It is my belief that due to the complexity of the invented Sound Recordings, individuals such as “Edouard-Léon Scott de Martinville (1817–1879),” “Charles Cros. (1842–1888),” and “Thomas A. Edison (1847–1931)” all played a pivotal role to birthing of the original Audiobook sound recordings. The creation of Audiobook is a legitimate fun way of reading and is a format that has afforded and influenced millions of persons to read their favorite books on a regular.
However, it was Thomas Edison’s idea of wanting to record books as an accessible resource for the visually impaired that led to the idea and creation of a phonographic book. Edison’s brilliance led to pitching his idea at the Royal Institution in Britain. As an example and inspiration, Edison played a recorded verse of Alfred Tennyson’s poetry for the attendees. Though proved to be progressive, the recordings provided a limited capacity of 4 minutes only.
The Audiobook phenomenon continued to grow and expanded in the 1970’s when CDs were introduced. It was a welcoming transitional period where volumes of books were recorded and produced to CDs and which became available through numerous digital outlets and apps. The month of June celebrates “Audiobook Appreciation Month” and pays homage to the development of audiobooks over the years. It is an important period that highlights earlier development of the phonographic book.