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"The Cruise of the Corwin is John Muir's account of a voyage he took in 1881 on the steamer Thomas Corwin, which set sail from San Francisco for arctic waters off the coast of Alaska in search of the Jeannette, a ship tragically lost two years before. The Jeannette was never found, but Muir's notes convey the excitement of exploring far and little-known horizons -- climbing frozen mountains, sketching glaciers, examining rare flora, discovering Wrangell Island off the coast of Siberia and claiming it for the United States, observing polar bears, seal, walrus, whale, and reindeer, describing ...

Excerpts from vintage catalogs, read in a soft, soothing voice and meant to lull you to sleep. Drift off to dreamland with details of such topics as bowling alley or railroad truck construction, art exhibits, and Kodak cameras. In other words, be bored to sleep. - Summary by Verla Viera

A collection of essays on things musical by Vernon Blackburn, including composers, music in different time periods, and modern music. (Summary by Mozartjr)

“[these essays on Shakespeare, Pepys, Restoration novels, and bohemianism]—the results of many hours of quiet but rather aimless browsing among books, and not of special investigations, undertaken with a view to definite scholastic ends. They are, moreover, as will readily be seen, completely unacademic in style and intention.” Published in 1897. Hudson (1841-1922) was a prolific author, naturalist, and ornithologist. His most popular book in the early 20th century was Green Mansions.

This is the sixteenth collection of our "coffee break" series, involving public domain works that are between about 3 and 15 minutes in length. These are great for study breaks, commutes, workouts, or any time you'd like to hear a whole story and only have a few minutes to devote to listening. The theme for this collection is "Crime", where crime or criminals are significant. Librivox readers have chosen a combination of social commentaries, newspaper reports of true crimes and criminals, letters, fictional accounts of the life of the criminal and short 'whodunnit' mysteries. - Summary by ...

A collection of essays regarding the pros and cons of prohibition of alcoholic beverages, principally in the United States. - Summary by KevinS

This is the twenty-first Coffee Break Collection, in which Librivox readers select English language public domain works of about 15 minutes or less in duration -- perfect to listen to during commutes, workouts or coffee breaks. The topic for this collection is fairy tales... traditional children's tales, tall stories and notorious scams and the authors of thm may be uncovered! Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, prose, essays... all are welcome here.

Shackleton's most famous expedition was planned to be an attempt to cross Antarctica from the Weddell Sea south of the Atlantic to the Ross Sea south of the Pacific, by way of the Pole. It set out from London on 1 August 1914 and reached the Weddell Sea on January 10, 1915, where the pack ice closed in on the Endurance. The ship was broken by the ice on 27 October 1915. The 28 crew members managed to flee to Elephant Island, bringing three small boats with them. Shackleton and five other men managed to reach the southern coast of South Georgia in one of the small boats (in a real epic journey)...

A collection of fifteen short nonfiction works in the public domain. The essays, speeches and reports included in this collection were independently selected by the readers, and the topics encompass history, politics, medicine, nature and religion. Included in this collection are speeches by George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses, several interesting or historic articles from Vanity Fair and the NY times, as well as writings of Eugene Debs, Alexander von Humboldt, Lena Morrow Lewis, Joseph Lister and C. M. Ellis. (summary by J. M. Smallheer)

A collection of short nonfiction works in the public domain. The selections included in this collection were independently chosen by the readers, and the topics encompass law, history, science, travel, philosophy, nature and religion. (summary by J. M. Smallheer)

A collection of ten short nonfiction works in the public domain. The essays, speeches and reports included in this collection were independently selected by the readers, and the topics encompass history, politics science and religion. Included in this collection are Martin Luther’s “Ninety-five Theses,” Jefferson Davis’ speech before the United States Senate in 1861 “On Withdrawing from the Union,” William E. Gladstone’s address delivered in the House of Commons in 1893 on “Irish Home Rule” and Wendell Phillips speech in 1837 in Fanuiel Hall in Boston regarding “The Murder ...

This collection showcases fabricated documents and stories throughout history, and the diversity of purposes and contexts they were deployed in.The "Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery of Montreal" is a fabricated anti-Catholic eye-witness account, published in 1836 and purporting to reveal the horrors of life in a convent. The Donation of Constantine is a forged imperial decree, supposedly enacting a perpetual transfer of authority over the western part of the Roman Empire from the emperor to the Pope. George Psalmanazar, who passed himself off as a native of Formosa (Taiwan), wrote a...

Voltairine de Cleyre (1866–1912) was, according to Emma Goldman, "the most gifted and brilliant anarchist woman America ever produced." Today she is not widely known as a consequence of her short life. De Cleyre was especially influenced by Thomas Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft and Clarence Darrow. After the hanging of the Haymarket protesters in 1887, she became an anarchist. "Till then I believed in the essential justice of the American law of trial by jury," she wrote in an autobiographical essay, "After that I never could." She was known as an excellent speaker and writer – in the opinion ...

Seven chapters involving Christmas from different books. Plus part 8 which is twelve verses about Christmas and part 9 which is four Christmas carols by Christina Rossetti. - Summary by David Wales

The Work now given to the Public is the result of a series of recent excursions into the interior of the Colony of New South Wales, at intervals of disengagement from professional duties, and at periods of the year best calculated for observations in natural history. To this are added a detail of such incidents as appeared to the Author worthy of notice, while visiting Batavia, Singapore, China, &c. on his return to England. The writer in his narrative has limited himself principally, if not entirely, to the notes taken at the instant of observation, his object being to relate facts in the ...

A collection of essays on 19th century novelists, both famous ones and those largely forgotten now. Among the writers presented most wrote in English, but three foreign authors are also discussed. Phelps taught a course on novels at a university and he added to those biographical essays some of his ideas about the importance of novels in the process of teaching about literature. (Summary by Piotr Nater)

Capt. Robert F. Scott's bid to be the leader of the first expedition to reach the South Pole is one of the most famous journeys of all time. What started as a scientific expedition turned out to be an unwilling race against a team lead by R. Admunsen to reach the Pole. The Norwegian flag already stood at the end of the trail when Scott's party reached their target. All the five men of the Scott expedition who took part in the last march to the Pole perished on their way back to safety. Robert F. Scott kept a journal throughout the journey, all the way to the tragic end, documenting all aspects...

After the bizarre death of Thomas Simpson, Dr. John Rae was chosen to complete the survey of the Northwest Passage, linking the work of Simpson and Peter Dease with the previously known country to the east. Rae was recognized for his endurance and skill in wilderness travel, adopting the methods of the native peoples often eschewed by other European explorers. This is his report on the initial work in the years 1846-47. The final link was made to the surveys of Simpson and Dease several years later (1848-51). - Summary by Fritz

The Crisis is the official publication of the NAACP first published in 1910 with W. E. B. Du Bois, one of the founders, as editor. He exercised almost total control of the content and opinions of the publication until he resigned in 1934. Du Bois was one of the most ardent advocates for total civil rights for all racial minorities and was a prolific author for the cause. From Du Bois’ editorial: “The object of this publication is to set forth those facts and arguments which show the danger of race prejudice, particularly as manifested to-day toward colored people. It takes its name from ...

A non-fictional account of Burke and Wills's 1860 expedition to cross the Australian continent from south to north and then return. Containing many excerpts from the diaries and accounts of the explorers, this book was published the year after the expedition met its disastrous end. More information at Wikipedia: Burke and Wills Expedition. (description written by trioptimum)