title: Christmas Sampler: Classic Stories of the Season, From Twain to Cheevers (New York Public Library Book)
author: E. A. Crawford
description: These diverse, inviting American tales and sketches range from Washington Irving's cozy "Christmas Thoughts" (in which "heart calleth unto heart") to Bobbie Ann Mason's bittersweet "Drawing Names," in which a lover fails to keep a date. The season's downside is bravely represented, infusing this medley with a bracing contemporaneity. Sobering are two of the black authors' offerings: Frederick Douglass's "New Relations and Duties" describes what the revelry meant to a slave, while the white Santa of Langston Hughes's "One Christmas Eve" cruelly flusters a black child in order to amuse the others. Hortense Calisher's elegant "A Christmas Carillon" zeroes in on the need to "use the spurious to catch at the real." Richard Yates's "Oh Joseph, I'm So Tired" sensitively deals with anti-Semitism, while Edna Ferber's chilling "No Room at the Inn" shifts the Nativity to Nazi Germany. Impudent humor arises in Damon Runyon's update ("The Three Wise Guys"), which recasts kings as bootleggers. John Kendrick Bangs's "Thrulow's Christmas Story" and Christopher Morley's "The Worst Christmas" take digs at the writer's yearly task of grinding out yarns and doggerel. Tales to cheer traditionalists include Bret Harte's "How Santa Came to Simpson's Bar"; Sarah Orne Jewett's "Mrs. Parkins' Christmas Eve," about a stingy widow's conversion; Willa Cather's "The Burglar's Christmas," about a prodigal's homecoming; and L. Frank Baum's "How Santa Made the First Toy." Illustrations, like the stories, have been chosen from the collections of the New York Public Library. <br />Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
zlib_text:   
  The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Summer Holidays, by Amerel  
    
  This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with  
  almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or  
  re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included  
  with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org  
    
    
  Title: The Summer Holidays  
  A Story for Children  
    
  Author: Amerel  
    
  Release Date: April 22, 2005 [EBook #15684]  
    
  Language: English  
    
    
  *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS ***  
    
    
    
    
  Produced by Internet Archive; University of Florida, PM Childrens  
  Library, Joanna Pease and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.  
    
    
    
    
    
    
  
  
  #### THE
  
  
  # SUMMER HOLIDAYS:
  
  
  ## A STORY FOR CHILDREN.
  
  
    
  
  
    
  
  
  ### BY AMEREL.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  #### NEW-YORK:  
  
  
  D. APPLETON & COMPANY, 200 BROADWAY  
  
  
  1851.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by
  
  
  #### D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
  
  
  in the 