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Edgar Lee Masters

Edgar Lee Masters page editor: Chris Mustazza

The Speech Lab Recordings: Readings at Columbia University, January 16, 1934 and March 10, 1934

These recordings were made during two recording sessions at Columbia University, on January 16, 1934 and March 10, 1934, recorded by Barnard professors George W. Hibbitt and W. Cabell Greet, lexicologists and scholars of American dialects. For more information see Mustazza on The Contemporary Poets Series in Jacket2 and the Speech Lab Recordings series page.

PennSound wishes to thank the staff at Columbia's Rare Book & Manuscript Library, especially Thai Jones, Jennifer Lee, Devon Maeve Nevola, Jane Siegel, and Karla Nielsen, for helping us to make these recordings available.

These recordings are made available thanks to permission from Hilary Masters and the Edgar Lee Masters estate.

Editor's note: The recordings here were originally made on aluminum platters. They were subsequently dubbed to reel-to-reel tapes by the Library of Congress in 1978. These digitizations are made from the reels, which are stored at Columbia University. I made the decision to present the recordings in the order in which Columbia numbered the aluminum platters, except for where I reordered the sequence to keep parts of the same collection together. Sequence numbers, as well as record numbers, are available in the file names. --Chris Mustazza, University of Pennsylvania
  1. In the Garden at the Dawn Hour (2:56)
  2. Andrew Jackson (2:55)
  3. The Night Watch (2:39)
  4. Don't Give Up the Ship (4:17)
  5. Johnny Appleseed (3:39)
  6. Marching Into the Morning (4:38)
  7. Mournin' for Religion (2:33)
  8. Comments on Marching Into the Morning and Mournin' for Religion (0:24)

    9. From Songs and Satires:
  9. Marcia (1:01)
  10. Silence (3:09)
  11. The Idiot (1:33)
  12. The Sign (1:33)

    13. From The Great Valley:
  13. Achilles Deatheridge (1:23)
  14. Slip Shoe Lovey (1:46)
  15. Comments on Achilles Deatheridge and Slip Shoe Lovey (0:23)
  16. Susie (1:40)

    17. From Godbey: A Dramatic Poem:
  17. The Lost Orchard (fragment 1 of 2) (3:38)
  18. The Lost Orchard (fragment 2 of 2) (1:50)
  19. Godbey: A Dramatic Poem (excerpt 1 of 2) (1:27)
  20. Godbey: A Dramatic Poem (excerpt 2 of 2) (0:54)

    21. From Gettysburg, Manila, Acoma:
  21. Dewey's Sailors (1:48)
  22. The Crews of the German Cruisers Irene and Kormoran (0:59)
  23. The Ladrones At a Distance (2:22)
  24. Comments on The Ladrones at a Distance (0:16)
  25. Final Chorus from Manila (part 1 of 2) (3:14)
  26. Final Chorus from Manila (part 2 of 2) (2:33)

    27. From Spoon River Anthology:
  27. Webster Ford (2:17)
  28. Fiddler Jones (1:11)
  29. Isaiah Beethoven (1:13)
  30. The Hill (1:58)
  31. Davis Matlock (0:56)
  32. Lucinda Matlock (0:57)
  33. Anne Rutledge (version 1 of 2) (0:35)
  34. Anne Rutledge (version 2 of 2)(0:38)
  35. Rebecca Wasson (1:24)
  36. John Wasson (1:04)

    37. From The New Spoon River:
  37. Frances Cordell (version 1 of 2) (1:10)
  38. Frances Cordell (version 2 of 2) (1:10)
  39. Robert Chain (0:33)
  40. Angela Sanger (1:02)
  41. Wayland Reed (0:57)
  42. Wallace Hardy (0:34)
  43. Henry Cogdal (0:49)
  44. Cleanthus Trilling (0:42)
  45. Meredith Phyfe (1:30)
  46. Clifford Ridell (0:41)
  47. Leopardi Erotas (0:51)

    48. From Lichee Nuts:
  48. Fragment from Lichee Nuts (0:25)
  49. City Hall Park (0:29)
  50. Letter from Peking (2:33)
  51. Full Moon on the Bowery (0:51)
  52. Pictures and Women (0:44)
  53. Elmer Chubb and Yang Chung (0:34)
  54. Hip Lung with Photogravure Page (0:37)
  55. Huen Sha (0:56)

    56. From Lincoln: the Man:
  56. The One Cause Which Was Lost (part 1 of 2) (4:02)
  57. The One Cause Which Was Lost (part 2 of 2) (1:35)
  58. Comments on Lincoln: the Man (0:46)

These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. © 2015 Estate of Edgar Lee Masters. Distributed by PennSound.