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121-522: Library service began on June 19, 1899, when a collection was started above McBryde's Drugstore on Dexter Avenue. Funds were gathered largely from a promotion by the Montgomery Advertiser. The Montgomery Library Association was by subscription membership of $ 1.00 Miss Laura M. Elmore was the city's first librarian. the founders of said institution have ever had in mind not a subscription or private library, but an institution that might become

242-438: A Presbyterian wedding ceremony performed by Amasa Converse at their Richmond boarding house, with a witness falsely attesting Clemm's age as 21. In 1838, Poe relocated to Philadelphia , where he lived at four different residences between 1838 and 1844, one of which at 532 N. 7th Street has been preserved as a National Historic Landmark . That same year, Poe's only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket

363-550: A 40-page collection of poetry titled Tamerlane and Other Poems , attributed only to "A Bostonian". 50 copies were printed, and the book received virtually no attention. Poe's 1st Regiment of Artillery was posted to Fort Moultrie in Charleston, South Carolina , before embarking on the brig Waltham on November 8, 1827. Poe was promoted to "artificer", an enlisted tradesman tasked with preparing shells for artillery. His monthly pay doubled. Poe served for two years, attaining

484-431: A 5-hour book, the narrator is paid for 5 hours, thus providing an incentive not to make mistakes. Depending on the narrator they are paid US$ 150 per finished hour to US$ 400 (as of 2011 ). Many narrators also work as producers and deliver fully produced audiobooks, which have been edited, mastered, and proofed. They may charge an extra $ 75–$ 125 per finished hour in addition to their narration fee to coordinate and pay for

605-738: A college education to all veterans, but texts were mostly inaccessible to the recently blinded veterans, who did not read Braille and had little access to live readers. Macdonald mobilized the women of the Auxiliary under the motto "Education is a right, not a privilege". Members of the Auxiliary transformed the attic of the New York Public Library into a studio, recording textbooks using then state-of-the-art six-inch vinyl SoundScriber phonograph discs that played approximately 12 minutes of material per side. In 1952, Macdonald established recording studios in seven additional cities across

726-548: A diamond ring on every finger. It is believed that only twelve copies have survived of Poe's first book Tamerlane and Other Poems . In December 2009, one copy sold at Christie's auctioneers in New York City for $ 662,500, a record price paid for a work of American literature. Eureka: A Prose Poem , an essay written in 1848, included a cosmological theory that presaged the Big Bang theory by 80 years, as well as

847-405: A disability or illness which makes it difficult to hold a book, turn its pages, or read in the usual way, this includes people with visual, physical, learning or mental health difficulties. They have audiobooks for both leisure and learning and a library of over 7,500 titles which are recorded in their own digital studios or commercially sourced. The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB)

968-465: A dormitory. Allan did send additional money and clothes, but Poe's debts increased. Poe gave up on the university after a year, but did not feel welcome to return to Richmond, especially when he learned that his sweetheart, Royster, had married another man, Alexander Shelton. Instead, he traveled to Boston in April 1827, sustaining himself with odd jobs as a clerk and newspaper contributor. Poe started using

1089-593: A few libraries, such as the Library of Congress, began distributing books on cassette by 1969. However, during the 1970s, a number of technological innovations allowed the cassette tape wider usage in libraries and also spawned the creation of new commercial audiobook market. These innovations included the introduction of small and cheap portable players such as the Walkman , and the widespread use of cassette decks in cars, particularly imported Japanese models which flooded

1210-478: A few stories with a Philadelphia publication and began work on his only drama, Politian . The Baltimore Saturday Visiter awarded him a prize in October 1833 for his often overlooked short story " MS. Found in a Bottle ". The tale brought him to the attention of John P. Kennedy , a Baltimorean of considerable means who helped Poe place some of his other stories and introduced him to Thomas W. White, editor of

1331-561: A form of electoral fraud in which citizens were forced to vote for a particular candidate, sometimes leading to violence and even murder. Immediately after Poe's death, his literary rival Rufus Wilmot Griswold , wrote a slanted, high-profile obituary under a pseudonym, filled with falsehoods that cast Poe as a lunatic, and which described him as a person who "walked the streets, in madness or melancholy, with lips moving in indistinct curses, or with eyes upturned in passionate prayers, (never for himself, for he felt, or professed to feel, that he

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1452-564: A free means of culture and inspiration to all the classes and factions of our people. from the first constitution of the Montgomery Library Association, 1898. First free public library in Montgomery. Laying of the cornerstone took place in 1902. Holdings included about 2,000 books in 1904. By December 25, 1910, the library's holdings had increased to 10,000 with 5,000 registered borrowers. On April 5, 1949

1573-596: A good way to multitask. Another stated reason for choosing audiobooks over other formats is that an audio performance makes some books more interesting. Common practices of listening include: Founded in 1948, Learning Ally serves more than 300,000 K–12, college and graduate students, veterans and lifelong learners—all of whom cannot read standard print due to blindness, visual impairment, dyslexia, or other learning disabilities. Learning Ally's collection of more than 80,000 human-narrated textbooks and literature titles can be downloaded on mainstream smartphones and tablets, and

1694-541: A grudge against Poe since 1842. Griswold somehow became Poe's literary executor and attempted to destroy his enemy's reputation after his death. Griswold wrote a biographical article of Poe called "Memoir of the Author", which he included in an 1850 volume of the collected works. There he depicted Poe as a depraved, drunken, drug-addled madman, including some of Poe's "letters" as evidence. Many of his claims were either outright lies or obvious distortions; for example, there

1815-678: A little more pains over it: the result hardly does credit to the method." Biographer Joseph Wood Krutch described the essay as "a rather highly ingenious exercise in the art of rationalization". During his lifetime, Poe was mostly recognized as a literary critic. The vast majority of Edgar Allan Poe's writings are nonfictional. Contemporary critic James Russell Lowell called him, “the most discriminating, philosophical, and fearless critic upon imaginative works who has written in America,” suggesting—rhetorically—that he occasionally used prussic acid instead of ink. Poe's often caustic reviews earned him

