# Audio recordings of Wolfe *The Urth list — 17 messages, 8 voices, 05 Dec 2008* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### Nigel Price *05 Dec 2008, 21:06* When I recently had the pleasure of meeting Gene Wolfe, among the things we discussed were the various audio recordings which he has made over the years. Amongst others recordings, he mentioned one which he had made some time ago at a science fiction convention. The organisers set up recording equipment to make a professional-standard recording of the panel which Gene was on with another author. (I think it may have been Fred Pohl, but I'm not sure.) The authors arrived early, the technician set the levels, started the recorder running and went off to provide tech support at some other event in the convention. Gene and his companion sat there waiting patiently, but absolutely no one turned up to the panel! In the end, they decided to fake a discussion. They invited questions from the floor, and would then specify imaginary members of the audience to ask questions, saying things like, "Yes sir, the gentleman with the green T-shirt in the back row. What was your question?" To cover the lack of a question, Gene and Fred (or whoever) would then say, "I don't think that the microphone picked up your question, so I'll repeat it for the benefit of those listening to the recording. What you wanted to know was..." They of course asked themselves all the questions about their own work which they always hoped fans would ask, and then answered them as they saw fit. Apparently they kept this up for the entire length of the proposed panel session. Gene says that he never heard the recording broadcast or used in any way and therefore supposes that the recording engineer tumbled to their little game when he played back the tape. Still, it's interesting to think that this recording might still be out there somewhere. I couldn't help wondering what questions Gene asked himself, the questions which he wishes we the fans would ask, presumably instead of the ones which we actually come up with! I wondered whether anybody here had a copy of this recording, or knew anything more about it. The only Wolfe or Wolfe-related recordings of which I do have copies are: - Wolfe reading "The Island of Dr Death and Other Stories" and "A Solar Labyrinth" on a Library of Congress recording - Neil Gaiman and others taking part in a dramatised reading of "The Tree is my Hat" - Gene Wolfe being interviewed for a BaltiCon podcast Again, I'd be fascinated to hear of any other recordings which are out there. Nigel --- ### Lane Haygood *05 Dec 2008, 21:10 · in reply to Nigel Price* If you have blind or seeing-impaired friends, ask them about getting the American Printing House for the Blind audio recordings of Wolfe's books. I listened to the "Book of the New Sun" that way. Made for an interesting series of car trips. Lane > On Fri, Dec 5, 2008 at 3:06 PM, Nigel Price wrote: > When I recently had the pleasure of meeting Gene Wolfe, among the things we > discussed were the various audio recordings which he has made over the > years. Amongst others recordings, he mentioned one which he had made some > time ago at a science fiction convention. > > The organisers set up recording equipment to make a professional-standard > recording of the panel which Gene was on with another author. (I think it > may have been Fred Pohl, but I'm not sure.) The authors arrived early, the > technician set the levels, started the recorder running and went off to > provide tech support at some other event in the convention. Gene and his > companion sat there waiting patiently, but absolutely no one turned up to > the panel! In the end, they decided to fake a discussion. > > They invited questions from the floor, and would then specify imaginary > members of the audience to ask questions, saying things like, "Yes sir, the > gentleman with the green T-shirt in the back row. What was your question?" > > To cover the lack of a question, Gene and Fred (or whoever) would then say, > "I don't think that the microphone picked up your question, so I'll repeat > it for the benefit of those listening to the recording. What you wanted to > know was..." > > They of course asked themselves all the questions about their own work > which > they always hoped fans would ask, and then answered them as they saw fit. > > Apparently they