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Re: Audio recording of interview with Jules Verne (1903)

From: Jean-Pierre Boutin <boutin~at~versailles.inra.fr>
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2006 19:11:00 +0200
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~gilead.org.il>

Extraordinaires découverte et aventure!!! Bravo Garmt !!!
Félicitations aussi pour votre extraordinaire désintéressement ... je
parle de Madame Rina Appel et de toi et quand je dis extraordinaire, je
pèse mes mots ... car en ces temps de mercantilisme frénétique une
telle attitude est rare.
Amitiés,
Jean-Pierre Boutin

Extraordinary finding!!! Cheers Garmt!!! Congratulations also for
your extraordinary disinterestedness... I am speaking of Mrs Rina Appel
and of you, and when saying extraordinary, I am weighing my words
because, in these times of frantic mercenary attitude, such an
attitude is rare.
J-PB

Le mercredi, 29 mars 2006, à 17:22 Europe/Paris, Garmt de Vries a écrit
:

> Dear fellow Vernians,
>
> This week I did an amzing discovery that I'd like to share with you:
> an audio recording of an interview with Jules Verne by a Dutch
> journalist!
>
> A couple of days ago, I received an e-mail from a Mrs Rina Appel from
> Amersfoort, a town not far from where I live. Among the inheritance
> left by her aunt, who passed away last year, she had found a small
> wooden crate containing five wax cilinders, each wrapped in a leather
> case. On the crate was a handwritten label that read "Jules Verne
> 1903".
>
> The crate had belonged to Rina Appel's grandfather, Ger Appel. He was
> a reporter who worked for the newspaper "Amersfoortsche courant" in
> the beginning of the 20th century. After that, he wrote for "De Gids",
> a literary magazine. Unfortunately, he got ill quite early in life.
> His daughter, Rina Appel's aunt, nursed him until his death, and after
> that she stayed in the house, where she lived alone. Many items
> belonging to Ger Appel were still lying in the attic when she died.
>
> When he worked for the "Amersfoortsche courant", Ger Appel interviewed
> many celebrities in the Netherlands and abroad, such as Edison,
> Berlage, Domela Nieuwenhuis, and, as it turns out, Jules Verne. Appel
> visited Verne on 18 March 1903; the interview was published two weeks
> later. A copy of the newspaper page containing the article, is in Rina
> Appel's possession.
>
> Ger Appel had a portable phonograph at his disposal, and he recorded
> his interviews on wax cilinders. Once the interviews had been written
> down, he would erase the cilinders so he could use them again. But in
> the case of Jules Verne, he apparently decided to keep the recordings.
> Phonograph cilinders weren't cheap, and it is quite remarkable that
> Appel didn't erase this interview. He seems to have been a great fan
> of Verne. Among his things, there was the complete series of the "blue
> covers", the first editions of Verne's works in Dutch, as well as a
> copy of "In een kist naar 't Hemelsche Rijk" (Dutch translation of
> Bombarnac, published 1902), signed by Verne. These books are now in
> Rina Appel's bookcase. When she was cleaning up the attic of her
> aunt's house, the crate with the recordings turned up, and she
> contacted me.
>
> Of course, I phoned her at once, and made an appointment. Today, I
> visited Rina Appel. She showed me the crate, the cilinders and the
> newspaper. The contents of the interview are hardly remarkable. It's
> about Verne's poor health, his way of working, and the lack of
> literary recognition from which he suffered. Appel mentions the
> phonograph, which he says Verne already mentioned in "Les Tribulations
> d'un Chinois en Chine". To this, Verne modestly replies that these
> machines had existed for some time when he wrote that novel. One could
> suggest that Appel copied all this from other sources, but the fact
> that he possessed a signed copy of a book that was published in 1902
> at least proves that he visited Verne between 1902 and 1905. Another
> indication for the authenticity of the interview is a mention of
> Verne's latest novel, in which two Dutchmen play an important part.
> This of course refers to "Les frères Kip", which had appeared in
> France the year before, but hadn't appeared in Dutch translation yet
> at the time when Appel visited Verne.
>
> Having seen the crate and the newspaper, I was of course anxious to
> hear the recordings. I didn't really want to insist, but Rina Appel
> herself offered to listen to one of the cilinders. She owns a
> phonograph, also from her grandfather's inheritance, and she had,
> especially on this occasion, figured out how it worked. The sound was,
> as could be expected, of a moderate quality. The wax had been
> weathered over the years, and the recorded sound is hardly audible at
> times. Also, the spring that drives the phonograph is not so strong
> anymore. Add to that Verne's soft and inarticulate voice, and you see
> that it's difficult to make out what is said. However, we were able to
> understand a few sentences. We didn't want to move the needle over the
> wax too often, for fear of more damage, so we listened to this
> cilinder twice and then stopped.
>
> I will go to Rina Appel again this Friday evening. Her son will be
> there too, and he will bring a laptop and a microphone. We will then
> play all five cilinders, and record the sound on the computer. With
> some dedicated software, we will then try to enhance the quality of
> the sound. I have done that before with vinyl records, so I have some
> experience with the elimination of noice, scratches and other unwanted
> sounds. Of course, you can't attach the phonograph directly to the
> input of the computer, like you can do with a modern record player. We
> will hold the microphone in front of the speaker, and hope that the
> quality will be sufficient.
>
> If all goes well, I can make at least a portion of the interview
> available as mp3 this Saturday. I will put it online at
> http://www.phys.uu.nl/~gdevries/recording/. On this page, I already
> show a quick first scan of the newspaper. This Friday, I will scan the
> complete article and I will put it online along with the mp3. I will
> send a cd with the entire interview to those who are interested, but
> give me some time to copy everything.
>
> As far as I'm aware, no recordings of Verne.s voice are known. Now,
> over a century after his death, we will finally be able to hear what
> he sounded like. I'm very very pleased with this unique find, and of
> course I'm immensely grateful to Rina Appel for sharing her discovery
> with me!
>
>
> Cheers,
> Garmt.
>
>
__________________________________________
Jean-Pierre Boutin
Laboratoire de Biologie des Semences (Seed Biology Lab.)
UMR 204 INRA-INA PG
INRA, Centre de Versailles-Grignon, RD 10
78026 Versailles cedex
Tel. 33(0)1 30 83 33 39 Fax. 33(0)1 30 83 30 96
___________________________________________
Received on Wed 29 Mar 2006 - 19:11:08 IST

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