The Untold Story of the Talking Book

by Matthew Rubery

Overview

A history of audiobooks, from entertainment & rehabilitation for blinded World War I soldiers to a twenty-first-century competitive industry.

Histories of the book often move straight from the codex to the digital screen. Left out of that familiar account are nearly 150 years of audio recordings. Recounting the fascinating history of audio-recorded literature, Matthew Rubery traces the path of innovation from Edison’s recitation of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” for his tinfoil phonograph in 1877, to the first novel-length talking books made for blinded World War I veterans, to today’s billion-dollar audiobook industry.

The Untold Story of the Talking Book focuses on the social impact of audiobooks, not just the technological history, in telling a story of surprising and impassioned conflicts: from controversies over which books the Library of Congress selected to become talking books—yes to Kipling, no to Flaubert—to debates about what defines a reader. Delving into the vexed relationship between spoken and printed texts, Rubery argues that storytelling can be just as engaging with the ears as with the eyes, and that audiobooks deserve to be taken seriously. They are not mere derivatives of printed books but their own form of entertainment.

We have come a long way from the era of sound recorded on wax cylinders, when people imagined one day hearing entire novels on mini-phonographs tucked inside their hats. Rubery tells the untold story of this incredible evolution and, in doing so, breaks from convention by treating audiobooks as a distinctively modern art form that has profoundly influenced the way we read.

Praise for The Untold Story of the Talking Book

“If audiobooks are relatively new to your world, you might wonder where they came from and where they’re going. And for general fans of the intersection of culture and technology, The Untold Story of the Talking Book is a fascinating read.” —Neil Steinberg, Chicago Sun-Times

“[Rubery] explores 150 years of the audio format with an imminently accessible style, touching upon a wide range of interconnected topics . . . Through careful investigation of the co-development of formats within the publishing industry, Rubery shines a light on overlooked pioneers of audio . . . Rubery’s work succeeds in providing evidence to ‘move beyond the reductive debate’ on whether audiobooks really count as reading, and establishes the format’s rightful place in the literary family.” —Mary Burkey, Booklist (starred review)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674974531
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	01/18/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	363
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Matthew Rubery is Reader in English Literature in the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary University of London.

Table of Contents

Cover Title Copyright Dedication Contents Introduction: What Is the History of Audiobooks? Part I: The Phonographic Library Chapter 1. Canned Literature Part II: Blindness, Disability, and Talking Book Records Chapter 2. A Talking Book in Every Corner of Dark-Land Chapter 3. How to Read a Talking Book Chapter 4. A Free Press for the Blind Chapter 5. From Shell Shock to Shellac Chapter 6. Unrecordable Part III: Audiobooks on and off the Road Chapter 7. Caedmon’s Third Dimension Chapter 8. Tapeworms Chapter 9. Audio Revolution Afterword: Speed Listening Notes Credits Acknowledgments Index

Editorial Reviews

As this entertaining exploration shows, the story of audiobooks is as full of surprising and serendipitous turns as any engrossing work of fiction—whether read on the page or heard through headphones.

Financial Times - Isabel Berwick

This peculiarly fascinating history takes us from the origins of the talking book, designed to entertain and help to rehabilitate blinded first World War veterans, through to the competitive big business of audiobooks today.

Nora Mahoney

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the world's biggest bookseller, Amazon, is now the largest producer of audiobooks, via its subsidiary Audible. Whether in future we will be read to by humans or robots appears immaterial. What is certain is that we will continue to derive pleasure from it, and Rubery—who sees audiobooks as a distinctively modern art form—makes a convincing case for why we should.

Times Higher Education - René Wolf

Rubery’s engaging and important monograph fills a significant gap in the debate. It asks us to consider what reading, in a literary context, really means, without falling back too readily on the physical activity.

Times Literary Supplement - Dennis Duncan

A detailed, lively, and well-peopled history of the technologies, economies, and organizations that have driven the recording of novels over the last 150 years…What class and ethnicity are narrators to have, and how present should they be as personalities? Is reading mostly for pleasure or education? Do blind people need books that mention disability—or are these to be studiously avoided? Should blind war veterans be provided with pornography to listen to? These are just some of the debates that surface in the archives Rubery has so elegantly plumbed.

Los Angeles Review of Books - Christina Lupton

Rubery’s book is the more important, then, for rescuing an occluded story and one that is easily forgotten…The Untold Story of the Talking Book is lucidly researched and written.

The Spectator - Paul Keegan

Matthew Rubery has scored a decisive contribution to the history of recorded literature in this magisterially researched and compelling book. There is something new on every page, with all the facts and factoids at once apt, eye-opening, and revisionary.

Garrett Stewart

If audiobooks are relatively new to your world, you might wonder where they came from and where they’re going. And for general fans of the intersection of culture and technology, The Untold Story of the Talking Book is a fascinating read.

