The Powder of Sympathy
Christopher Morley
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
Another collection of mostly short “soliloquys” from Christopher Morley, an American literary luminary, who introduces them thus: “… these pieces were written, day by day, out of the pressure and hilarity and contention of the mind. I have made no attempt to conceal their ephemeral origin. They were almost all written for a newspaper, and contain many references to journalism. … it is remarkable that they should have been written at all: remarkable that any newspaper should take the pains to offer space to speculations of this sort. I have not scrupled, on occasion, to chaff some of the matters newspapers are supposed to hold sacred. …
But a columnist … is only a deboshed Editorial Writer, a fallen angel abjected from the secure heaven of anonymity. … unsuspecting whether intended by his scheming employer as a decoy, or a doormat, or a gargoyle, or a lightning rod (how is he to know, never having been given instruction of any sort except to go ahead and write as he pleases?) … [T]he columnist pursues his task and gradually distils a philosophy of his own out of his duties. Oddly enough, instead of growing more cautious by reason of his exposure, he becomes almost dangerously candid. He knows that if he is wrong he will be set right the next morning by a stack of letters varying in number according to the nature of his indiscretion. - Summary by Winnifred Assmann and excerpts from the Preface
Note: "The word ... niggardly [used in section 42, is] ... etymologically unrelated to the highly offensive and inflammatory racial slur euphemistically referred to as the N-word, despite the ... visual and auditory resemblance to it." Merriam-Webster (8 hr 2 min)
Chapters
Epigraph and Dedication | 7:24 | Read by Winnifred Assmann |
An Oxford Symbol | 10:14 | Read by Winnifred Assmann |
Scapegoats | 7:38 | Read by quartertone |
To a New Yorker a Hundred Years Hence | 6:12 | Read by Winnifred Assmann |
A Call for the Author | 4:25 | Read by ChristopherKloko |
Mr. Pepys’s Christmases | 8:47 | Read by John Leloup |
Children as Copy | 8:18 | Read by Winnifred Assmann |
Hail, Kinsprit! | 3:56 | Read by quartertone |
Round Manhattan Island | 6:36 | Read by quartertone |
The Unknown Citizen | 6:42 | Read by quartertone |
Sir Kenelm Digby | 29:05 | Read by John Leloup |
First Impressions of an Amiable Visitor | 6:21 | Read by Natalie Fortier |
In Honorem: Martha Washington | 5:54 | Read by Stacey Malcolm |
According to Hoyle | 4:40 | Read by SC1701 |
L. E. W. | 4:55 | Read by Mu |
Our Extension Course | 5:36 | Read by CCam |
Some Recipes | 6:34 | Read by Mu |
Adventures of a Curricular Engineer | 7:13 | Read by SC1701 |
Santayana in the Subway | 13:16 | Read by valroth |
Madonna of the Taxis | 6:26 | Read by valroth |
Matthew Arnold and Exodontia | 16:58 | Read by John Leloup |
Dame Quickly and the Boilroaster | 9:52 | Read by Amos Buchanan |
Vacationing with De Quincey | 31:39 | Read by John Leloup |
The Spanish Sultry | 7:21 | Read by John Leloup |
What Kind of a Dog? | 4:25 | Read by Winnifred Assmann |
A Letter from Gissing | 4:24 | Read by Winnifred Assmann |
July 8, 1822 | 6:40 | Read by AlexaTindallVA |
Midsummer in Salamis | 8:12 | Read by tshoes76 |
The Story of Ginger Cubes | 41:38 | Read by tshoes76 |
The Editor at the Ball Game | 11:02 | Read by AlexaTindallVA |
The Dame Explores Westchester | 10:46 | Read by Amos Buchanan |
The Power and the Glory | 5:59 | Read by SC1701 |
Gissing Joins a Country Club | 9:15 | Read by Winnifred Assmann |
Three Stars on the Back Stoop | 7:28 | Read by John Leloup |
A Christmas Card | 7:30 | Read by John Leloup |
Symbols and Paradoxes | 8:10 | Read by John Leloup |
The Return to Town | 7:11 | Read by SC1701 |
Maxims and Minims | 54:46 | Read by tshoes76 |
Two Reviews | 15:21 | Read by tshoes76 |
Buddha on the L | 12:08 | Read by Frederick O'Brien |
Intellectuals and Roughnecks | 14:24 | Read by Ann Boulais |
The Fun of Writing | 5:02 | Read by April6090 |
A Christmas Soliloquy | 22:21 | Read by Ann Boulais |