1936-501: A living as a writer were mostly unsuccessful. However, he eventually managed to earn a living by his pen alone, becoming one of the first American authors to do so. His efforts were initially hampered by the lack of an international copyright law . American publishers often chose to sell unauthorized copies of works by British authors rather than pay for new work written by Americans, regardless of merit. The initially anemic reception of Edgar Allan Poe's work may also have been influenced by

2057-422: A lot of policy support related to the industry, and secondly, Audiobook production environment infrastructure was insufficient. Third, research and technology development, such as academia, has not been active in order to continue to grow as an Audiobook industry. Producing an audiobook consists of a narrator sitting in a recording booth reading the text, while a studio engineer and a director record and direct

2178-669: A maximum of 4 hours, one Sound Book could hold eight hours of recordings as it ran at half the speed or 9.5 CPS. However, just like the Tefifon, the format never became widespread in use. A small number of books are recorded for radio broadcast , usually in abridged form and sometimes serialized. Audiobooks may come as fully dramatized versions of the printed book, sometimes calling upon a complete cast, music, and sound effects. Effectively audio dramas , these audiobooks are known as full-cast audiobooks. BBC radio stations Radio 3 , Radio 4 , and Radio 4 Extra have broadcast such productions as

2299-622: A musical rendition of Rumpelstiltskin narrated by Jim Dale , and featuring a cast of Broadway musical stars. Audiobooks have been used to teach children to read and to increase reading comprehension. They are also useful for the blind . The National Library of Congress in the U.S. and the CNIB Library in Canada provide fees for audiobook library services to the visually impaired; requested books are mailed out (at no cost) to clients. Founded in 1996, Assistive Media of Ann Arbor, Michigan

2420-681: A page saying, "To the U.S. Corps of Cadets this volume is respectfully dedicated". It once again reprinted the somewhat lengthy poems, “Tamerlane,” and “Al Araaf,” while also including six previously unpublished poems, conspicuous among which are, “ To Helen ", and " The City in the Sea ". Poe returned to Baltimore and to his aunt, brother, and cousin in March 1831. His elder brother Henry had been seriously ill for some time, in part due to complications resulting from alcoholism, and he died on August 1, 1831. After his brother's death, Poe's earnest attempts to make

2541-601: A period." Around this time, Poe attempted to secure a position in the administration of John Tyler , claiming that he was a member of the Whig Party . He hoped to be appointed to the United States Custom House in Philadelphia with help from President Tyler's son Robert , an acquaintance of Poe's friend Frederick Thomas. However, Poe failed to appear for a meeting with Thomas to discuss

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2662-427: A regular column to cover the industry. By the end of 1987, the audiobook market was estimated to be a $ 200 million market, and audiobooks on cassette were being sold in 75% of regional and independent bookstores surveyed by Publishers Weekly . By August 1988 there were forty audiobook publishers, about four times as many as in 1984. By the middle of the 1990s, the audio publishing business grew to 1.5 billion dollars

2783-507: A relationship with his childhood sweetheart Sarah Elmira Royster. On October 3, 1849, Poe was found semiconscious in Baltimore , "in great distress, and... in need of immediate assistance", according to Joseph W. Walker, who found him. He was taken to Washington Medical College , where he died on Sunday, October 7, 1849, at 5:00 in the morning. Poe was not coherent long enough to explain how he came to be in his dire condition and why he

2904-515: A review of his poetry by influential critic John Neal , which prompted Poe to dedicate one of the poems to Neal in his second book, Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems , published in Baltimore in 1829. Poe traveled to West Point and matriculated as a cadet on July 1, 1830. In October 1830, Allan married his second wife Louisa Patterson. This marriage and the bitter quarrels with Poe over children born to Allan out of extramarital affairs led to

3025-485: A system of student self-government, allowing students to choose their own studies, make their own arrangements for boarding, and report all wrongdoing to the faculty. The unique system was rather chaotic, and there was a high dropout rate. During his time there, Poe lost touch with Royster and also became estranged from his foster father over gambling debts. He claimed that Allan had not given him sufficient money to register for classes, purchase texts, or procure and furnish

3146-426: A third volume of poems, simply titled, Poems . The book was financed with help from his fellow cadets at West Point, some of whom donated as much as 75 cents to the cause. The total raised was approximately $ 170. They may have been expecting verses similar to the satirical ones Poe had written about commanding officers in the past. The book was printed by Elam Bliss of New York, labeled as "Second Edition", and included

3267-731: A traveling salesman who listened to sales tapes while driving long distances, had the idea to create quality unabridged recordings of classic literature read by professional actors. His company, the Maryland-based Recorded Books , followed the model of Books on Tape but with higher quality studio recordings and actors. Recorded Books and Chivers Audio Books were the first to develop integrated production teams and to work with professional actors. By 1984, there were eleven audiobook publishing companies, they included Caedmon, Metacom, Newman Communications, Recorded Books, Brilliance and Books on Tape. The companies were small,

3388-548: A two-story brick house called Moldavia. Poe may have become engaged to Sarah Elmira Royster before he registered at the University of Virginia in February 1826 to study ancient and modern languages. The university was in its infancy, established on the ideals of its founder, Thomas Jefferson . It had strict rules against gambling, horses, guns, tobacco, and alcohol, but these rules were mostly ignored. Jefferson enacted

3509-795: A year in retail value. In 1996, the Audio Publishers Association established the Audie Awards for audiobooks, which is equivalent to the Oscar for the audiobook industry. The nominees are announced each year by February. The winners are announced at a gala banquet in May, usually in conjunction with BookExpo America . With the spread of the Internet to consumers in the 1990s, faster download speeds with broadband technologies, new compressed audio formats and portable media players,