kept this up for the entire length of the proposed panel > session. Gene says that he never heard the recording broadcast or used in > any way and therefore supposes that the recording engineer tumbled to their > little game when he played back the tape. Still, it's interesting to think > that this recording might still be out there somewhere. I couldn't help > wondering what questions Gene asked himself, the questions which he wishes > we the fans would ask, presumably instead of the ones which we actually > come > up with! > > I wondered whether anybody here had a copy of this recording, or knew > anything more about it. > > The only Wolfe or Wolfe-related recordings of which I do have copies are: > > - Wolfe reading "The Island of Dr Death and Other Stories" and "A > Solar > Labyrinth" on a Library of Congress recording > - Neil Gaiman and others taking part in a dramatised reading of "The > Tree > is my Hat" > - Gene Wolfe being interviewed for a BaltiCon podcast > > Again, I'd be fascinated to hear of any other recordings which are out > there. > > Nigel > > _______________________________________________ --- ### Nigel Price *05 Dec 2008, 21:19 · follows Lane Haygood* In terms of commercial audio recordings of his stories, a reading of Wolfe's short story "Hunter's Lake" is included in "The Best of Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, September-November 2003 (Unabridged Selections)". It's available from Audible, though I've not heard this recording. Nigel --- ### brunians at brunians.org *05 Dec 2008, 21:26 · in reply to Nigel Price* Good to see you back, Nigel, and apparently in good health. . > When I recently had the pleasure of meeting Gene Wolfe, among the things > we > discussed were the various audio recordings which he has made over the > years. Amongst others recordings, he mentioned one which he had made some > time ago at a science fiction convention. > > The organisers set up recording equipment to make a professional-standard > recording of the panel which Gene was on with another author. (I think it > may have been Fred Pohl, but I'm not sure.) The authors arrived early, the > technician set the levels, started the recorder running and went off to > provide tech support at some other event in the convention. Gene and his > companion sat there waiting patiently, but absolutely no one turned up to > the panel! In the end, they decided to fake a discussion. > > They invited questions from the floor, and would then specify imaginary > members of the audience to ask questions, saying things like, "Yes sir, > the > gentleman with the green T-shirt in the back row. What was your question?" > > To cover the lack of a question, Gene and Fred (or whoever) would then > say, > "I don't think that the microphone picked up your question, so I'll repeat > it for the benefit of those listening to the recording. What you wanted to > know was..." > > They of course asked themselves all the questions about their own work > which > they always hoped fans would ask, and then answered them as they saw fit. > > Apparently they kept this up for the entire length of the proposed panel > session. Gene says that he never heard the recording broadcast or used in > any way and therefore supposes that the recording engineer tumbled to > their > little game when he played back the tape. Still, it's interesting to think > that this recording might still be out there somewhere. I couldn't help > wondering what questions Gene asked himself, the questions which he wishes > we the fans would ask, presumably instead of the ones which we actually > come > up with! > > I wondered whether anybody here had a copy of this recording, or knew > anything more about it. > > The only Wolfe or Wolfe-related recordings of which I do have copies are: > > - Wolfe reading "The Island of Dr Death and Other Stories" and "A Solar > Labyrinth" on a Library of Congress recording > - Neil Gaiman and others taking part in a dramatised reading of "The Tree > is my Hat" > - Gene Wolfe being interviewed for a BaltiCon podcast > > Again, I'd be fascinated to hear of any other recordings which are out > there. > > Nigel > > _______________________________________________ --- ### Son of Witz *05 Dec 2008, 21:37 · follows brunians at brunians.org* Just now, I got nowhere trying to search aph.org for Wolfe or New Sun. any links? As I've mentioned