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National Library News

December 1995, vol. 27, no. 12

Season’s Greetings

To celebrate the season, the National Library of Canada invited a number of notable Canadians to share with readers their thoughts on books and stories that have special meaning for them at this time of year. Here are the responses we received.

Season's Greetings to all!

I will always remember the electric thrill that ran through me when a wild, human figure leaped unexpectedly from a pine tree on that apparently deserted island which Robert Louis Stevenson created so many years ago. My heart thumped, like Jim Hawkins's, for this was one of several unexpected surprises in Treasure Island, in my opinion, the best boy's book ever written.

It has everything: adventure, mystery, and unforgettable characters such as Long John Silver, and that haunting piece of doggerel about 15 men on a dead men's chest. It gripped me as no other book had. Blind Pew, the Admiral Benbow Inn, Cap'n Flint the parrot, the dreaded Black Spot, and the good ship Hispanola form part of the cultural baggage I still carry with me. I wish I could find another tale half as good.

— Pierre Berton
Author, journalist, historian, TV personality

Christmas! This word alone can bring joy to children's eyes. And when Santa Claus visits the land of elephants and rides around on a zebra, it becomes even more fascinating.

With Jean de Brunhoff's Babar and Santa Claus, magic and festivities come together. My son and I accompany Babar to the mysterious forest where Santa Claus is hiding. With him, we visit the toy room. My son's eyes shine with delight as he looks long and dreamily at the illustrations. Imagine! The soldier room, the train room, and the building-blocks room...

Then Babar notices that Santa Claus is tired and invites him to take a rest in the land of the elephants. My son laughs when he sees this cold-weather being hopping on a bicycle or stretching out in the sun, always wearing his red fur-trimmed suit. Before returning home, Santa Claus gives Babar a magic costume. On Christmas Eve, Babar flies through the air and gives gifts to all the little elephants in his kingdom. Arthur, Pom, Flore, Alexandre and Zéphir find that their dreams have come true, and the whole family gathers around the Christmas tree sparkling with lights. My son carefully closes this book that is so pleasant to read aloud. I know that his Christmas Eve will be one of gentle dreams.

— Joanne Cournoyer
President, Association pour l'avancement des sciences et des techniques de la documentation (ASTED)

I first came upon The Gift of the Magi when it was required reading in school, some three decades back. My glib and typically adolescent reaction at that time was: “Well, big deal. [Echoes of Gilda Radner's Lisa Lubner impersonation in 1962.] Her hair will at least grow back. His watch is gone for good!”

Today, that same story conjures up a very different reaction. O. Henry is particularly skillful with his imagery of a shabby, sparsely furnished cold-water flat, inhabited by a couple in drab, tattered clothes. The abject poverty contrasts powerfully with the description of Jim and Della's prized possessions and the panic of a last-minute shopping frenzy.

It is a truly touching story which conveys the concept of giving — donating to another in a way that describes the very essence of giving — each one sacrificing his/her most valuable item to enhance the other's most valuable item. To me, it says something about the season. Beyond the commercialism of exchanging trinkets, many of which are insignificant, is the idea that, once a year, time is taken to express, however poorly and ineptly, the importance that another being plays in our lives. For all the tackiness of piped-in Christmas music in the stores and the chintzy window displays, the idea of celebrating Christmas by offering something to someone special reminds me of those very special gifts which the Dillingham Youngs offered each other in The Gift of the Magi.

Rereading the short story is usually one of the last things I do on Christmas Eve after wrapping my gifts. I do Christmas things at the last minute too. I shop on December 24 as did the characters in the story. It makes it exciting if not always pleasant, and, no matter how smug listeners get when I tell them, no matter how they roll their eyes, guess what? I'm not alone in the stores on Christmas Eve.

