Woodcraft: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Woodcraft, credited to Nessmuk, 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 Woodcraft by Nessmuk. Read in English by Phil Schempf George Washington Sears, who many know better by his pen name "Nessmuk", was an outdoor writer during the last half of the 19th century, writing most often for the magazine "Field and Forest", the predecessor of today's "Field and Stream". "Woodcraft" is his book for "outers" with his tips on how to "smooth it" rather than rough it in the woods. Although some of his methods, equipment and mores may be out of date or objectionable to modern readers, his stories of true wilderness travel tinged with his subtle humor still have messages for those venturing out of doors. His small stature and compromised health made him a proponent of lightweight backpacking and canoe travel with only essential gear, a lesson still relevant today. There is a reason why "Woodcraft" and the slightly abridged, "Woodcraft and Camping", have been continuously in print since its original publication. - Summary by Fritz

Recording facts

• Recording title: Woodcraft
• Author credits: Nessmuk
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 10
• Listed recording duration: 3:29:34

Catalogue topics

• camping
• nessmuk
• canoeing
• wilderness travel

Track guide

1. 01 - Overwork and Recreation - Outing and Outers - How to do it, and why they miss it — 10:35
2. 02 - Knapsack, Hatchet, Tinware, Fishing Tackle, Rods, Ditty-bag — 14:15
3. 03 - Getting Lost - Camping Out - Roughing It or Smoothing It - Insects - Camps, and how to make them — 29:53
4. 04 - Campfires and their importance - The wasteful wrong way they are usually made, and the right way to make them — 12:52
5. 05 - Fishing, with and without flies - Some Tackle and Lures - Discursive remarks on the Gentle Art - The Headlight - Frogging — 29:59
6. 06 - Camp Cookery - How it is usually done, with a few simple hints on plain cooking - Cooking Fire and the Outdoor Range — 26:59
7. 07 - More hints on cooking, with some simple receipts - Bread, Potatoes, Soups, Stews, Beans, Fish, Meat, Venison — 33:48
8. 08 - A Ten Days' Trip in the Wilderness - Going It Alone — 21:41
9. 09 - The Light Canoe and the Double Blade - Various Canoes for Various Canoeists - Reasons for preferring the Clinker-Built Cedar — 16:06
10. 10 - Odds and Ends - Where to go for an outing - Why a Clinker? - Boughs and Browse — 13:26

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.