3630-643: A year later from pulmonary tuberculosis . Poe was then taken into the home of John Allan, a successful merchant in Richmond, Virginia , who dealt in a variety of goods, including cloth, wheat, tombstones, tobacco, and slaves. The Allans served as a foster family and gave him the name "Edgar Allan Poe", although they never formally adopted him. The Allan family had Poe baptized into the Episcopal Church in 1812. John Allan alternately spoiled and aggressively disciplined his foster son. The family sailed to

3751-431: Is a UK charity providing a subscription-free service of unabridged audiobooks for people with sight problems, dyslexia or other disabilities, who cannot read print. They have a library of over 8,550 fiction and non-fiction titles which can be borrowed by post on MP3 CDs and memory sticks or via streaming. Listening Books is a UK audiobook charity providing an internet streaming, download and postal service to anyone who has

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3872-580: Is a UK charity which offers a Talking Books library service. The audiobooks are provided in DAISY format and delivered to the reader's house by post as a CD or USB memory stick. There are over 30,000 audiobooks available to borrow, which are free to print disabled library members. RNIB subsidises the Talking Books service by around £4 million a year. Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe ( né   Edgar Poe ; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849)

3993-786: Is alleged to have begun to drink heavily due to the stress he suffered as a result of her illness. He then left Graham's and attempted to find a new position, for a time again angling for a government post. He finally decided to return to New York where he worked briefly at the Evening Mirror before becoming editor of the Broadway Journal , and later its owner. There Poe alienated himself from other writers by, among other things, publicly accusing Henry Wadsworth Longfellow of plagiarism , though Longfellow never responded. Poe later emended his accusations by expressing his belief that many writers, having absorbed ideas from others in

4114-468: Is an oversimplification. Poe was increasingly unstable after his wife's death. He attempted to court the poet Sarah Helen Whitman , who lived in Providence, Rhode Island . Their engagement failed, purportedly because of Poe's drinking and erratic behavior. There is also strong evidence that Whitman's mother intervened and did much to derail the relationship. Poe then returned to Richmond and resumed

4235-606: Is because Audiobooks are primarily seen as an avenue for self-improvement and education, rather than entertainment. Audiobooks are being released in various Indian languages. In Malayalam , the first audio novel, titled Ouija Board, was released by Kathacafe in 2018. In the Korean publishing sector, since the audiobook business began in 2000, it has disappeared due to its failure to achieve meaningful results. Nearly 20 years later, interest in mobile has increased in 2019, but there are still tasks to be solved. First, Audiobook lacked

4356-436: Is described in the section on the 1970s). The final year that cassettes represented greater than 50% of total market sales was 2002. Cassettes were replaced by CDs as the dominant medium during 2003–2004. CDs reached a peak of 78% of sales in 2008, then began to decline in favor of digital downloads. The 2012 survey found CDs accounted for "nearly half" of all sales meaning it was no longer the dominant medium (APA did not report

4477-487: Is generally considered to be the inventor of the detective fiction genre. In addition, he is credited with contributing significantly to the emergence of science fiction . He is the first well-known American writer to earn a living by writing alone, which resulted in a financially difficult life and career. Poe was born in Boston . He was the second child of actors David and Elizabeth "Eliza" Poe . His father abandoned

4598-412: Is little to no evidence that Edgar Allan Poe was a drug addict. Griswold's book was denounced by those who knew Poe well, including John Neal, who published an article defending Poe and attacking Griswold as a " Rhadamanthus , who is not to be bilked of his fee, a thimble-full of newspaper notoriety". Griswold's book nevertheless became a popularly accepted biographical source. This was in part because it

4719-407: Is the largest of its kind in the world. Founded in 2002, Bookshare is an online library of computer-read audiobooks in accessible formats for people with print disabilities. Founded in 2005, LibriVox is also an online library of downloadable audiobooks and a free non for profit organisation developed by Hugh McGuire. It has public domain audiobooks in several languages. Calibre Audio Library

4840-491: Is when commuting with an automobile or while traveling with public transport, as an alternative to radio or music. Many people listen as well just to relax or as they drift off to sleep. A recent survey released by the Audio Publishers Association found that the overwhelming majority of audiobook users listen in the car, and more than two-thirds of audiobook buyers described audiobooks as relaxing and

4961-679: The Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond. In 1835, Poe became assistant editor of the Southern Literary Messenger , but White discharged him within a few weeks, allegedly for being drunk on the job. Poe then returned to Baltimore , where he obtained a license to marry his cousin Virginia on September 22, 1835, though it is unknown if they were actually married at that time. He was 26 and she

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5082-768: The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) and Library of Congress Books for the Adult Blind Project established the "Talking Books Program" ( Books for the Blind ), which was intended to provide reading material for veterans injured during World War I and other visually impaired adults. The first test recordings in 1932 included a chapter from Helen Keller 's Midstream and Edgar Allan Poe 's " The Raven ". The organization received congressional approval for exemption from copyright and free postal distribution of talking books. The first recordings made for

5203-797: The Audio Publishers Association , a professional non-profit trade association, was established by publishers who joined to promote awareness of spoken word audio and provide industry statistic. Time-Life began offering members audiobooks. Book-of-the-Month club began offering audiobooks to its members, as did the Literary Guild . Other clubs such as the History Book Club , Get Rich Club, Nostalgia Book Club, Scholastic club for children all began offering audiobooks. Publishers began releasing religious and inspirational titles in Christian bookstores. By May 1987, Publishers Weekly initiated

5324-467: The Jesuits at St. John's College, now Fordham University . Virginia died at the cottage on January 30, 1847. Biographers and critics often suggest that Poe's frequent theme of the "death of a beautiful woman" stems from the repeated loss of women throughout his life, including his wife. However, as Poe was a prolific writer before Virginia's death, others have suggested that this explanation of his work

