Tag Archives: spoken word

Pioneer of Audio Books – Barbara Holdridge Ep17

If you enjoy listening to spoken word audio you have Barbara Holdridge to thank for it. Together with her business partner, Marianne (Roney) Mantell, co-founded Caedmon Records in 1952. As an entirely women-owned company Caedmon stressed gender equality and focused on women’s writings. She was a pioneer in the genre of spoken word literary recordings, and is considered to have laid the foundation for modern audio books.

I got the chance to meet her in Baltimore and she was kind enough to record with me on a new medium, podcasts. I really enjoyed Barbara and visited her several times afterwards to help her with her award winning gardens.