This collection of Christmas literature–a selection of some of the best writings by authors from many times and places, including China, Syria, Egypt, France, Spain, England, Mexico, Canada, and the United States–enables readers to appreciate the dimensions of Jesus’ birth. Works of art from the Far East, the Sudan, Russia, Hispanic America, and England underscore the universality of the story of Jesus. Chapters are arranged in chronological order and each is divided into literary genres–liturgy, sermon or treatise, drama, fiction, and poetry. Language in the early English work has been modernized, and several Latin, French, Spanish, and Arabic works are translated and published in English for the first time.
Edna M. Troiano is Professor Emeritus of Languages and Literature at the College of Southern Maryland in La Plata, Maryland. She is coauthor of Write to Know and The Contemporary Writer.