5445-655: The Panic of 1837 . There was a booming growth in American periodicals around this time, fueled in part by new technology, but many did not last beyond a few issues. Publishers often refused to pay their writers or paid them much later than they promised, and Poe repeatedly resorted to humiliating pleas for money and other assistance. After his early attempts at poetry, Poe turned his attention to prose, perhaps based on John Neal's critiques in The Yankee magazine. He placed

5566-538: The United States Army under the assumed name of Edgar A. Perry, he published his first collection, Tamerlane and Other Poems , which was credited only to "a Bostonian". Poe and Allan reached a temporary rapprochement after the death of Allan's wife Frances in 1829. However, Poe later failed as an officer cadet at West Point , declared his intention to become a writer, primarily of poems, and parted ways with Allan. Poe switched his focus to prose, and spent

5687-493: The William Gibson novel Neuromancer . An audio first production is a spoken word audio work that is an original production but not based on a book. Examples include Joe Hill , the son of Stephen King , who released a Vinyl First audiobook called Dark Carousel in 2018. It came in a 2-LP vinyl set, or as a downloadable MP3, but with no published text. Another example includes Spin, The Audiobook Musical (2018),

5808-466: The pseudonym Henri Le Rennet during this period. As Poe was unable to support himself, he decided to enlist in the United States Army as a private on May 27, 1827, using the name "Edgar A. Perry". Although he claimed that he was 22 years old , he was actually 18. He first served at Fort Independence in Boston Harbor for five dollars a month. That same year, his first book was published,

5929-464: The 1930s. Many spoken word albums were made prior to the age of cassettes , compact discs , and downloadable audio , often of poetry and plays rather than books. It was not until the 1980s that the medium began to attract book retailers, and then book retailers started displaying audiobooks on bookshelves rather than in separate displays. The term "talking book" came into being in the 1930s with government programs designed for blind readers, while

6050-704: The 19th century to become more popular in Europe than in the United States. Poe was particularly esteemed in France, in part due to early translations of his work by Charles Baudelaire . Baudelaire's translations became definitive renditions of Poe's work in Continental Europe. Poe's early mystery tales featuring the detective, C. Auguste Dupin , though not numerous, laid the groundwork for similar characters that would eventually become famous throughout

6171-590: The Allans in 1820. In 1824, he served as the lieutenant of the Richmond youth honor guard as the city celebrated the visit of the Marquis de Lafayette . In March 1825, Allan's uncle and business benefactor William Galt died, who was said to be one of the wealthiest men in Richmond, leaving Allan several acres of real estate. The inheritance was estimated at $ 750,000 (equivalent to $ 20,000,000 in 2023). By summer 1825, Allan celebrated his expansive wealth by purchasing

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6292-492: The Blind , founded in 1955. Actors from the municipal theater in Münster recorded the first audiobooks for the visually impaired in an improvised studio lined with egg cartons. Because trams rattled past, these first productions took place at night. Later, texts were recorded by trained speakers in professional studios and distributed to users by mail. Until the 1970s recordings were on tape reels, then later cassettes. Since 2004,

6413-664: The CD format. According to the National Endowment for the Arts ' study, "Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America" (2004), audiobook listening increases general literacy. Audiobooks are considered a valuable tool because of their format. Unlike traditional books or a video program, one can listen to an audiobook while doing other tasks. Such tasks include doing the laundry, exercising, weeding and similar activities. The most popular general use of audiobooks by adults

6534-586: The English language, and noted its influence on later authors such as Doyle, Henry James , B. Traven , and David Morrell . Horror author and historian H. P. Lovecraft was heavily influenced by Poe's horror tales, dedicating an entire section of his long essay, " Supernatural Horror in Literature ", to his influence on the genre. In his letters, Lovecraft described Poe as his "God of Fiction". Lovecraft's earliest stories are clearly influenced by Poe. At

6655-737: The Inner Life in 1863, in which she claimed to have "received" new compositions by Poe. However, the writings appeared to be simple revisions of previously published poems. Poe has also received criticism. This is partly because of the negative perception of his personal character and its influence upon his reputation. William Butler Yeats was occasionally critical of Poe and once called him "vulgar". Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson reacted to "The Raven" by saying, "I see nothing in it", and derisively referred to Poe as "the jingle man". Aldous Huxley wrote that Poe's writing "falls into vulgarity" by being "too poetical"—the equivalent of wearing

6776-575: The Mountains of Madness directly quotes him. Lovecraft made extensive use of Poe's concept of the “unity of effect” in his fiction. Alfred Hitchcock once said, "It's because I liked Edgar Allan Poe's stories so much that I began to make suspense films". Many references to Poe's works are present in Vladimir Nabokov 's novels. Other writers inspired by Poe's poetry and fiction include, but are not limited to, Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, and

6897-513: The Penn Magazine, a Monthly Literary journal to be edited and published in the city of Philadelphia by Edgar A. Poe." However, Poe died before the journal could be produced. Poe left Burton's after a year and found a position as writer and co-editor at Graham's Magazine , which was a successful monthly publication. In the last number of Graham's for 1841, Poe was among the co-signatories to an editorial note of celebration concerning

7018-687: The Talking Books Program in 1934 included sections of the Bible; the Declaration of Independence and other patriotic documents; plays and sonnets by Shakespeare; and fiction by Gladys Hasty Carroll , E. M. Delafield , Cora Jarrett , Rudyard Kipling , John Masefield , and P. G. Wodehouse . To save costs and quickly build inventories of audiobooks, Britain and the United States shared recordings in their catalogs. By looking at old catalogs, historian Matthew Rubery has "probably" identified