before, I scrounged the web for Wolfe audiobooks. I found MP3 recordings of the Tapes read by Roy Avers (great reading). I assembled them all up into M4U audiobook format for consolidation and the Resume function. I can make them available on line via megaupload or something. Again, I'm not sure if this is welcome or not. I really only care if wolfe would be upset or not. any ideas anyone? I did receive one request from someone who wanted a visually impaired family member to finally get into Wolfe. I lost the email though, and have not been able to respond. (Curse whoever designed my webmail and put the Delete button so close to the Inbox button.) What I would have said, is that these recordings have serious problems. During the Lake Diaturna section, it wobbles in and out of audibility. Overall, there are many points like this, and the volume wavers a lot. So I would not recommend them for anyone's first pass on the books. However, they are very good for reviewing the material if you've read them already. Much of my insights into subtext have come while listening rather than reading, and have allowed a third pass almost simultaneous to my second read. anyway, no one really bit when I mentioned it. does anyone want them? I've listened to Sword, Citadel, most of Urth, and a chunk of Shadow. they sound good enough. I was going to wait until I'd listened to all of them, but, hell, they're as-is, so what I found is what I could share. I also have Wizard Knight, 3 of the long suns and one or two of the short suns. and Nigel, I haven't heard details, but I hope you're feeling better. best, ~witz > -----Original Message----- > From: Lane Haygood [mailto:lhaygood at gmail.com] > Sent: Friday, December 5, 2008 01:10 PM > To: 'The Urth Mailing List' > Subject: Re: (urth) Audio recordings of Wolfe > > If you have blind or seeing-impaired friends, ask them about getting the > American Printing House for the Blind audio recordings of Wolfe's books. I > listened to the "Book of the New Sun" that way. Made for an interesting > series of car trips. > > Lane > > On Fri, Dec 5, 2008 at 3:06 PM, Nigel Price wrote: >> When I recently had the pleasure of meeting Gene Wolfe, among the things we >> discussed were the various audio recordings which he has made over the >> years. Amongst others recordings, he mentioned one which he had made some >> time ago at a science fiction convention. >> >> The organisers set up recording equipment to make a professional-standard >> recording of the panel which Gene was on with another author. (I think it >> may have been Fred Pohl, but I'm not sure.) The authors arrived early, the >> technician set the levels, started the recorder running and went off to >> provide tech support at some other event in the convention. Gene and his >> companion sat there waiting patiently, but absolutely no one turned up to >> the panel! In the end, they decided to fake a discussion. >> >> They invited questions from the floor, and would then specify imaginary >> members of the audience to ask questions, saying things like, "Yes sir, the >> gentleman with the green T-shirt in the back row. What was your question?" >> >> To cover the lack of a question, Gene and Fred (or whoever) would then say, >> "I don't think that the microphone picked up your question, so I'll repeat >> it for the benefit of those listening to the recording. What you wanted to >> know was..." >> >> They of course asked themselves all the questions about their own work >> which >> they always hoped fans would ask, and then answered them as they saw fit. >> >> Apparently they kept this up for the entire length of the proposed panel >> session. Gene says that he never heard the recording broadcast or used in >> any way and therefore supposes that the recording engineer tumbled to their >> little game when he played back the tape. Still, it's interesting to think >> that this recording might still be out there somewhere. I couldn't help >> wondering what questions Gene asked himself, the questions which he wishes >> we the fans would ask, presumably instead of the ones which we actually >> come >> up with! >> >> I wondered whether anybody here had a copy of this recording, or knew >> anything more about it. >> >> The only Wolfe or Wolfe-related recordings of which I do have copies are: >> >> - Wolfe reading "The Island of Dr Death and Other Stories" and "A >> Solar >> Labyrinth" on a Library of Congress recording >> - Neil Gaiman and others taking part in a dramatised reading of "The >> Tree >> is my Hat" >> - Gene Wolfe being interviewed for a BaltiCon podcast >> >> Again, I'd be fascinated to hear of any other recordings which are out >> there. >> >> Nigel >> >> _______________________________________________ --- ### David Stockhoff *05 Dec 2008, 22:21 · follows Son of Witz* Witz, I'd love to hear those MP3s. Maybe I could turn my wife on to Wolfe with that as a strategem. We enjoyed the Tree Is My Hat audioplay. BTW, I've cleaned up those text files you sent me quite a bit and will continue to do so; when I'm happy with them I'll send them back. Lots of symbol "blowouts." --- ### Son of Witz *05 Dec 2008, 22:25 · follows David Stockhoff* > -----Original Message----- > From: David Stockhoff [mailto:dstockhoff at verizon.net] > Sent: Friday, December 5, 2008 02:21 PM > To: urth at lists.urth.net > Subject: Re: (urth) Audio recordings of Wolfe > > Witz, I'd love to hear those MP3s. Maybe I could turn my wife on to > Wolfe with that as a strategem. We enjoyed the Tree Is My Hat audioplay. > > BTW, I've cleaned up those text files you sent me quite a bit and will > continue to do so; when I'm happy with them I'll send them back. Lots of > symbol "blowouts." great. I'd love em. I've done a bit of cleanup, but not much. I suppose I'll upload those audiobooks soon. ~witz --- ### Nigel Price *05 Dec 2008, 23:01 · follows Son of Witz* >> Good to see you back, Nigel, and apparently in >> good health. Thank you, Brunians! It's good to be back. Nigel --- ### Dave Lebling *05 Dec 2008, 23:58 · in reply to Nigel Price* The idea of a panel with Gene Wolfe and Fred Pohl attracting no one amazes me. Had I been at that convention there would have been at least one attendee! -- Dave Lebling, aka vizcacha > Nigel Price wrote: > When I recently had the pleasure of meeting Gene Wolfe, among the things we > discussed were the various audio recordings which he has made over the > years. Amongst others recordings, he mentioned one which he had made some > time ago at a science fiction convention. > > The organisers set up recording equipment to make a professional-standard > recording of the panel which Gene was on with another author. (I think it > may have been Fred Pohl, but I'm not sure.) The authors arrived early, the > technician set the levels, started the recorder running and went off to > provide tech support at some other event in the convention. Gene and his > companion sat there waiting patiently, but absolutely no one turned up to > the panel! In the end, they decided to fake a discussion. > > --- ### Nigel Price *06 Dec 2008, 00:17 · follows Dave Lebling* Dave Lebling wrote... >> The idea of a panel with Gene Wolfe and Fred Pohl >> attracting no one amazes me. Had I been at that >> convention there would have been at least one >> attendee! Absolutely. It's hard to understand. I imagine it must have been quite early in Wolfe's career, but even so, Pohl was a well established author by then. Hmmm... Maybe the other author wasn't Pohl! Then again, I attended the 1987 WorldCon in Brighton and never saw either of the Wolfes, even though they were both there. I'd not read any of Gene's books at that stage and he was not yet of interest to me. Goodness, perhaps I was one of the people who failed to turn up to that panel as well! By the way, Wolfe confirmed that he was indeed at the talk which Ray Harryhausen gave at Brighton. He too heard about animating a six-legged octopus so that it could attack a model of the Golden Gate Bridge. Son of Witz said... >> and Nigel, I haven't heard details, >> but I hope you're feeling better. Thanks, Witz. I'm slowly getting there! Nigel --- ### Son of Witz *06 Dec 2008, 00:19 · follows Nigel Price* > Son of Witz said... >>> and Nigel, I haven't heard details, >>> but I hope you're feeling better. > Thanks, Witz. I'm slowly getting there! > > Nigel Nice to hear. all the best. ~witz --- ### Roy C. Lackey *06 Dec 2008, 05:52 · in reply to Son of Witz* > Son of Witz wrote: > As I've mentioned before, I scrounged the web for Wolfe audiobooks. > I found MP3 recordings of the Tapes read by Roy Avers (great reading). > I assembled them all up into M4U audiobook format for consolidation and > the Resume function. I can make them available on line via megaupload or > something. > > Again, I'm not sure if this is welcome or not. I really only care if > wolfe would be upset or not. any ideas anyone?