The Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-52: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-52, credited to Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe, 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 Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-52 by Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe (Dame Shirley). Read by rachelellen. Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe moved to California from Massachusetts during the Gold Rush of the mid-1800’s. During her travels, Louise was offered the opportunity to write for The Herald about her travel adventures. It was at this point that Louise chose the name “Shirley” as her pen name. Dame Shirley wrote a series of 23 letters to her sister Mary Jane (also known as Molly) in Massachusetts in 1851 and 1852. The “Shirley Letters”, as the collected whole later became known, gave true accounts of life in two gold mining camps on the Feather River in the 1850s. She described these camps in Northern California with vividness in portraying the wildness of Gold Rush life. The letters give detailed accounts of the vast and beautiful landscape that was the background to the hustle and bustle of mining life. Louise’s perspective as a woman provided a contrast to the typically all-male mining camps that she occupied. The letters were later published in the Pioneer, a California literary magazine based out of San Francisco. (from wikipedia) For more free audiobooks, or to become a volunteer reader, please visit librivox.org.

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-52
• Author credits: Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 24
• Listed recording duration: 6:07:57

Catalogue topics

• Dame Shirley
• mining camps
• 1850's
• California
• letters
• gold rush

Track guide

1. 00 - Introduction — 16:08
2. Letter 01 - The Journey to Rich Bar — 32:19
3. Letter 02 - Rich Bar - Its Hotels and Pioneer Families — 10:14
4. Letter 03 - Life and Fortune at the Bar-Diggings — 12:28
5. Letter 04 - Accidents-Surgery-Death-Festivity — 10:44
6. Letter 05 - Death of a Mother - Life of Pioneer Women — 8:20
7. Letter 06 - Use of Profanity - Uncertainty of Mining — 8:03
8. Letter 07 - The New Log-cabin Home at Indian Bar — 16:43
9. Letter 08 - Life and Characters at Indian Bar — 14:40
10. Letter 09 - Theft of Gold-Dust - Trial and Punishment — 17:06
11. Letter 10 - Amateur Mining-Hairbreadth 'Scapes, &c. — 15:45
12. Letter 11 - Robbery, Trial, Execution - More Tragedy — 13:28
13. Letter 12 - A Stormy Winter - Holiday Saturnalias — 13:14
14. Letter 13 - Sociability and Excitements of Mining-life — 13:30
15. Letter 14 - Springtide - Linguistics - Storms - Accidents — 15:39
16. Letter 15 - Mining Methods - Miners, Gamblers, Etc. — 19:17
17. Letter 16 - Birth - Stabbing - Foreigners Ousted - Revels — 5:45
18. Letter 17 - Supplies by Pack-Mules - Kanakas and Indians — 16:07
19. Letter 18 - Fourth of July Festival - Spanish Attacked — 12:03
20. Letter 19 - Murder, Theft, Riot, Hanging, Whipping, &c. — 23:40
21. Letter 20 - Murder - Mining Scenes - Spanish Breakfast — 15:05
22. Letter 21 - Discomforts of Trip to Political Convention — 21:30
23. Letter 22 - The Overland Tide of Immigration — 19:05
24. Letter 23 - Mining Failures - Departure from Indian Bar — 17:19

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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.