
22. 22 - The History of the Rum Demon Concluded—Prohibition Is Making a Free Thinker of the Old Soak — 6:54
23. 23 - Hail and Farewell—A Last Drink — 1:25
24. 24 - Hail and Farewell—In the Old Days — 1:23

Listen to this recording

Open the complete recording and player on Internet Archive. The player includes the full track list and available download formats.

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.