7139-795: The United Kingdom in 1815, and Poe attended a grammar school for a short period in Irvine, Ayrshire , Scotland, where Allan was born, before rejoining the family in London in 1816. There he studied at a boarding school in Chelsea until summer 1817. He was subsequently entered at the Reverend John Bransby 's Manor House School in Stoke Newington , then a suburb 4 miles (6 km) north of London. Poe moved to Richmond with

7260-584: The United States. Caedmon Records was a pioneer in the audiobook business. It was the first company dedicated to selling spoken work recordings to the public and has been called the "seed" of the audiobook industry. Caedmon was formed in New York in 1952 by college graduates Barbara Holdridge and Marianne Roney. Their first release was a collection of poems by Dylan Thomas as read by the author. The LP 's B-side contained A Child's Christmas in Wales , which

7381-498: The appointment in mid-September 1842, claiming to have been sick, though Thomas believed that he had been drunk. Poe was promised an appointment, but all positions were eventually filled by others. One evening in January 1842, Virginia showed the first signs of consumption, or tuberculosis , while singing and playing the piano, which Poe described as the breaking of a blood vessel in her throat. She only partially recovered, and Poe

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7502-512: The audio content is preloaded and sold together with a hardware device. In 1955, a German inventor introduced the Sound Book cassette system based on the Tefifon format where instead of a magnetic tape the sound was recorded on a continuous loop of grooved vinylite ribbon similar to the old 8-track tape . Even though the original Tefifon upon which it was based ran at 19 CPS and could hold

7623-561: The audiobook industry in the United States". Caedmon used LP records, invented in 1948, which made longer recordings more affordable and practical, however most of their works were poems, plays and other short works, not unabridged books due to the LP's limitation of about a 45-minute playing time (combined sides). Listening Library was also a pioneering company, it was one of the first to distribute children's audiobooks to schools, libraries and other special markets, including VA hospitals. It

7744-429: The beat generation's Allen Ginsberg. In Japan, Edogawa Ranpo was so inspired by Poe that his pen name is a rendering of his name into Japanese. Poe's works have spawned many imitators. One trend among Poe's more ardent fans has been the tendency to employ clairvoyants or psychics to "channel” original poems from Poe's spirit. One of the most notable of these manuscripts was by Lizzie Doten , who published, Poems from

7865-409: The brain" or "cerebral inflammation", common euphemisms for death from disreputable causes such as alcoholism. The actual cause of death remains a mystery. Speculation has included delirium tremens , heart disease , epilepsy , syphilis , meningeal inflammation , cholera , carbon monoxide poisoning , and rabies . One theory dating from 1872 suggests that Poe's death resulted from cooping ,

7986-717: The day after her burial. Perhaps softened by his wife's death, Allan agreed to support Poe's desire to receive an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York . Poe was finally discharged on April 15, 1829, after securing a replacement to finish his enlistment. Before entering West Point, he moved to Baltimore, where he stayed with his widowed aunt, Maria Clemm, her daughter Virginia Eliza Clemm (Poe's first cousin), his brother Henry, and his invalid grandmother Elizabeth Cairnes Poe. That September, Poe received "the very first words of encouragement I ever remember to have heard" in

8107-589: The density and rotation of planets. Poe had a keen interest in cryptography . He had placed a notice of his abilities in the Philadelphia paper Alexander's Weekly (Express) Messenger , inviting submissions of ciphers which he proceeded to solve. In July 1841, Poe had published an essay called "A Few Words on Secret Writing" in Graham's Magazine . Capitalizing on public interest in the topic, he wrote " The Gold-Bug " incorporating ciphers as an essential part of

8228-454: The development of literature throughout the world and even impacted such specialized fields as cosmology and cryptography . Since his death, he and his writings have appeared throughout popular culture in such fields as art, photography, literary allusions, music, motion pictures, and television . Several of his homes are dedicated museums. In addition, The Mystery Writers of America presents an annual Edgar Award for distinguished work in

8349-466: The didactic", writing poetry that was preachy, derivative, and thematically plagiarized. Poe correctly predicted that Longfellow's reputation and style of poetry would decline, concluding, "We grant him high qualities, but deny him the Future". Poe became known as the creator of a type of fiction that was difficult to categorize and nearly impossible to imitate. He was one of the first American authors of

8470-466: The digital download figures for 2012, but in 2011 CDs accounted for 53% and digital download was 41%). The APA estimates that audiobook sales in 2015 in digital format increased by 34% over 2014. The resurgence of audio storytelling is widely attributed to advances in mobile technologies such as smartphones , tablets , and multimedia entertainment systems in cars, also known as connected car platforms. Audio drama recordings are also now podcast over

8591-451: The family in 1810, and when Eliza died the following year, Poe was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia . They never formally adopted him, but he lived with them well into young adulthood. Poe attended the University of Virginia , but left after only a year due to a lack of money. He frequently quarreled with John Allan over the funds needed to continue his education as well as his gambling debts. In 1827, having enlisted in

8712-546: The first British-produced audiobook as Agatha Christie 's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd , read by Anthony McDonald in 1934. Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFBD, later renamed Learning Ally ) was founded in 1948 by Anne T. Macdonald, a member of the New York Public Library 's Women's Auxiliary, in response to an influx of inquiries from soldiers who had lost their sight in combat during World War II . The newly passed GI Bill of Rights guaranteed

8833-466: The first plausible solution to Olbers' paradox . Poe eschewed the scientific method in Eureka and instead wrote from pure intuition . For this reason, he considered it a work of art, not science, but insisted that it was still true and considered it to be his career masterpiece. Even so, Eureka is full of scientific errors. In particular, Poe's suggestions ignored Newtonian principles regarding

8954-411: The following audiobook , e-book , and eMagazine services: Audiobook An audiobook (or a talking book ) is a recording of a book or other work being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as "unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements . Spoken audio has been available in schools and public libraries and to a lesser extent in music shops since