Chicago Sun-Times - Neil Steinberg

[A] fascinating cultural and sociological study of the emergence of talking books from wax cylinders to Audible.

Technology and Culture - Jaipreet Virdi

[Rubery] explores 150 years of the audio format with an imminently accessible style, touching upon a wide range of interconnected topics…Through careful investigation of the co-development of formats within the publishing industry, Rubery shines a light on overlooked pioneers of audio…Rubery’s work succeeds in providing evidence to ‘move beyond the reductive debate’ on whether audiobooks really count as reading, and establishes the format’s rightful place in the literary family.

Booklist (starred review) - Mary Burkey

Matthew Rubery makes good on his title’s promise, telling a story that until now has been boxed up in the archives, and filling in a key chapter in the history of books and readerships. This book is more focused and more thorough than any other in the field—as well as more interesting—and is likely to stand as the definitive history of audiobooks for some time.

James English

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the world's biggest bookseller, Amazon, is now the largest producer of audiobooks, via its subsidiary Audible. Whether in future we will be read to by humans or robots appears immaterial. What is certain is that we will continue to derive pleasure from it, and Rubery—who sees audiobooks as a distinctively modern art form—makes a convincing case for why we should.

Times Higher Education - René Wolf

10/15/2016
Rubery (literature, Queen Mary Univ. of London; The Novelty of Newspapers) includes numerous anecdotes as he charts the evolution of the audiobook in Britain, as well as the United States, from talking books for the blind to the modern-day books on CD and the popular digital audiobook company Audible. Few audiobook enthusiasts realize that the format originated with Thomas Edison's invention of the phonograph in 1877, when he recorded "Mary Had a Little Lamb." The early tinfoil cylinders could only record short passages, though, technology for the full-length novel not evolving until the 1930s with talking books for blind veterans. Accompanying the technological advances came numerous debates over which titles should be recorded, what readers were best suited to the medium, and whether recorded books would make print obsolete. Blind readers insisted on best sellers along with the classics, and some even requested pornography, which naturally caused even more heated disputes. While at times Rubery's scholarly microscope provides more information than necessary, he raises fascinating questions about the experience of reading vs. listening and whether converting a book to an audio format diminishes or enhances its effect. VERDICT Readers interested in how audiobooks have become a favorite way to experience literature will want to read this book.—Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo

Library Journal

Jim Denison narrates this audiobook about audiobooks—it doesn’t get more meta than that for listeners. Rubery reveals the audiobook’s history from its technological emergence in the late nineteenth century to the commercial explosion of audiobooks in the last 50 years. Throughout, he contemplates the many complicated considerations that authors, narrators, producers, and listeners have grappled with, all addressing this question: What does listening to an audiobook mean in terms of reading? Denison delivers the discussion in a straightforward and clear voice that has strong projection and good cadence. He’s easy to listen to, for the most part, but it’s not always clear when he switches from narrative to quotations—which can be confusing. Overall, he enhances this production, so essential for audiophiles. L.E. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2016 - AudioFile

2016-08-21
An overview of how the spoken word has been captured on records, tapes, cassettes, and digital devices.For Rubery (English/Queen Mary Univ.; The Novelty of Newspapers: Victorian Fiction After the Invention of the News, 2009, etc.), the audiobook poses two overarching questions: “What difference does it make whether we read a book or listen to it?” Does the printed book have “privileged standing” over a recording? Although it would seem that audiobooks would be an uncontroversial boon to people with vision impairment or busy lives, throughout its 150-year history, recorded books have generated heated debate: some people claim that listening is not as intellectually challenging as reading print; others disagree. Audiobooks attract nonreaders and those who love to read. “Audiobooks fascinate me,” the author writes, “precisely because they elicit such intense feelings among readers and appeal to groups that seem to be polar opposites when it comes to taste.” Although Rubery carefully chronicles the technology, marketing, and public response to recorded books, his fascination rarely infuses his narrative with excitement. The technology that began in 1877 when Thomas Edison recorded his recitation of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” took off in the 1930s, in America and Britain, with an effort to supply books for blind readers, including World War I soldiers. Those readers, grateful as they were, disagreed about whether books should be narrated dramatically or in a straightforward manner. The American Foundation for the Blind claimed that the presentation influenced the acceptance of the talking book “as a legitimate alternative to print.” Controversy also erupted about what books were appropriate for recording and how to deal with pornography or offensive language. Some authors—e.g., Willa Cather and Rudyard Kipling—refused permission for their books to be recorded, objecting that any narrator would impose an interpretation that should be left up to readers. Rubery’s account of the founding of Caedmon, a company devoted to recording famous authors reading their works, is one of the livelier chapters. A well-informed but tepid history.

Kirkus Reviews