It's true, it isn't even Thanksgiving yet--but while our gem from today revolves around Christmas, it certainly has a good message for year round.
"The Greatest Gift" by Philip Van Doren Stern is the short story of a man named George Pratt who, while contemplating suicide on Christmas Eve, meets a stranger who gives him his wish of "never being born." George proceeds to find out what the town is like now that he was never part of it. When George stops at his parents house, he finds they do not know him, and that the boy who would have been his little brother drowned many years ago--George was not there to save him as he had before. At his wife's house, he meets her terrible drunk of a husband who treats the family poorly; since George was never born he had never courted her and won her heart. He races back to the bridge and pleads with the stranger to change him back, and once back he races home to his parents and wife and family with a new thanksgiving for his life and happiness.
If this story sounds familiar to you, it is because this is the original story of "It's a Wonderful Life," the traditional Christmas movie favorite of today.
Stern's 4,100 word short story was inspired by a dream, and unable to find a publisher for it, he sent the 200 copies he had privately printed to his friends as Christmas cards in 1943. It came to the attention of RKO producer David Hempstead, and the rest is history. Sold to Frank Capra's production company for $10,000; it was adapted into what is now one of the best known Christmas movies of all time.
Stern's 4,100 word short story was inspired by a dream, and unable to find a publisher for it, he sent the 200 copies he had privately printed to his friends as Christmas cards in 1943. It came to the attention of RKO producer David Hempstead, and the rest is history. Sold to Frank Capra's production company for $10,000; it was adapted into what is now one of the best known Christmas movies of all time.
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| Original signature by Philip Van Doren Stern |
Our copy at Mullen Books is one of the original 200 sent out by Stern in 1943.
It is signed in ink by the author/publisher on the very last page. Some pages even have the paper watermark in the corners--something that is not present in many books, but adds to the value of hand-prints as a sign of their hand-crafting.
Though a quick read [only 21 pages long] it is a beautiful story, and well-written--a book with a moral of thanks and peace that is timeless at any age. Beyond the story itself, this booklet is a gorgeous piece of history.
And certainly something that "person who has everything" will never expect for Christmas!