9075-492: The forerunners of American science fiction , responding in his voluminous writing to such emerging literary trends as the explorations into the possibilities of hot air balloons as featured in such works as, " The Balloon-Hoax ". Much of Poe's work coincided with themes that readers of his day found appealing, though he often professed to abhor the tastes of the majority of the people who read for pleasure in his time. In his critical works, Poe investigated and wrote about many of

9196-427: The foster father finally disowning Poe. Poe then decided to leave West Point by intentionally getting court-martialed . On February 8, 1831, he was tried for gross neglect of duty and disobedience of orders for refusing to attend formations, classes, and church. Knowing he would be found guilty, Poe pleaded not guilty to the charges in order to induce dismissal. Poe left for New York in February 1831 and then released

9317-535: The highest mark of genius. In Poe's conception of the artist's life, the attainment of the concretization of beauty should be the ultimate goal. That which is unique is alone of value. Works with obvious meanings, he wrote, cease to be art. He believed that any work worthy of being praised should have as its focus a single specific effect. That which does not tend towards the effect is extraneous. In his view, every serious writer must carefully calculate each sentiment and idea in his or her work to ensure that it strengthens

9438-400: The imperfections in works other critics considered perfect, so as to hasten the evolution of literature, and in particular, American literature. A so-called “favorite target” of Poe's criticism was Boston's acclaimed poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow , who was defended by his friends, literary and otherwise, in what was later called, “The Longfellow War". Poe accused Longfellow of "the heresy of

9559-485: The internet. In 2014, Bob and Debra Deyan of Deyan Audio opened the Deyan Institute of Vocal Artistry and Technology, the world's first campus and school for teaching the art and technology of audiobook production. In 2018, approximately 50,000 audiobooks were recorded in the United States with a sales growth of 20 percent year over year. U.S. audiobook sales in 2019 totaled 1.2 billion dollars, up 16% from

9680-418: The largest had a catalog of 200 titles. Some abridged titles were being sold in bookstores, such as Walden Books , but had negligible sales figures, many were sold by mail-order subscription or through libraries. However, in 1984, Brilliance Audio invented a technique for recording twice as much on the same cassette thus allowing for affordable unabridged editions. The technique involved recording on each of

9801-472: The late 19th and early 20th century; however, the round cylinders were limited to about 4 minutes each making books impractical; flat platters increased to 12 minutes but this too was impractical for longer works. "One early listener complained that he would need a wheelbarrow to carry around talking books recorded on discs with such limited storage capacity." By the 1930s close-grooved records increased to 20 minutes making possible longer narrative. In 1931,

9922-685: The library became managed by the City of Montgomery with the transferral of its deeds and property from the Montgomery Library Association. In 1974 the City and County Public library systems merged to become the Montgomery City-County Public Library System. The city retained full management responsibility over the system. The Montgomery City-County Public Library is governed by the Library Board of Trustees. The Montgomery City-County Public Library offers

10043-406: The mail, allowing instead instant download access from online libraries of unlimited size, and portability using comparatively small and lightweight devices. Audible.com was the first to establish a website, in 1998, from which digital audiobooks could be purchased. Another innovation was the creation of LibriVox in 2005 by Montreal-based writer Hugh McGuire who posed the question on his blog: "Can

10164-536: The market during the multiple energy crises of the decade. In the early 1970s, instructional recordings were among the first commercial products sold on cassette. There were 8 companies distributing materials on cassette with titles such as Managing and Selling Companies (12 cassettes, $ 300) and Executive Seminar in Sound on a series of 60-minute cassettes. In libraries, most books on cassette were still made for blind and disabled people, however some new companies saw

10285-420: The mystery genre. Edgar Poe was born in Boston , Massachusetts , on January 19, 1809, the second child of American actor David Poe Jr. and English -born actress Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe . He had an elder brother, Henry , and a younger sister, Rosalie . Their grandfather, David Poe, had emigrated from County Cavan , Ireland, around 1750. His father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died

10406-463: The nature of decomposition , the popular concerns of Poe's day about premature burial , the reanimation of the dead, are all at length explored in his more notable works. Many of his writings are generally considered to be part of the dark romanticism genre, which is said to be a literary reaction to transcendentalism , which Poe strongly criticized. He referred to followers of the transcendental movement, including Emerson, as "Frog-Pondians", after

10527-450: The net harness a bunch of volunteers to help bring books in the public domain to life through podcasting ?" Thus began the creation of public domain audiobooks by volunteer narrators. By the end of 2021, LibriVox had a catalog of over 16,870 works. The transition from vinyl, to cassette, to CD, to MP3CD, to digital download has been documented by Audio Publishers Association in annual surveys (the earlier transition from record to cassette

10648-430: The new technology of LPs, but also increased governmental funding for schools and libraries beginning in the 1950s and 60s. Though spoken recordings were popular in 33 + 1 ⁄ 3 vinyl record format for schools and libraries into the early 1970s, the beginning of the modern retail market for audiobooks can be traced to the wide adoption of cassette tapes during the 1970s. Cassette tapes were invented in 1962 and

10769-792: The next several years working for literary journals and periodicals, becoming known for his own style of literary criticism. His work forced him to move between several cities, including Baltimore , Philadelphia , and New York City . In 1836, when he was 27, he married his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm . She died of tuberculosis in 1847. In January 1845, he published his poem " The Raven " to instant success. He planned for years to produce his own journal The Penn , later renamed The Stylus . But before it began publishing, Poe died in Baltimore in 1849, aged 40, under mysterious circumstances . The cause of his death remains unknown and has been attributed to many causes, including disease, alcoholism, substance abuse , and suicide. Poe's works influenced

10890-617: The offerings have been recorded in the DAISY Digital Talking Book MP3 standard, which provides additional features for visually impaired users to both listen and navigate written material aurally. Audiobooks in India started to appear somewhat later than in the rest of the world. Only by 2010 did Audiobooks gain mainstream popularity in the Indian market. This is primarily due to lack of previous organized efforts on

