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| Santa Claus Story Book (M. A. Donohue & Co., Chicago IL) |
M. A. Donohue and Company, Chicago IL
150 Santa Claus Series
by Mary Katherine May of QualityMusicandBooks.com.
One copy of Santa Claus Story Book is available for purchase at QualityMusicandBooks.com.
This blog post is not a debate about the issues Christians have in regard to the fictional character of Santa Claus in society today. No matter how much we might disagree the commercialism of a most important holiday in the Christian year is not going to go away. It is my personal opinion that good ol' St. Nick as an imaginary benevolent character orginally based upon a real person from the past is just fine during the holiday season but has no place on the day that the birth of Christ is celebrated. Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate St. Nicholas Day and his memory, giving gifts, but leave Christmas as intended, as a very holy day.
There is a sub-genre within the genre of old and collectible children's books of books that would have an interesting and attractive cover but within the paper and printing were not of high quality. This type of book was intended for the large group of people who were much more able to afford a low or moderately priced book. I will assume that as in today's market, the profit came in the overall quantity purchased rather than by the quality and future collectibility of a beautiful work of art in book form.
Such books, despite whatever quanity was manufactured, have not necessarily survived in great numbers. Books printed with lower standards of paper and binding were handled and used just as much as any book but were more susceptible to wear and tear.
Santa Claus Story Book published by M.A. Donohue and Company of Chicago, Illinois, demonstrates the vulnerability of this type of book over time. The cloth covering the spine was not of the best quality from the start. This means that not as many threads were used in the weave of the fabric reducing its strength. If you think of bed linens which are sold advertising the thread count, you will have a good example of the feel and touch of the weave. The lower the thread count, the thinner the materials feels to the touch and more transparent the fabric.
The copy I have demonstrates what I means about the fabric very well. Though published no more than about a century ago, the fabric spine of my copy is split apart approximately 75% due to its lack of strength from a low thread count.
The cover is very attractive with a colorful, great looking Santa on the front. The color plate frontispiece looks playful, but upon examination it is clear that the process of printing the colors was not carefully centered each time. The touch and look of the paper is rough, even rougher than a standard grocery bag of today, with dark flecks of larger pieces of pulp. The book is profusely illustrated, but the quality of copied images is seen in relation to the number of times the source has been re-used.
I don't think such quality issues detract from this books collectibility, however, because it still is a specific genre of book and part of printing history--just as the old pulp fiction novels of poorer printing quality are still collectible today. A book such as Santa Claus Story Book has a number of collectors in its collectibility territory--Santa Claus, Christmas, Holiday, Children's Books, M.A. Donohue and related publishing, as well as for the collector of books for this type of market.
Santa Claus Story Book actually has only a few entries among the included poems, stories, and anecdotes. I looked through the entire book and found humor, factual information and fiction. It was an enjoyable task as I appreciate the works of this era though as I call the comparision: often quite overscented florally in word usage. Very few of the entries are documented for source, and that unfortunately is quite typical. I didnt' research the little stories, but did attempt to find source information for most of the poetry. Some will remain unidentified.
An intriguing entry is the poem titled, The Hidden Treasure, with no author given other than the initials, E.S.
To a king who was tyrant, not friend;
No mercy was shown to the victim
Who by chance his will should offend.
It once pleased the king of this country
To rid all his land, far and near,
Of a book, filled with wisdom and goodness,
Held by many a subject most dear.
It chanced a man, good and holy,
With his daughter one eve did pore,
O’er the sacred lines of the volume,
When they heard a low knock at the door.
With hearts filled with fear and trembling,
They both started up in dismay,
Well knowing, if found with the volume,
The hard, cruel fine they must pay.
With action quick and ready
They hide the book in the wall,
And with beating hearts wait the summons
That shall soon upon them fall.
E.S.
Another entry, a popular poem with unidentified author in Santa Claus Story Book titled, Baby Bunn, is typical of the time period. The poem is found in publications ranging from The Canada Farmer, to Good Housekeeping Magazine (1898) to textbooks on elocution, to Churchfolk's Home Magazine, p.170, (1883).