<< I can't speak for Wolfe, and I'm not a lawyer, but the holders of the copyrights for the audiobooks might well take exception. It might be worth checking into first. FWIW. -Roy --- ### Roy C. Lackey *06 Dec 2008, 08:11 · in reply to Nigel Price* > Nigel Price wrote: > The only Wolfe or Wolfe-related recordings of which I do have copies are: > > - Wolfe reading "The Island of Dr Death and Other Stories" and "A Solar > Labyrinth" on a Library of Congress recording > - Neil Gaiman and others taking part in a dramatised reading of "The Tree > is my Hat" > - Gene Wolfe being interviewed for a BaltiCon podcast > > Again, I'd be fascinated to hear of any other recordings which are out > there. I have a 60 minute mono audio cassette from American Audio Prose Library of a 1984 interview of Wolfe by Chris Merrick. -Roy --- ### Nigel Price *06 Dec 2008, 12:28 · follows Roy C. Lackey* >> Roy Lackey wrote: >> I have a 60 minute mono audio cassette from American >> Audio Prose Library of a 1984 interview of Wolfe by >> Chris Merrick. And this is still available - thank you, Roy! I'll send off for that. The American Audio Prose Library also offer the recording of Wolfe reading "The Island of Dr Death and Other Stories" and "A Solar Labyrinth" that I bought from the US branch of Audible. They even do a joint package of the readings and the interview bundled together. Nigel --- ### Stuart Hamm *06 Dec 2008, 13:50 · in reply to Roy C. Lackey* Where can you get a hold of copies of these??? ???? Mobile — (415) 786-3624 ???? Skype? stuart.hamm myspace.com/stuhamm ? ??? stuarthamm.net --- On Sat, 12/6/08, Roy C. Lackey wrote: From: Roy C. Lackey Subject: Re: (urth) Audio recordings of Wolfe To: "The Urth Mailing List" Date: Saturday, December 6, 2008, 12:11 AM > Nigel Price wrote: > The only Wolfe or Wolfe-related recordings of which I do have copies are: > > - Wolfe reading "The Island of Dr Death and Other Stories" and > "A Solar > Labyrinth" on a Library of Congress recording > - Neil Gaiman and others taking part in a dramatised reading of "The > Tree > is my Hat" > - Gene Wolfe being interviewed for a BaltiCon podcast > > Again, I'd be fascinated to hear of any other recordings which are out > there. I have a 60 minute mono audio cassette from American Audio Prose Library of a 1984 interview of Wolfe by Chris Merrick. -Roy --- ### Son of Witz *06 Dec 2008, 17:45 · in reply to Nigel Price* sorta surprising that they only offer tapes. they'd sell a hell of a lot more if they digitized them. > On Dec 6, 2008, at 4:28 AM, Nigel Price wrote: > Roy Lackey wrote: >>> I have a 60 minute mono audio cassette from American >>> Audio Prose Library of a 1984 interview of Wolfe by >>> Chris Merrick. > And this is still available - thank you, Roy! I'll send off for > that. The > American Audio Prose Library also offer the recording of Wolfe > reading "The > Island of Dr Death and Other Stories" and "A Solar Labyrinth" that I > bought > from the US branch of Audible. They even do a joint package of the > readings > and the interview bundled together. > > Nigel > > _______________________________________________ --- ### Roy C. Lackey *06 Dec 2008, 19:18 · in reply to Nigel Price* >>> Nigel Price quited and wrote: >>> I have a 60 minute mono audio cassette from American >>> Audio Prose Library of a 1984 interview of Wolfe by >>> Chris Merrick. > And this is still available - thank you, Roy! I'll send off for that. The > American Audio Prose Library also offer the recording of Wolfe reading > "The > Island of Dr Death and Other Stories" and "A Solar Labyrinth" that I > bought > from the US branch of Audible. They even do a joint package of the > readings > and the interview bundled together. On a related note: I can't find it in the old archives for some reason, but I think I mentioned here six or seven years ago that Wolfe once appeared on the late Tom Snyder's old, late night "Tomorrow" TV show with Harlan Ellison and Azimov. Back in the 1980s, I think. I wasn't able to find a copy at the time I mentioned it here (if I did), but Wolfe said that that episode was replayed from time to time on cable TV. I wonder if anyone else here ever saw it. Better yet, does anyone here have a copy or know where to get one? -Roy ---