LibreCast Audiobooks

This is the audiobook version of Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, narrated by Elizabeth Klett. The only difference is that I cleaned up the recording (removed the narratorial introductions, reduced silences, etc.) slightly. You can pay what you want for an ebook version here, or download it for free, here: https://librecron.com/product/ethan-frome-by-edith-wharton/ 
Title: Ethan Frome
Author: Edith Wharton
Paperback: Norton Critical Edition
Adaptation: 1993 film

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This is the audiobook version of Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, narrated by Bob Neufeld. The only difference is that I cleaned up the recording (removed the narratorial introductions, reduced silences, etc.) slightly. You can pay what you want for an ebook version here, or download it for free: https://librecron.com/product/heart-of-darkness-by-joseph-conrad/
Title: Heart of Darkness
Author: Joseph Conrad
Criticism: An Image of Africa
Adaptations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_Darkness#Adaptations_and_influences
Paperback: Norton Critical Edition
Collection: Oxford World's Classics

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This is the audiobook version of On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau, narrated by Gordon Mackenzie. The only difference is that I cleaned up the recording (removed the narratorial introductions, reduced silences, etc.) slightly. You can get an ebook version for free here: https://librecron.com/product/on-the-duty-of-civil-disobedience-by-henry-david-thoreau/

Title: On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
Author: Henry David Thoreau
Impacted: Mahatma Gandhi
Impacted: Martin Luther King Jr.
Paperback: https://amzn.to/30sUlr9
Paperback Collection: Walden & Civil Disobedience
Hardcover Collection: Library of America Edition

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This is a complete recording of the audiobook version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, read by Phil Chenevert. The only difference is that I cleaned up the recording (removed the narratorial introductions, reduced silences, etc.). You can get an ebook version for free here: https://librecron.com/product/the-legend-of-sleepy-hollow-by-washington-irving/
Title: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 
Author: Washington Irving
Paperback: The Treasury of the Fantastic
Influence: Sleepy Hollow TV Show
Influence: 1999 Movie

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This is the audiobook version of The Time Machine by H. G. Wells and narrated by Mark F. Smith. The only difference is that I cleaned up the recording (removed the narratorial introductions, reduced silences, etc.) slightly. You can get an ebook version for free (or whatever price you're comfortable with) here: https://librecron.com/product/the-time-machine-by-h-g-wells/  
Title: The Time Machine
Author: H. G. Wells
Hardcover
Paperback
Authorized Sequel: The Time Ships
Influence: Back to the Future

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This is a complete recording of The Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson, narrated by Michael Scherer. The only difference is that I cleaned up the recording (removed the narratorial introductions, reduced silences, etc.) slightly. You can get an ebook version for free here: https://librecron.com/product/the-declaration-of-independence-of-the-united-states-of-america-by-thomas-jefferson/
The Declaration of Independence was created over the course of June & July of 1776, was ratified on July 4th, 1776 and signed in its entirety by August 2nd, 1776. The statement within was adopted by the Second Continental Congress – that the signatories and the colonies they represented would no longer be known as such. They threw off the yoke of British rule and declared their independence. In total, 56 delegates signed the document. The largest signature was that of John Hancock, the President of Congress (because of the size of his signature, his name has become a sort of synonym for “signature”).
The Committee of Five were the drafters and presenters of the document; they included Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. The committee decided that Jefferson should be the one to write the first draft and he did so over the course of 17 days. After finishing, he presented it to the Committee who reviewed it and made changes. After the review was done, Jefferson incorporated the changes and presented it, alongside the Committee, on June 28th, 1776. The presenting was illustrated decades later in the famous Declaration of Independence painting by John Trumbull.
A day before ratification, two passages were stricken from it. Jefferson recounted them in his autobiography:
The pusillanimous idea that we had friends in England worth keeping terms with still haunted the minds of many. For this reason, those passages which conveyed censures on the people of England were struck out, lest they should give them offense. The clause, too, reprobating the enslaving the inhabitants of Africa was struck out in complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves, and who, on the contrary, still wished to continue it. Our Northern brethren also, I believe, felt a little tender under these censures, for though their people had very few slaves themselves, yet they had been pretty considerable carriers of them to others.
The declaration has had a long, rich history. It has served as a source of inspiration to others, a reminder of the values of the United States, and ultimately, the first document that established the notion of a United States of America as opposed contiguous tracts of land. Alongside the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence is one of the most important documents in United States history.
To support a good cause and own a copy of the foundational documents, this compendium is a good starting place. To learn more about whether the ideal set forth by the Revolutionaries has been achieved, These Truths comes recommended.