11011-573: The opportunity for making audiobooks for a wider audience, such as Voice Over Books which produced abridged best-sellers with professional actors. Early pioneers included Olympic gold medalist Duvall Hecht who in 1975 founded the California-based Books on Tape as a direct to consumer mail order rental service for unabridged audiobooks and expanded their services selling their products to libraries and audiobooks gaining popularity with commuters and travelers. In 1978, Henry Trentman,

11132-436: The part of publishers and authors. The marketing efforts and availability of Audiobooks has made India as one of the fastest growing Audiobooks markets in the world. The lifestyle of urban Indian population and one of the highest daily commute time in the world has also helped in making Audiobooks popular in the region. Business and Self Help books have widespread appeal and have been more popular than fiction/non-fiction. This

11253-467: The past, often confuse the source of their ideas with their original thoughts, but most of his contemporaries found that interpretation incomprehensible, and continued to be antagonistic towards Poe. On January 29, 1845, Poe's poem," The Raven ,” appeared in the Evening Mirror and quickly became a popular sensation. It made Poe a household name almost instantly, though at the time, he was paid only $ 9 (equivalent to $ 294 in 2023) for its publication. It

11374-456: The performance. If a mistake is made the recording is stopped and the narrator reads it again. With recent advancements in recording technology, many audiobooks are also now recorded in home studios by narrators working independently. Audiobooks produced by major publishing houses undergo a proofing and editing process after narration is recorded. Narrators are usually paid on a finished recorded hour basis, meaning if it took 20 hours to produce

11495-644: The phonograph were Edison's recital of " Mary Had a Little Lamb ", the first instance of recorded verse. In 1878, a demonstration at the Royal Institution in Britain included " Hey Diddle Diddle, the Cat and the Fiddle " and a line of Tennyson 's poetry thus establishing from the very beginning of the technology an association with spoken literature. Many short, spoken word recordings were sold on cylinder in

11616-441: The pond on Boston Common , and ridiculed their writings as "metaphor—run mad," lapsing into "obscurity for obscurity's sake" or "mysticism for mysticism's sake". However, Poe once wrote in a letter to Thomas Holley Chivers that he did not dislike transcendentalists, "only the pretenders and sophists among them". Beyond the horror stories he is most famous for, Poe also wrote a number of satires , humor tales, and hoaxes. He

11737-528: The popularity of audiobooks increased significantly during the late 1990s and 2000s. In 1997, Audible pioneered the world's first mass-market digital media player , named " The Audible Player ", it retailed for $ 200, held 2 hours of audio and was touted as being "smaller and lighter than a Walkman ", the popular cassette player used at the time. Digital audiobooks were a significant new milestone as they allowed listeners freedom from physical media such as cassettes and CMP3sas which required transportation through

11858-645: The post-production services. The overall cost to produce an audiobook can vary significantly, as longer books require more studio time and more well known narrators come at a premium. According to a representative at Audible, the cost of recording an audiobook has fallen from around US$ 25,000 in the late 1990s to around US$ 2,000- US$ 3,000 in 2014. Audiobooks are distributed on any audio format available, but primarily these are records, cassette tapes, CDs, MP3 CDs , downloadable digital formats (e.g., MP3 (.mp3), Windows Media Audio (.wma), Advanced Audio Coding (.aac)), and solid state preloaded digital devices in which

11979-620: The previous year. In addition to the sales increase, Edison Research's national survey of American audiobook listeners ages 18 and up found that the average number of audiobooks listened to per year increased from 6.8 in 2019 to 8.1 in 2020. The evolution and use of audiobooks in Germany ( Hörbuch , "book for listening") closely parallels that of the US. A special example of its use is the West German Audio Book Library for

12100-453: The pseudosciences that were then popular with the majority of his fellow Americans. They included, but were not limited to, the fields of astrology, cosmology, phrenology , and physiognomy . Poe's writings often reflect the literary theories he introduced in his prolific critical works and expounded on in such essays as, " The Poetic Principle ". He disliked didacticism and imitation masquerading as influence, believing originality to be

12221-583: The rank of sergeant major for artillery, the highest rank that a non-commissioned officer could achieve. He then sought to end his five-year enlistment early. Poe revealed his real name and his actual circumstances to his commanding officer, Lieutenant Howard, who promised to allow Poe to be honorably discharged if he reconciled with Allan. Poe then wrote a letter to Allan, who was unsympathetic and spent several months ignoring Poe's pleas. Allan may not have written to Poe to inform him of his foster mother's illness. Frances Allan died on February 28, 1829. Poe visited

12342-434: The reputation of being a "tomahawk man". Poe's idea of criticism was not to praise prose or poetry that was obviously successful, and therefore could speak for itself, but to draw attention to what was not successful in the writings of even those he highly respected, his aim being to elevate the art of literature as a whole. Poe felt no need to praise what was already so obviously praiseworthy. Rather, he attempted to point out

12463-540: The story. Poe's success with cryptography relied not so much on his deep knowledge of that field (his method was limited to the simple substitution cryptogram ) as on his knowledge of the magazine and newspaper culture. His keen analytical abilities, which were so evident in his detective stories, allowed him to see that the general public was largely ignorant of the methods by which a simple substitution cryptogram can be solved, and he used this to his advantage. The sensation that Poe created with his cryptography stunts played

12584-507: The term "audiobook" came into use during the 1970s when audiocassettes began to replace phonograph records . In 1994, the Audio Publishers Association established the term "audiobook" as the industry standard. Spoken word recordings first became possible with the invention of the phonograph by Thomas Edison in 1877. "Phonographic books" were one of the original applications envisioned by Edison which would "speak to blind people without effort on their part." The initial words spoken into

