Frank E. Peat

The cover of the 1937 Saalfield Publishing Co. edition should give a hint as to the beauty of the illustrations inside. I'd call those illustrations black and white, but the pages are made to look as if cream-colored old manuscript pages were pasted on larger white pages, including uneven edges, small tears, and curled corners on some of them.

The end papers are in color, a double-page illustration of hills, two sheep, a lamb, and three shepherds. One is asleep. The other two are looking up at the Star of Bethlehem.

The frontispiece shows three old-fashioned (19th century?) children singing. The title page has the heads and wings of three singing cherubs. The first part of the book consists of 18 songs and 13 full-page illustrations with Biblical quotations. Any of those illustrations would make a good Christmas card.

Songs 19 through 44 are separated from part one by a title page, 'Traditional Carols,' with three more, older, singing children on it. One child carries a pole with a little candle lantern on top. The last illustration is on the last song page -- a little circle enclosing the swaddled Christ Child.

Song titles are from the index. The number of verses is from the pages on which the songs appear (most of the Christmas carols I know I memorized from The Armed Forces Hymnal because Dad insisted on getting to Mass 15 to 20 minutes early and I wasn't a good enough kid to spend that time praying):

Adestes Fideles / O Come, All, Ye Faithful (the Latin is not given), 3 verses
Angels From the Realms of Glory, 4 verses
Angels We Have Heard on High / The Westminster Carol, 4 verses
Away in a Manger, 3 verses
Carol of the Birds, 4 verses
Caroll of Bryngyng in the Bore's Heed, 3 verses (the chorus & the last words of each verse are in Latin?)
Cherry Tree Carol, The, 13 verses
Christ Was Born on Christmas Day, 4 verses
Coventry Carol, The / Lullay, Thou Little Tiny Child, 4 verses
Deck the Halls, 3 verses
First Noel, The, 3 verses
Gentle Mary Laid Her Child, 2 verses
God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen, 4 verses
Golden Carol, The / We Saw a Light Shine Out Afar, 2 verses
Good King Wenceslas, 3 verses (drat! I like the 4th one)
Hail to the Lord's Anointed, 4 verses
Happy Christmas Morning, 2 verses
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, 2 verses
Here We Come a-Wassailing / Wassail Song, 3 verses
Holly and the Ivy, The, 4 verses (where's the one about the Holly's bark?)
Hosts and His Guests, The, 2 verses
How Brightly Beams the Morning Star, 2 verses
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, 5 verses
I Saw Three Ships, 7 verses
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, only 2 verses
Joy to the World, 3 verses, but I don't recognize the 3rd; it's not the one I know
Kings of the East, The, 2 verses, words used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company,
Music used by permission of Clarence G.? Hamilton
List Our Merry Carol, 3 verses
Listen, Lordlings, Unto Me, 3 verses
Lullay, Thou Little Tiny Child / The Coventry Carol, 4 verses
O Christmas Tree / O Tannenbaum, 2 verses
O Come, All, Ye Faithful / Adestes Fideles (the Latin is not given), 3 verses
O Holy Night, 3 verses (Yes! It includes the anti-slavery verse!)
O Little Town of Bethlehem, only 2 verses
O Tannenbaum / O Christmas Tree, 2 verses
Once in Royal David's City, 3 verses
Seven Joys of Mary, The, 7 verses
Shepherds! Shake Off Your Sleep, 5 verses
Silent Night, Holy Night, 3 verses
There's a Song in the Air!, 4 verses, words used by permission of Charles Scribner's Sons
Music used by permission of Karl P. Harrington
This Endless Night, 5 verses
Virgin Unspotted, A, 7 verses
Wassail Song / Here We Come a-Wassailing , 3 verses
We Saw a Light Shine Out Afar / The Golden Carol, 2 verses
We Three Kings of Orient Are, 5 verses
Westminster Carol, The / Angels We Have Heard on High, 4 verses
What Child is This?, 3 verses (unlike the current music issue for Catholics, it includes all 3 refrains)
While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night, 4 verses

The 1937 edition cover is the one with a red-haired boy in a blue coat who carries a holly-trimmed lantern with a lit candle in it on a pole; a blonde in pink with a pink feather on her bonnet and pale blue 'fur' collar, sleeve trim, & muff; and a little blonde or blond in medium blue. They're all singing. Snow appears to be falling from the deep blue sky. There's a gold-colored margin all around. Under the children appears a bit of musical score on a yellow background. The first letter, an 'N,' looks as if it came from an illuminated manuscript. The words are 'Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel / Born is the King of Israel'.

This site mentions a 1932 edition, but I don't know if that's correct:
http://historical.ha.com/c/item.zx?saleNo=6030&lotNo=37711

If you can't find the original, I hope you'll be able to buy the reprint. It's such a lovely book.… (más)