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This is a complete recording of the United States Constitution, authored by the Philadelphia Convention and narrated by Michael Scherer. You can get an ebook version for free here: https://librecron.com/product/united-states-constitution-by-philadelphia-convention/
The United States Constitution – 4,543 words when it was first written (including the signatures), and 7,591 inclusive of the amendments – is, word for word, one of the strongest works ever written. More than 200 years later, it is still a hotly debated topic – perhaps not as much as it was when in its infancy, but still brought up daily. While everyone reads the same words, they draw different conclusions – what, exactly, did the framers mean when they used this or that word? What, really, is the extent of this or that power? Few wish to disregard it entirely, but more than a few prefer cherry-picking aspects they agree with.
Alongside the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, it is one of the foundational documents of the United States of America. The Bill of Rights is a part of the Constitution (the first 10 amendments, of the 27 total at this point in time) but was created and ratified after the Constitution, which is why it’s not included in the above download.
What exactly is the Constitution? It’s the supreme law of the United States of America. It defines what Americans have come to know: the three branches of government, the powers vested in them, the process for election to the federal government, the requirements for said election, the powers granted to the states, and the limits on each aspect of the government. It is a living document; it is not meant to be stagnant, but rather it ought to evolve with the times. The needs of the 19th century were different from he needs of the 18th century, when it was created; and the modern world is far different from anytime before. Change is not only allowed, but actively encouraged (albeit glacial).
To learn about how the Constitution came to be, this Library of America edition is a great start. To read more important documents integral to the United States, this is a good start.

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This is the audiobook version of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, read by Michelle Sullivan. The only difference is that I cleaned up the recording (removed the narratorial introductions, reduced silences, etc.) slightly. You can get an ebook version for free (or whatever price you're comfortable with) here: https://librecron.com/product/the-yellow-wallpaper-by-charlotte-perkins-gilman
When The Yellow Wallpaper (original title: The Yellow Wall-Paper: A Story) was first published in 1892, women still couldn’t vote in the United States. No, that would come decades later in 1920 with the passage of the 19th Amendment. Women’s suffrage has been a centuries long process, really picking up speed in the late 19th century. It was around this time that Charlotte Perkins Gilman penned what would be considered one of her most influential works, and one of the most important works of early American feminist literature.
The Yellow Wallpaper is told in the first person and is centered around an unnamed woman. Her husband has rented a mansion for a summer and they take the old nursery room which is covered in yellow wallpaper. John, her husband, is a physician and prescribes her bed rest to try and cure her “temporary nervous depression” – a common diagnosis for women at the time. Whether or not the narrator actually suffers from it, it was used to explain a multitude of problems that a woman at the time might’ve been experiencing. The treatment – bed rest – has long been prescribed as a treatment for any number of illnesses, but has not been medically proven to be beneficial to any of them; if anything, it might actually worsen a patients condition.
Gilman suffered her narrators woes herself. She suffered from years of depression and her doctor, Silas Weir Mitchell, prescribed her the treatment he had pioneered – the rest cure. Gilman was required to do nothing except rest – meaning she also could not write. She lasted 3 months on the treatment before nearly suffering a mental breakdown. It was after that that she wrote The Yellow Wallpaper.
Upon its release, the short story was published in the January 1892 New England Magazine after being rejected by Horace Scudder at the Atlantic Monthly. He, and others, rejected it for essentially being to horrifying – an odd complaint considering that Americans welcomed horror authors such as Edgar Allan Poe and others that wrote about insanity and mental instability. It wasn’t until the 60s and the rise and progress of second-wave feminism that it (and works by other female authors) was rediscovered and surged in popularity. Since then, it has been a mainstay in anthologies and collections.
When The Yellow Wallpaper first came out, it was treated as a horror story. Even now, it’s a difficult question to answer: is it more horrifying as a work of fiction where the narrator loses her mind, or as an autobiographical short story where the author almost lost her mind?
You can watch a short film adaptation of the story here. To read similar short stories, The Treasury of the Fantastic is a great starting point. To read more of Gilman’s works, this Oxford World’s Classic anthology is a great starting point.

