Episodes Before Thirty


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Blackwood wrote this autobiography in his fifties, describing his first thirty years as an almost penniless British adventurer in Canada and New York, trying his hand at all sorts of investments, getting swindled again and again, sleeping on park benches, living in the woods, and sharing a one room tenement with friends who betrayed him and others who helped him through sickness and injury, reporting on aberrant personalities he met, their strange circumstances, and witnessing the criminal workings of Tammany Hall during his stint as a reporter for the Sun. His sanity was saved by his love of nature and writing as a therapeutic pastime, until he finally returned to England, where he began submitting his stories and made a name for himself as "one of the most prolific ghost story writers in the history of the genre" (from Wikipedia). This is a fascinating and precarious "coming of age" story. - Summary by Michele Fry (12 hr 2 min)

Chapters

Chapter 1 9:39 Read by Michele Fry
Chapter 2 10:37 Read by Michele Fry
Chapter 3 14:26 Read by William Allan Jones
Chapter 4 23:27 Read by William Allan Jones
Chapter 5 34:43 Read by William Allan Jones
Chapter 6 9:36 Read by Kerry Adams
Chapter 7 13:21 Read by mbm0rxi
Chapter 8 27:38 Read by Michele Fry
Chapter 9 21:55 Read by Michele Fry
Chapter 10 20:33 Read by Michele Fry
Chapter 11 27:17 Read by Michele Fry
Chapter 12 16:26 Read by Michele Fry
Chapter 13 23:19 Read by Ryan Fahey
Chapter 14 23:11 Read by Christine Rottger
Chapter 15 21:57 Read by Rita Boutros
Chapter 16 20:52 Read by Rita Boutros
Chapter 17 20:42 Read by Rita Boutros
Chapter 18 24:36 Read by Rita Boutros
Chapter 19 19:10 Read by Rita Boutros
Chapter 20 30:57 Read by Rita Boutros
Chapter 21 17:12 Read by Rita Boutros
Chapter 22 19:37 Read by Rita Boutros
Chapter 23 19:12 Read by Dan Gurzynski
Chapter 24 21:58 Read by Dan Gurzynski
Chapter 25 27:36 Read by Paul Vida
Chapter 26 32:21 Read by Dan Gurzynski
Chapter 27 34:21 Read by Ben Tucker
Chapter 28 22:17 Read by Ben Tucker
Chapter 29 13:23 Read by Ben Tucker
Chapter 30 10:58 Read by daydegenza
Chapter 31 41:35 Read by Rita Boutros
Chapter 32 47:13 Read by Rita Boutros