Of Mice and Men - As Read by Vincent Gibbs - Peary High School, Rockville, MD

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
as read by Vincent G. Gibbs

A dramatic reading John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" performed by Vincent Gibbs, English teacher and Drama Club director for 24 years at Robert E. Peary High School, Rockville, MD. Each year, Mr. Gibbs spent a full week reading this story to his 11th grade English students. I heard it in the fall of 1972 and it was quite magical to come in each morning and listen to Mr. Gibbs amazing vocal characterizations.

In 2000, a group of Peary alums asked Mr. Gibbs to record his unforgetable reading of this classic story and this recording is the result. A limited set of cassette tape copies were made that they have been passed from hand to hand over the years, literally making their way around the world in at least one case. Scroll down to see a letter that I wrote to Mr. Gibbs when I first heard these recordings a few years ago.

Update: Mr. Gibbs died August 16, 2023 after a lengthy battle with cancer. You can read his Washington Post obituary here. In December of 2022, over 100 former students gathered outside his house to sing and celebrate Mr. Gibbs and the difference he made in so many lives.

Since posting these files in 2006, I've received numerous emails from teachers all over the country - and beyond - who are using these recordings in their classes: Here's are some comments from those letters:

From Georgia: I just wanted to thank you for posting the recording of Mr. Gibbs reading Of Mice and Men and making it available to others. I am a high school English teacher in Savannah, GA, and have had my students listening to Mr. Gibbs’s rendition of this incredible story. The recording has even given me a new appreciation for the book. My students are identifying with the characters, and seem to be sincerely engaged in the plights of George and Lennie. The voices and Mr. Gibbs’s storytelling makes it so real for them! I’m wondering how they’ll react when Lennie doesn’t make it. They seem to have grown a bit attached.

From Michigan: I recently discovered the audio files you posted of your former English teacher reading Of Mice and Men. WOW, they are great. I, as well as some of my colleagues appreciate the opportunity to share them in our own classes. My students thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Gibbs reading of the book. He does a far superior job to what I can do.

From Sheffield, UK: Thank you so much for providing this audio resource. I am a VI (Visual Impairment) Technician and a request came in for this today... All I can say is 'Thank You' it must have been great to have an English teacher like Mr Gibbs. Love his pace and interpretation...Outstanding!

How to download the recording

I have made the files available in several formats; all are monaural to keep file size down. Total time for all six chapters is 3 hours 36 minutes (3:36). Size: 159Mb

M4B Audiobook (chapterized) If you have a Mac, iPhone, iPad or other iOS device, this format should play easily on your device. It has no DRM so it should also play within iTunes for Windows and *may* play on an Android device.

M4A Audiobook (chapterized) If you have an Android or other OS device and the above M4B file doesn't work, try this one. It is exaclty the same except that it has the M4A extension. It also has no DRM.

MP3 music file This is standard MP3 format and should play on any device that plays music. It will not register as an audiobook with separate chapters.

Note that if you click on one of the above files and it opens in a browser window and starts playing, you'll need to figure out how to save the file. On a computer, the easiest method is usually to Right-click (Control-click on Mac) and choose "Save as...." or "Download..." from the menu. Save the file to your desktop and then go from there.

If you're still having trouble try downloading one of these zip files. The downloaded file will need to be unzipped but should avoid the issue of automatically opening and playing. After unzipping the archive you can delete the zip file.

M4B Audiobook zipped

MP3 music file zipped

Vincent Gibbs - from the 1972 Polaris Yearbook
(Note the many autographed movie studio glossies on the wall. There were dozens of these around the classroom.)

The PDF file linked below contains the liner notes for the recording project.

Dear Mr. Gibbs,

I want to express my thanks to you for taking the time to make the recording of "Of Mice and Men", which I recently had the pleasure of listening to. I was alerted to the fact that the recording existed by Freda Curchack (Marver) and have since passed it on to Liz Loftus (Singer), all of us from the Peary class of 1974. From the moment Lenny says, "I like beans with ketchup", I was transported back to that unexpected and fascinating week in which you read the story. I was mesmerized listening to the recording, not just because it was a window to my past, but because your interpretation of the characters and their voices is so compelling.

Hearing the story again also made me wonder how classroom discussions of the issues raised in it would differ today. How would students, parents and administrators today respond to the issues of morality, racism and sexism? Does anyone have the courage to tackle such issues in classrooms these days by reading a book like this?

While I expect that you do not remember me - I was not what you would call an outstanding English student - your English and Humanities classes, your direction of the Drama Club plays, your wall of Black & White movie studio glossies, and your after school movie showings did make a deep impression on me. Though I struggled with writing, I did take in the paper writing concepts and frameworks you presented and they formed the basis for later writing that I did. I very clearly recall your standard example of a introductory sentence, "Lenny and George were depraved, deprived and depressed." You said it so often that it became quite humorous. Though I struggled with and never really came to appreciate Faulkner (and I suspect I'm not alone in that!), I did enjoy Steinbeck and went on to read other Steinbeck books during and after high school.

The Humanities class and after school films introduced me to forms of art and a broader range of cultural experience than I likely otherwise would have had. I recall specifically two instances, one watching Garbo in Queen Christina, and the other watching Fontein and Nureyev, in Romeo & Juliet, when you stopped the projector and replayed the same scene several times for us to take in and appreciate what was happening... Garbo's languid pose, Margot Fontein's arm drifting down. You helped us appreciate these things by showing us the things you appreciated and taking the time to look closely at them.

My three years at Peary were a very difficult time in my life. I was wrestling with depression, struggling with an abusive mother and alcoholic father and generally feeling quite numb. And, English and writing were particularly difficult for me! I did, however, learn a great deal from you and benefited from my participation in your classes and other activities, including and most especially the Drama club presentations of "Long Day's Journey Into Night" and "The Little Foxes". I particularly recall the post-performance sessions with you and the rest of the cast and crew. It was a peculiar and precious (to us) moment there when you let down the normal teacher/student formality a bit more than usual to discuss how it had gone that night.

So, all of this is to simply say, "Thank you". You did what teachers hope to do, make an impression, make a difference. You were not afraid to be yourself as a teacher and as an individual, and that in itself is an inspiration. You shared what you loved and cared about and it got passed on to many of us who sat in your classroom.

Sincerely,

Will Loving (known at Peary as "Bill McNaughten")
Denver, Colorado