PhonoLiterature
Literature with Phonograph Connections
PhonoLiterature
Literature with Phonograph Connections
By Doug Boilesen 2012
In June 1888 Edison's wrote that his "Perfected Phonograph" will soon be able to record "on four cylinders eight inches long, with a diameter of five... the whole of “Nicholas Nickleby” in phonogram form."
This PhonoLiterature gallery, however, is not about books on phonograph records but about its library of books, poetry, plays, 'sketches,' and short stories with at least one phonograph in each written work.
The importance of the phonograph in these books runs the gamut, from the single word of "gramophone" in T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland to the existential impact of the phonograph as seen in The Record by Ray Bradbury where the playing of a phonograph record saves humanity from extinction.
Some of the books have illustrations of the phonograph. Some have references to songs that were phonograph records. But whatever the degree of connection all are enjoyed by Friends of the Phonograph as each is an example of how the phonograph has been part of popular culture since December 6, 1877 when Edison's tinfoil phonograph repeated back to him "a little piece of practical poetry" - "Mary had a Little Lamb."
Pick a story from the following bookshelf or use the alphabetized list in Phonographia's Table of Contents.
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"A Recollection" by Mari Sandoz |
"a live phonograph...in the Land of Oz" by L. Frank Baum , 1913 |
The Rocket Book by Peter Newell, 1912 |
The Christmas Secret by David Delarme, 1991 |
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Tea Rex by Molly Idle, 2013 |
Curious George Goes to the Hospital by Margret Rey & H.A. Rey, 1966
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One of Ours by Willa Cather, 1922 |
The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger, 2003 |
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Scandal and A Gold Slipper by Willa Cather, (Youth and the Bright Medusa) 1920 |
The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather 1915 |
Coming, Aphrodite! by Willa Cather, (Youth and the Bright Medusa) 1920
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Another Adventure of Elsie and the Bunny by Cadbury Ltd., 1920 |
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The Phonograph of Jean Bouvet by Henry S. Kingwell and written for the Talking Machine World, 1915 |
Abide / Poems by Jake Adam York, 2014
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Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, 2014
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The Phonograph and the Graft by O. Henry McClure's Magazine, February 1903 (Disclaimer) |
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The Jukebox Man by Jacqueline K. Ogburn, 1998 |
Good Night Sesame Streetm by David Korr and Michael J. Smollin, 1978 |
What Happened To Mary, Episodes I and VII, August 1912 and January 1913 |
The Shallows by Nicholas Carr, 2010 |
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Dead Musicians poem by Siegfried Sassoon, 1918 |
The Phonograph Witness. A Drama in Five Acts by George W. Hill, 1883 |
Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories by Jean Shepherd, 1971 |
The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot, 1922 |
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A Voyage to the Moon by Cyrano de Bergerac, published in 1656 |
The Tribulations of a Chinaman by Jules Verne, 1879 |
The Castle of the Carpathians by Jules Verne, 1892 |
Le Courrier Veritable, 1632 pamphlet - 19th Century Engraving |
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How among the frozen words Pantagruel found some odd ones, by Francois Rabelais, 1653 |
Round the Fire: VIII The Story of the Japanned Box, by A. Conan Doyle, 1899
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With the Eyes Shut by Edward Bellamy, October 1889 |
That Voice
A Phonograph related romance as it appeared in The Red Cloud Chief newspaper on June 20, 1878
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Mr. Openeer's Christmas, The Phonoscope, November 1899 |
Love and the Phonograph
Cynthia's romance and the Phonograph as it appeared in The Phonoscope, March 1899 |
The Phonogram, June 1900 |
How We Gave a Phonograph Party
The Phonoscope,1899 |
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The Phonograph in Country Towns
The Phonogram, October 1891 |
The Fateful Phonograph: Or, The Younger Brother's Revenge From the Chicago Tribune as seen in The Red Cloud Chief p. 2, January 29, 1880
Newspaper image provided by University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE |
The Valentines' Victrola by Harriet Lummis Smith, 1919 |
The Magic of Melody by Edgar March - Maclean's Magazine, August 15, 1933 |
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The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster, 1909 |
Pleasures of Music by Jacques Barzun, 1951. |
The Image by Daniel J. Boorstin, 1962 |
Black Hole Blues by Janna Levin, 2016 |
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The Revenge of Analog by David Sax, 2016 |
Keeping Time by Tim Dooley, 2008 |
The Phonograph Girls
The Phonograph Girls and Columbia's Twentieth Century Phonograph, The Talking Machine World, 1906 |
No Escape from Black Holes? by Dennis Overbye - The New York Times June 6, 2016 |
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The Hurdy Gurdy Girl, a musical comedy by Richard Carle, 1907 |
The Girl He Left Behind Him
The Girl He Left Behind Him by Howard Taylor, The Talking Machine World, 1906 |
Needledee and Needledum
A Funnigraph Record by Peter Newell, The Ladies’ World, April-May 1914. |
The Boys' Own Phonograph
by John Lewees, St. Nicholas magazine, January 1880 |
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Kitchen Disco by Foges and Murphy, 2017 A Faber Picture Book |
"Columbia and Victor" - A Vaudeville Act, 1918 |
The Big Book of Time by William Edmonds, 1994 |
Hey Kid, Want to Buy a Bridge? by Jon Scieszka, 2002 (Time Travel to 1877) |
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Lost in the Grooves - Love letters to Albums by Cooper & Smay, 2005 |
Hauntiques by Thomas Kingsley Troupe, 2016 |
The Phonograph in Le Trocaderoscope, Paris, 1878 |
Looking Backward 2000-1887 by Edward Bellamy, 1888 |
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Just Imagine by Nick Sharrat and Pippa Goodhart, 2014 |
The Record by Ray Bradbury, 1939 |
The Miraculous Phonograph Record by William Saroyan, The Saturday Evening Post, September 1983 |
"Fair Fiction" PhonoLiterature (2)
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Samantha at the World's Fair by Josiah Allen's Wife,1893
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The City of Wonders Souvenir of the World's Fair by Mary Catherine Crowley, 1894 |
The Adventures of Uncle Jeremiah and Family at the Great Fair, by Charles McCellan Stevens, 1893 |
The Century World's Fair Book for Boys and Girls by Tudor Jenks, 1893
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The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, 2003 |
Love and Other Consolation Prizes - Seattle World's Fairs 1909 and 1962 |
Welcome to Samantha's World 1904 |
Phonographia
