Once on Christmas

New York: Oxford University Press, 1938. Early printing, published one month after the first, of American journalist Dorothy Thompson’s account of childhood Christmases in upstate New York. Thompson remembers cutting citron for the Christmas pudding, hemstitching handkerchiefs as homemade gifts, and trimming the tree with strings of popcorn and other decorations: “There were stars to be cut out of kindergarten paper, red and green, and silver, and gold, and walnuts to be wrapped in gold paper, or painted with gold paint out of the paint-box that I had been given for my birthday.” A beautiful little book, illustrated by Newbery medalist Lois Lenski. Single volume, measuring 5 x 4 inches: [48]. Original color pictorial paper boards, red and white pictorial endpapers, unclipped color pictorial dust jacket. Black-and-white illustrations throughout text. Lightest edgewear to jacket. (Inventory #: 1003822)