Day 4 of Nightlight Readings: The Bishop's Wife

Robert Nathan? Have you heard of him? Many of us think of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Steinbeck when we think of the leaders of early 20th century American literature. In fact, he was far from their Nobel Prize circle. Fortunately for him, several of his novels showed up on the silver screen, which brings us to The Bishop's Wife.

The novel, written in 1928, reached the hands of producer, Samuel Goldwyn, in the mid 1940s. After several troubling rewrites of the screenplay, the movie finally was released featuring Cary Grant and Loretta Young.

The movie has seen been remade into "The Preacher's Wife," which featured Denzel Washington, Whitney Houston, and Courtney B. Vance.

Day 3 of Nightlight Readings: The Holly and the Ivy

 

Holly was seen as sacred to the European druids and the Romans considered it the plant of Saturn. As the Christian faith began to spread throughout Europe, holly quickly became a symbol of Christmas. Henry VIII, a known writer of songs (see Greensleeves), wrote a love song featuring the plant.

The carol "The Holly and the Ivy" may possibly be older than an early 18th century mention of it in a broadside. However, there are manuscripts explaining ancient English villages holding singing contests during the winter solstice, where the men sang about holly (seen as masculine) and the women sang about ivy (seen as feminine). Of course the only resolution to this contest was underneath the mistletoe. These three plants are prominent in England during the winter.

Day 2 of Nightlight Readings: A Letter from Santa Claus

Samuel Clemens, known for his pen name Mark Twain, wrote a letter to his daughter, Susie Clemens. Susie lived a short life of 23 years. She was a sickly girl and during one of her bouts of sickness, her father wrote a letter from Santa Claus.

Palace of St. Nicholas

In the Moon

Christmas Morning

MY DEAR SUSIE CLEMENS:

I have received and read all the letters which you and your little sister have written me by the hand of your mother and your nurses; I have also read those which you little people have written me with your own hands--for although you did not use any characters that are in grown peoples' alphabet, you used the characters that all children in all lands on earth and in the twinkling stars use; and as all my subjects in the moon are children and use no character but that, you will easily understand that I can read your and your baby sister's jagged and fantastic marks without any trouble at all. But I had trouble with those letters which you dictated through your mother and the nurses, for I am a foreigner and cannot read English writing well. You will find that I made no mistakes about the things which you and the baby ordered in your own letters--I went down your chimney at midnight when you were asleep and delivered them all myself--and kissed both of you, too, because you are good children, well trained, nice mannered, and about the most obedient little people I ever saw. But in the letter which you dictated there were some words which I could not make out for certain, and one or two small orders which I could not fill because we ran out of stock. Our last lot of kitchen furniture for dolls has just gone to a very poor little child in the North Star away up, in the cold country above the Big Dipper. Your mama can show you that star and you will say: "Little Snow Flake," (for that is the child's name) "I'm glad you got that furniture, for you need it more than I." That is, you must write that, with your own hand, and Snow Flake will write you an answer. If you only spoke it she wouldn't hear you. Make your letter light and thin, for the distance is great and the postage very heavy.

There was a word or two in your mama's letter which I couldn't be certain of. I took it to be "a trunk full of doll's clothes." Is that it? I will call at your kitchen door about nine o'clock this morning to inquire. But I must not see anybody and I must not speak to anybody but you. When the kitchen doorbell rings, George must be blindfolded and sent to open the door. Then he must go back to the dining room or the china closet and take the cook with him. You must tell George he must walk on tiptoe and not speak--otherwise he will die someday. Then you must go up to the nursery and stand on a chair or the nurse's bed and put your car to the speaking tube that leads down to the kitchen and when I whistle through it you must speak in the tube and say, "Welcome, Santa Claus!" Then I will ask whether it was a trunk you ordered or not. If you say it was, I shall ask you what color you want the trunk to be. Your mama will help you to name a nice color and then you must tell me every single thing in detail which you want the trunk to contain. Then when I say "Good-by and a merry Christmas to my little Susie Clemens," you must say "Good-by, good old Santa Claus, I thank you very much and please tell that little Snow Flake I will look at her star tonight and she must look down here--I will be right in the west bay window; and every fine night I will look at her star and say, 'I know somebody up there and like her, too.' " Then you must go down into the library and make George close all the doors that open into the main hall, and everybody must keep still for a little while. I will go to the moon and get those things and in a few minutes I will come down the chimney that belongs to the fireplace that is in the hall--if it is a trunk you want--because I couldn't get such a thing as a trunk down the nursery chimney, you know.

People may talk if they want, until they hear my footsteps in the hall. Then you tell them to keep quiet a little while till I go back up the chimney. Maybe you will not hear my footsteps at all--so you may go now and then and peep through the dining-room doors, and by and by you will see that thing which you want, right under the piano in the drawing room-for I shall put it there. If I should leave any snow in the hall, you must tell George to sweep it into the fireplace, for I haven't time to do such things. George must not use a broom, but a rag--else he will die someday. You must watch George and not let him run into danger. If my boot should leave a stain on the marble, George must not holystone it away. Leave it there always in memory of my visit; and whenever you look at it or show it to anybody you must let it remind you to be a good little girl. Whenever you are naughty and somebody points to that mark which your good old Santa Claus's boot made on the marble, what will you say, little sweetheart?

Good-by for a few minutes, till I come down to the world and ring the kitchen doorbell.

Your loving SANTA CLAUS
Whom people sometimes call "The Man in the Moon"

Clemens as St. Nick

Day 1 of Nightlight Readings: The Little Match Girl

 

One of the world's greatest children's authors, Hans Christian Andersen, known for his work of "The Ugly Duckling," "Thumbelina," and "The Little Mermaid," wrote a compelling story of a poor girl who wanders the streets selling matches for abusive father. It's a cold New Years Eve and not wanting to go home, she finds shelter in an alley nook, and lights her matches one by one in order to keep warm. In the light she sees visions of a Christmas feast and of her dearly departed grandmother. As the matches slowly burn out, she falls asleep and is swept into Heaven as a falling star shoots across the sky.

Disney created a short featuring the tale of "The Little Match Girl." It was to be part of the Fantasia movie, but was later developed by Disney and Pixar.

Second Annual 25 Days of Nightlight Readings

On this gloomy December evening, we begin the Second Annual 25 Days of Nightlight Readings. I began this blog tradition last year, in hopes to bring back some of the old ways of long Winter nights. Before the modern technologies of television and Internet, which seem to now fill up our dark days, families would gather before the hearth as stories were read aloud. Suddenly the dark, cold night would be replaced by the warmth of a lover's embrace and audiences would be swept away from their mundane lives to fly over the streets of a Victorian village or traverse a land of Mice Kings and Sugar Plum Fairies.

Now we can revisit those dark nights of long ago, and dust off some traditional Holiday literature to help warm our hearts.