In Common School Elocution and Oratory (1886) by I.H. Brown, the poem is offered as an example on Playfulness (p. 174). In my reading of this poem, however, little boy Baby Bunn's future is anything but rosy. The fourth stanza is the most startling for the text's relationship to the suffering of Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane and during his crucifixion--crown of thorns, gall, sweating drops of blood, and trembling, white with anguish lips that drink.
I went back and read the poem again and decided that there could not be any symbolic representation of Baby Bunn as Jesus Christ for the fact of earlier verses that speak of the baby's eyes, much like his father's, that will steal from a woman what had been stolen from Baby Bunn's mother--her virginity? her heart by a man that toys with women? Is the sweetness then lightly disguised sarcasm? Is it the innocence of childhood portrayed in stark contrast to the realities of adulthood in a harsh, unforgiving world? This is one of the fascinating aspects of poetry much as with visual art--the meaning is always at least in part in the view of the beholder. However the meaning goes, Baby Bunn who now is beautiful and winsome with eyes that beguile is going to have big problems in the future.
Attribution for authors is either listed as unknown, unidentified, or credit recorded based upon one short statement, found nearly the same in a few publications. One of the earliest is The Canada Farmer: A Fortnightly Journal of Agriculture, Horticulture, and Rural Affairs, Volume IV, January to December, 1867, p. 286. W. F. Clarke, editor. No publication mentions more than the author's first name and surname initial. The Mr. N. P. Willis is most like Nathaniel Parker Lewis, author, poet and editor.
"The late Mr. N. P. Willis says of the poem annexed, "It is addressed to an idolized child, by its pet name, and though beautiful throughout, it has some two or three passages of very rare originality. The writer of it (as I learn from a letter of a lady who encloses it to me) was a factory girl, who by the labor of her own hands secured the money for her education. She is now twenty-four years of age, and supports herselv by the various uses of her pen. She (Josie H.) is yet to be famous, I am very sure."
Winsome Baby Bunn!
Brighter than the stars that rise
In the dusky evening skies,
Browner than the robin's wing,
Clearer than the woodland spring
Are the eyes of Baby Bunn!
Winsome Baby Bunn!
Smile, mother, smile!
Thinking softly all the while
Of a tender, blissful day,
When the dark eyes, so like these,
Of the cherub on your knees,
Stole your girlish heart away.
Oh! the eyes of Baby Bunn!
Rarest mischief will they do,
When once old enough to steal
What their father stole from you!
Smile, mother, smile!
Winsome Baby Bunn!
Milk-white lilies half unrolled,
Set in calyces of gold,
Cannot make his forehead fair,
With its rings of yellow hair!
Scarlet berry cleft in twain,
By a wedge of pearly grain,
Is the mouth of Baby Bunn!
Winsome Baby Bunn!
Weep, mother, weep,
For the little one asleep,
With its head against your breast!
Never in the coming years,
Though he seek for it with tears,
Will he find so sweet a rest,
Oh, the brow of Baby Bunn!
Oh, the scarlet mouth of Bunn!
One must wear its crown of thorns,
Drink its cup of gall must one!
Though the trembling lips shall shrink,
White with anguish as they drink,
And the temple sweat with pain--
Drops of blood like purple rain--
Weep, mother, weep!
Winsome Baby Bunn!
Not the sea-shell's palest tinge,
Not the daisy's rose-white fringe,
Not the softest, faintest glow
Of the sunset on the snow,
Is more beautiful and sweet
Than the wee pink hands and feet
Of the little Baby Bunn--
Winsome Baby Bunn!
Feet like these may lose the way,
Wandering blindly from the right;
Pray, and sometimes will your prayers
Be to him like golden stairs
Built through darkness into light.
Oh, the dimpled feet of Bunn,
In their silken stockings dressed!
Oh, the dainty hands, of Bunn,
Hid like rose-leaves in your breast!
These shall grasp as jewels rare,
But to find them empty air;
Those shall falter many a day,
Bruised and bleeding by the way,
Ere they reach the land of rest!
Pray, mother, pray!
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