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This is a complete recording of of the Inaugural Address by JFK. It is sourced from the JFK Library and is unedited. You can get an ebook version for free here: https://librecron.com/product/inaugural-address-by-john-f-kennedy/
On January 20th, 1961, John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president of the United States. On that day, he gave his only inaugural address; he was assassinated November 22nd, 1963. During his speech, Kennedy addressed several things – what it meant to be American, the problems facing the world (namely, the power to destroy civilization several times over), and the long road that Humanity, as a species, faced.
Kennedy wrote his inaugural address with the help of Ted Sorensen, his special counsel, adviser, and primary speechwriter. According to Sorensen, the most famous line in the speech – “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” – was written by Kennedy (although he later claimed that he didn’t remember who had come up with it).
As Kennedy came into power during the height of the Cold War, he had to strike a balance with his speech. He had to present the United States as a power that wouldn’t back down in the face of adversity or tense relations, but also as one that wouldn’t do anything to provoke another country. He stressed the importance of peaceful relations between America and other countries, and lending a helping hand to the parts of the world that were overrun with poverty.
The speech spoke to the importance of striking a balance. War couldn’t be used to solve every problem and with the advent of nuclear weapons, it was all the more imperative to ensure that rival nations (such as the United States and the U.S.S.R) not act in such a way to devolve relations. Ideally, they would come together in some way to bring the devastating power under control and use the power at their fingers to do what was right & just. Kennedy wanted separate sides to be able to reach across the table and meet the other on decisions that would be not only mutually beneficial, but beneficial to the world.
To learn more about JFK, The Classic Biography and Profiles in Courage are good starts. Five Days in November focuses on the assassination, while Let the Word go Forth focuses on his speeches and texts.

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This is a complete recording of the audiobook version of Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death by Patrick Henry, read by Bob Gonzalez. The only difference is that I cleaned up the recording (removed the narratorial introductions, reduced silences, etc.). You can get an ebook version for free here: https://librecron.com/product/give-me-liberty-or-give-me-death-by-patrick-henry/
Henry was a man of many talents – an attorney, orator, planter, two-time Governor of Virginia, and Founding Father. He also wasn’t someone who was prone to sitting by; after an unsuccessful business venture, Henry turned his focus to becoming a auto-didactic lawyer. He quickly rose to fame through his victory in the Parson’s Case and was later elected to the House of Burgesses.
Years later, his rhetorical prowess continued to serve him well. His oratorical skill garnered him significant popularity which he successfully parlayed into several one-year terms as Virginian governor. In 1775, after being elected as the delegate to the Second Virginia Convention in Richmond, Virginia, Henry delivered his famous speech. He was a fierce proponent of independence, recognizing early on that a militia would be required to win the freedoms that all those that were convened wanted. His speech had the intended effect; it swayed those that might’ve otherwise voted against the amendments to raise a militia.
After successfully founding a country, Henry seemed to want no part of the new government that was taking root. He was an opponent of the Constitution, in particular the powers it provided the president. Still, Washington tried to recruit Henry at one time or another for roles as diverse as Supreme Court Justice, Secretary of State, and minister to Spain. Henry rejected each role, however. He, like Washington, was viewed similarly to Cincinnatus, who, after serving his role as Dictator, returned to his life on the farm.
Throughout his life, Henry stuck to his views on most issues. He knew what he believed in and when he spoke, he roused others to act. His skill for oration, steadfast beliefs, and ability to sway the minds and actions of others cemented his legacy. And his lack of desire for more power made him a hero to the citizenry, who were only too happy to hand it to him when he did run for office.
To learn more about Patrick Henry, Lion of Liberty and First Among Patriots are good starting points. If you want a hard copy of his speech, you can get it here.

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