David Dukes reads Foundation

I have to admit, I didn't know who David Dukes was until I got hold of these audiobook tapes. I have been given to understand that he was a very popular character actor in the United States, but where I live, he is - for reasons I am unaware of - not well-known. When I listened to these audiobooks, I wanted to contact him and ask him if there are any plans to re-publish them in better quality on CD. Again, my ignorance: Mr. Dukes passed in 2000. But I did receive a very nice email from his widow, Carol Muske Dukes.

In short: I still don't know who holds the rights on this recordings, and whether they will be published again one day. Any information on that matter is welcome, and in the meantime, I will tell you about these tapes.

The seven books of the extended Foundation Saga (two prequels, the trilogy, two sequels) have been published as abridged readings by BDD Bantam Doubleday Audiobook Publishing between 1988 and 1994. Each book - except for Forward the Foundation - was abridged to two 90 minute tapes. Forward the Foundation was abridged as well but published on four tapes of 90 minutes each. While there are obviously some parts missing (for comparison: The 2004 unabridged reading of the Foundation novel by Scott Brick spans seven CDs with a total running time of 8 hours and 37 minutes compared to the 3 hour version discussed here), the story still is comprehensible and easy to follow. Dukes did a very nice job switching between different voices, and the partial use of background music sets a very nice atmosphere for the story. 

The audiobooks were produced by David Rapkin Audio Productions in New York. All but one book were read by David Dukes: The Foundation novel in this series is read by Isaac Asimov himself, who did a nice job as well (I really like his voice), but in my opinion not as good as Dukes. Interestingly, this book was recorded first, and I have no information why Asimov did not read all the books himself or whose decision that was.

There will be another section here about audio books with Isaac Asimov himself as the performer.