— William Curran
Past President, Association pour l'avancement des sciences et des techniques de la documentation (ASTED)

When I think of Christmas and literature, the piece of writing that most immediately comes to mind is “Dulce Domum”, the fifth chapter from Kenneth Grahame's classic The Wind in the Willows, still my favourite book, no matter how often I reread it. This is the chapter where Mole goes back to his home and gets depressed because the burrow is so dusty and abandoned (the book opens with him wandering away during spring cleaning and this is his first time back). Ratty subsequently helps him get things back in order, just in time to welcome a group of carolling field mice.

An unabashedly sentimental choice, it's true, but it also reminds me of all the good things Christmas should remind us of (and that we'll hopefully practice throughout the year): being true to our friends, being part of our community, maintaining a generosity of spirit. I think it's an unfortunate symptom of our times that I've recently seen a couple of editions of the book dropping both this chapter and the one entitled “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn”, because they promote heathenism — missing the point entirely.

— Charles de Lint
Author

Some of his internationally acclaimed work is featured in the National Library of Canada's current exhibition, “Out of This World”.

So This Is Christmas

and with it come fond memories of waking early in the morning to the delicious smell of fresh cooking, of smiles and embraces all around, Christmas packages, red cheeks, family members from near and far — everything happening at once under the large star and the small crèche on the traditional Christmas tree.

May this Christmas remind you of happy memories and be the source of new ones for years to come.

Merry Christmas!

— Louise Guillemette-Labory
Director, Cultural and Recreational Services, Ville d'Anjou

Some 30 years ago, a Christmas gift from one friend was a book entitled The Angel of Hudson Bay by William Ashley Anderson. It is a true story of the wife of a Hudson Bay factor who, with her chil-dren bundled on a dog sled, mushed hundreds of miles in midwinter from northern Quebec to Quebec City. She felt compelled to tell the story of the desperate plight of the Indians in her area to the Legislature.

I was deeply moved by this magnificent Canadian saga of one woman's heroism and would buy six copies at a time to give away. Sadly, the book is no longer in print, but it will prove a super read if one can find a library copy.

— Grete Hale
President, Friends of the National Library of Canada

When I was 19, I spent the Christmas holidays somewhere on 59th Street in New York City with a classmate from the seminary where we were both studying to become priests. His mother read an enormous amount. I didn't. In fact, the only book I owned was a missal.

As a Christmas present, she gave me a book on the history of the Americas. I have, by now, forgotten the exact title, author and publisher, and I have lost it in my many peregrinations around this country of mine. All I remember for certain is that Canada was hardly discussed.

I suppose that I have, unconsciously at the beginning, and most determinedly for some time now, attempted to remedy this situation...in my mind, in my heart, and in the memory banks of the people who share this marvellous land of Canada with me.

— Laurier L. LaPierre, O.C.
Board member, Friends of the National Library of Canada

I find it difficult to tell people that I love them, that I care and that I want to be with them, and I know I am not alone. This summer, I was in Grand Manan, an island in the Bay of Fundy, where I met a woman who teaches children's literature. She told me about Did I Tell You I Love You? and sent me a copy.

This book was written by Nancy Young, an elementary school teacher, after one of her students suffered a tragedy in his family, to help people says the words that are important but difficult to say. The colourful illustrations by Bette Broderick use two birds to tell the story.

Did I Tell You I Love You? is available from Young & Broderick c/o NYEAC of Canada, 2390 Woodward Ave., Suite 5, Burlington, Ontario L7R 1T9.

— Penny Marshall
President, Canadian Library Association

Album — Henri Julien (Montréal: Librarie Beauchemin Ltée, 1916)

Canadian Pictures Drawn with Pen and Pencil — the Marquis of Lorne (London: The Religious Tract Society, s.d.)

Travels through Canada and the United States of North America in the Years 1806, 1807 & 1808...— John Lambert, vol. I, 3rd edition (London: Baldwin, Cradock and Joy; Edinburgh: W. Blackwood; Dublin: J. Cumming, 1816)