12705-503: The theme of the piece. Poe describes the method he employed while composing his most famous poem, “The Raven,” in an essay entitled " The Philosophy of Composition .” However, many of Poe's critics have questioned whether the method enunciated in the essay was formulated before the poem was written, or afterward, or, as T. S. Eliot is quoted as saying, "It is difficult for us to read that essay without reflecting that if Poe plotted out his poem with such calculation, he might have taken

12826-419: The tremendous success the magazine had achieved in the past year: "Perhaps the editors of no magazine, either in America or in Europe, ever sat down, at the close of a year, to contemplate the progress of their work with more satisfaction than we do now. Our success has been unexampled, almost incredible. We may assert without fear of contradiction that no periodical ever witnessed the same increase during so short

12947-416: The two channels of each stereo track. This opened the market to new opportunities and by September 1985, Publishers Weekly identified twenty-one audiobook publishers. These included new major publishers such as Harper and Row, Random House, and Warner Communications. 1986 has been identified as the turning point in the industry, when it matured from an experimental curiosity. A number of events happened:

13068-455: The volumes received generally mixed reviews. In June 1840, Poe published a prospectus announcing his intentions to start his own journal called The Stylus , although he originally intended to call it The Penn , since it would have been based in Philadelphia. He bought advertising space for the prospectus in the June 6, 1840, issue of Philadelphia's Saturday Evening Post : "Prospectus of

13189-480: The works of Jules Verne , who wrote a sequel to Poe's novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket called An Antarctic Mystery , also known as The Sphinx of the Ice Fields . And as the author H. G. Wells noted, " Pym tells what a very intelligent mind could imagine about the south polar region a century ago". In 2013, The Guardian cited Pym as one of the greatest novels ever written in

13310-426: The world. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said, "Each [of Poe's detective stories] is a root from which a whole literature has developed.... Where was the detective story until Poe breathed the breath of life into it?" The Mystery Writers of America have named their awards for excellence in the mystery genre "The Edgars ". Poe's work also influenced writings that would eventually come to be called "science fiction", notably

13431-399: Was a master of sarcasm. For comic effect, he often used irony and ludicrous extravagance in a deliberate attempt to liberate the reader from cultural and literary conformity. " Metzengerstein " is the first story that Poe is known to have published, and his first foray into horror, but it was originally intended as a burlesque satirizing the popular genres of Poe's time. Poe was also one of

13552-454: Was added as an afterthought. The story was obscure and Thomas himself could not remember its title when asked what to use to fill up the B-side —but this recording went on to become one of his most loved works, and launched Caedmon into a successful company. The original 1952 recording was a selection for the 2008 United States National Recording Registry , stating it is "credited with launching

13673-509: Was already damned)". The long obituary appeared in the New York Tribune , signed, “Ludwig" on the day Poe was buried in Baltimore . It was further published throughout the country. The obituary began, "Edgar Allan Poe is dead. He died in Baltimore the day before yesterday. This announcement will startle many, but few will be grieved by it." "Ludwig" was soon identified as Griswold, an editor, critic, and anthologist who had borne

13794-412: Was an American writer , poet , editor , and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre . He is widely regarded as one of the central figures of Romanticism and Gothic fiction in the United States, and of early American literature . Poe was one of the country's first successful practitioners of the short story , and

13915-719: Was concurrently published in The American Review: A Whig Journal under the pseudonym "Quarles". The Broadway Journal failed in 1846, and Poe then moved to a cottage in Fordham, New York , in the Bronx . That home, now known as the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage , was relocated in later years to a park near the southeast corner of the Grand Concourse and Kingsbridge Road. Nearby, Poe befriended

14036-401: Was founded by Anthony Ditlow and his wife in 1955 in their Red Bank, New Jersey home; Ditlow was partially blind. Another early pioneering company was Spoken Arts founded in 1956 by Arthur Luce Klein and his wife, they produced over 700 recordings and were best known for poetry and drama recordings used in schools and libraries. Like Caedemon, Listening Library and Spoken Arts benefited from

14157-514: Was only 13. Poe was reinstated by White after promising to improve his behavior, and he returned to Richmond with Virginia and her mother. He remained at the Messenger until January 1837. During this period, Poe claimed that its circulation increased from 700 to 3,500. He published several poems, and many book reviews, critiques, essays, and articles, as well as a few stories in the paper. On May 16, 1836, he and Virginia were officially married at

14278-496: Was published and widely reviewed. In the summer of 1839, he became assistant editor of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine . He published numerous articles, stories, and reviews, enhancing the reputation he had established at the Messenger as one of America's foremost literary critics. Also in 1839, the collection Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque was published in two volumes, though Poe received little remuneration from it and

14399-516: Was the first organization to produce and deliver spoken-word recordings of written journalistic and literary works via the Internet to serve people with visual impairments. About 40 percent of all audiobook consumption occurs through public libraries, with the remainder served primarily through retail book stores. Library download programs are currently experiencing rapid growth (more than 5,000 public libraries offer free downloadable audiobooks). Libraries are also popular places to check out audiobooks in

14520-520: Was the only full biography available and was widely reprinted, and in part because readers thrilled at the thought of reading works by an "evil" man. Letters that Griswold presented as proof were later revealed as forgeries . Poe's best-known fiction works have been labeled as Gothic horror, and adhere to that genre's general propensity to appeal to the public's taste for the terrifying or psychologically intimidating. His most recurrent themes seem to deal with death. The physical signs indicating death,

14641-420: Was wearing clothes that were not his own. He is said to have repeatedly called out the name "Reynolds" on the night before his death, though it is unclear to whom he was referring. His attending physician said that Poe's final words were, "Lord help my poor soul". All of the relevant medical records have been lost, including Poe's death certificate . Newspapers at the time reported Poe's death as "congestion of

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