The Smoke Eaters: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Smoke Eaters, credited to Harvey Jerrold O'Higgins, 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 Smoke Eaters by Harvey Jerrold O'Higgins. Read in English by Lee Smalley This book vividly brings to life the unimaginable risks of fire-fighting and the bravery and personal interactions of Captain Meaghan and the crew of Hook & Ladder Company No. 0 in New York City. A 1905 review in the New York Times notes: “’The Smoke-Eaters’…is one of those rare good treats that fall to the reviewer’s lot…. There is enough humor and pathos of a grim and rugged sort, enough tense life and excitement and thrilling heroism to make a dozen...of the ordinary run of books, and it is all told with a straightforward simplicity that well accords with the single-hearted devotion to duty of the men who...‘eat smoke and spit black buttons’…. Not only are they the best sort of stories about firemen, but some of them would stand as models of all that any short story should be – so compact, so restrained, and yet possessed of a vigor and force that keep expectation keyed to the highest tension.” A pdf of the FULL REVIEW may be accessed here: – Lee Smalley

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Smoke Eaters
• Author credits: Harvey Jerrold O'Higgins
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 11
• Listed recording duration: 4:38:50

Catalogue topics

• new york city
• heroism
• bravery
• firemen
• firefighters

Track guide

1. 01 - The 'Red-Ink Squad' — 30:29
2. 02 - A Charge of Cowardice — 28:52
3. 03 - On Circumstantial Evidence — 28:54
4. 04 - Private Morphy's Romance — 21:15
5. 05 - In the Nature of a Hero — 26:15
6. 06 - Corrigan's Promotion — 22:46
7. 07 - Training 'Sally' Waters, Part I — 22:14
8. 08 - Training 'Sally' Waters, Part II — 25:40
9. 09 - A Question of Retirement — 24:29
10. 10 - A Personally Conducted Revolt — 30:13
11. 11 - Not for Publication — 17:20

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.