This is a new release of the original 1926 edition.

The celebrated annotator of "The Wizard of Oz" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" has now prepared a sumptuous new edition of the Dickens classic.

Visit a most extraordinary children's summer camp in Vermont operating during the 1920s and 1930s where the attendees built the castles and life-sized, sea-worthy pirate ships where they lived for the summer and played. Learn how these talented youth experienced the ultimate boyhood fantasy by building a huge pirate ship and living on it during extended voyages across Lake Champlain, New York, and Canada. Over eleven incredible summers, Francis Godfrey Baker, engineer, boat builder, and visionary, led groups of intrepid teenagers on an odyssey of life-changing experiences while traveling aboard their pirate ship, Aladdin. Baker believed that a little ingenuity and determination turned boys into men; he steered them on a course of events through raging weather and water, meetings with extraordinary people and self-sustainability. He showed them the amazing power that comes through teamwork and camaraderie. This is the first in-depth account of the Adventurers' Camp, and the first time rare photographs of the boys' activities have been presented. Join the crew of Aladdin as they embrace an era where life on the water was filled with magic and conviction that made dreams come true.

Over 150 years after its original composition, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol continues to delight readers. The figure of Ebenezer Scrooge has become a cultural icon, and Tiny Tim's "God Bless Us Every One" is as familiar as "Merry Christmas." It is not surprising that Dickens' "ghostly little book," as he called it, has proved popular with playwrights and screenwriters. In everything from elegant literary treatments to animated musicals, the role of Scrooge has been essayed by actors from George C. Scott to Mr. Magoo. This critical account of the story's history and its various adaptations examines first the original writing of the story, including its political, economic, and historical context. The major interpretations are analyzed within their various media: stage, magic lantern shows, silent film, talkies, and television. Dickens' other, lesser known Christmas stories, like "The Cricket on the Hearth," are also examined and compared to the immortal Carol. Finally, a complete annotated filmography of all film and television productions based on A Christmas Carol is included, with commentary on each version's loyalty to the original text. The book includes 25 previously unpublished photos as well as analysis of previously undocumented productions. The text includes a foreword by the distinguished film and literary scholar Edward Wagenknecht, a bibliography and an index.

Patricia M. Boyer - librarian, teacher, newspaper editor, leader in community arts and theatre, and human rights activist - summed up her approach to life as "optimistic realism." This collection of her best newspaper columns is organized through the twelve months of the year, "the march of days."