Allegany College of Maryland Will Display Rare Christmas Masterpieces Until Jan. 31

 

 

Schedule a Tour of the Janet Zastrow Cook Collections 

CUMBERLAND, Md. — Nov. 20, 2024 — In time for the holiday season, the Allegany College of Maryland is displaying an exhibition of Christmas items of considerable note from two collections named in honor of the late Janet Zastrow Cook: The Rare Book Collection and The Willa Cather Collection. The Christmas exhibition was curated by Gary D. Cook, whose wife was a beloved ACM English professor, rare book collector and admirer of the writings of Willa Cather.  
 
The public is invited to view the special Christmas exhibition in ACM’s Learning Commons until January 31. The Learning Commons and the College will be closed from December 19 to January 1.  
 
Highlights of the special exhibition include the following:  

• An original copy of a King James Holy Bible that was published in 1695. The first King James Bible was issued in 1611, and it is widely regarded as the most accepted and appreciated version in existence.
• The first separate printing of “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.” The Collection’s copy was issued in 1852 in “Five Christmas Hymns.” Edmund Sears composed the five-stanza poem in 1849, which was set to music (“Carol”) a year later by Richard Storrs Willis at Sears’ request.
• A collection of “The Christmas Books” by Charles Dickens. Contained in a custom-made collector’s case are all five of Dickens’ famous Christmas stories, including “A Christmas Carol” (December 1843), “The Chimes” (December 1844), “The Cricket on the Hearth” (December 1845), “The Battle of Life” (December 1846), and “The Haunted Man” (December 1848). All copies are first edition, first printing with their original covers.
• A 1931 copy of “Night Before Christmas” by Clement Clarke Moore. First published anonymously under the title “An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas” in 1823, the poem later became “The Night Before Christmas” and was attributed to Moore. Its first line has been called “arguably the best-known verses by an American.”  
• “Christmas Story” by H. L. Mencken (Henry Louis) from 1946. The 31-page story published by Alfred A. Knopf is Mencken’s shortest book. The Collection's copy is a first edition, first printing signed by the author. Illustrations are by Bill Crawford, in both color and black-and-white with pictorial end pages.  
• “A Christmas Memory” by Truman Capote is a 45-page short story originally published in Mademoiselle in December 1956. The story, which is largely autobiographical, details the lives of a seven-year-old narrator and an elderly woman who is his distant cousin and best friend.  
• “Christmas Before and After” by Katharine Lee Bates is a poem that appeared in the Virginia Quarterly. The Collection’s copy is a 1927 first edition with a soft cover binding signed by the author, who also penned “America the Beautiful.”  
• “A December Night,” a 12-page scene from “Death Comes for the Archbishop,” a novel by Willa Cather. The Collection’s copy is a first edition from 1933. Cather loved the holiday season and would send her greetings in personal letters and through inscriptions in her books.  

For more information about the exhibition or to schedule a tour, please call 301-784-5268 to reach Dione Clark-Trub, the director of Learning Commons.