New Releases in Old Tradition of Audio Books

If you’ve noticed books on audio only lately, you might think of it as a relatively recent innovation. Well, don’t.

In 1992, this “newfangled” idea is celebrating its 40th birthday.

Although the audiocassette format has only been around for about 20 years, spoken-word recordings on phonograph records--remember them?--date back to 1952, when a recording of Dylan Thomas reading “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” was released on the Caedmon label.

Shortly after Barbara Holdrige and Marianne Mantell graduated from New York’s Hunter College, they decided it might be a good idea to have recordings of works read by their authors, allowing listeners to hear the writers’ interpretation of their own words.

Holdrige and Mantell personally delivered the Dylan Thomas records to New York record shops, and the spoken-word recording industry was on its way.

The success of the Thomas disc paved the way for soon-to-follow recordings featuring the writings of Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, Robert Frost and others.

Today, there are dozens of companies putting out cassettes on which books--from novels to self-help and from classics to current bestsellers--are read by their authors or by actors.

And no longer do consumers always have to wait for a book to prove itself in print before a cassette is issued; in many cases, the ink is barely dry on a newly published book before its audio counterpart hits the bookstores.

Among the current bestselling books also available on audio is “Fugitive Nights” (Brilliance, $21.95). J.C. Howe narrates this latest Joseph Wambaugh police novel in an unabridged, nine-hour, three-cassette version. The plot is set into motion when a mysterious man drops from a private airplane into the steamy Palm Springs desert.

And, speaking of heat, the Florida sun and some hot--as in stolen--rare postage stamps are the focal point of “McNally’s Secret” (Simon & Schuster Audio, $17), Lawrence Sanders’ latest mystery. Detective Archy McNally is on the case, and he stumbles unexpectedly upon two murders and into a romance. The three-hour reading by Nathan Lane is on two cassettes.

The gang from Robert Ludlum’s “The Road to Gandolfo” is back in his newest bestseller, “The Road to Omaha.” The recorded version of this comic intrigue is read by Joseph Campanella in an abridged version on four 60-minute cassettes (Random House Audio, $22).

Scarlett O’Hara has risen again in “Scarlett,” Alexandra Ripley’s sequel to Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone With the Wind.” “Scarlett” (Simon & Schuster Audio, $25) is told on four 90-minute cassettes by Dixie Carter of TV’s “Designing Women”--which, appropriately, is set in Atlanta.

Japanese-American relations and a high-tech whodunit are the mix in “Rising Sun” (Random House Audio, $16), an abridgment of Michael Crichton’s hot-off-the-presses novel. The reading is by Keith Szarabajka on two 90-minute tapes.

Author Harville Hendrix is taking no chances--he personally instructs listeners on “Keeping the Love You Find” (Simon & Schuster Audio, $16) on this abridged version of his bestselling hardcover book. It’s on two cassettes, with a playing time of three hours.

Daniel J. Travanti of “Hill Street Blues” fame narrates “Unto the Sons” (Random House Audio, $16), Gay Talese’s autobiography-history. It tells the story of the millions of immigrants--Talese’s family included--who left Southern Italy for America at the turn of the century. This abridged version of the book is on two 90-minute cassettes.

“Blindsight” (Simon & Schuster Audio, $17), Robin Cook’s latest medical thriller, is read by Lindsay Crouse.

And Tony Award winner John Rubinstein plays a child psychologist who teams with a detective to uncover some deeply hidden secrets in “Private Eyes” (Bantam, $15.99), an abridged version of the Jonathan Kellerman thriller. Each title contains two cassettes and runs three hours.

Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg narrates “There Are No Children Here” (The Publishing Mills, $15.95). Its two cassettes convey author Alex Kotlowitz’s chronicle of two boys and their battle to grow up in a neglected, crime-ridden Chicago housing project.

And for mystery fans, Lilian Jackson Braun’s latest feline caper--”The Cat Who Moved a Mountain” (Dove Audio, $15.95)--is read by actor Theodore Bikel. Told on two cassettes, this cat’s tale is three hours long.