Celebrate Poe

Christmas and the Father of American Literature

December 22, 2021 George Bartley Season 1 Episode 91
Celebrate Poe
Christmas and the Father of American Literature
Show Notes Transcript


  • What is a way of remember the name Washington Irving (and not confusing him with other names!)
  • Where do we get the legend of Santa Claus in America?
  • What was Christmas like during medieval England?
  • How was Christmas celebrated in America before the 1800’s?
  • What is the first section of Old Christmas about in tone?


  • 00:10  Introduction
  • 01:15 Remembering Poe and other writers
  • 02:52  Remembering Irving
  • 06:49 Festive (and non-festive) Christmas
  • 10:15 Irving and Santa Claus
  • 12:00 Christmas (first section of Old Christmas)
  • 21:02 Future episodes
  • 26:02 Sources 


Sources for this episode include “The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon” by Washington Irving, Complete Fictional Works of Washington Irving by Washington Irving, Washington Irving: The Definitive Biography of America’s First Bestselling Author by Brian Jay Jones, The Literary Adventures of Washington Irving by Cheryl Harness, Original Knickerbocker: The Life of Washington Irving by Andrew Burstein, Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography by Arthur Hobson Quinn, The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Dwight Thomas and David K. Jackson, and The Reason for the Darkness of the Night. by John Tresch.


00:10  Introduction

Welcome to Celebrate Poe. My name is George Bartley, and this is episode Ninety One - Christmas and the Father of American Literature

Thank you ever so much for taking time from your busy schedule to listen to the 2001 Christmas edition of Celebrate Poe.  This entire week this podcast will look at all 5 parts of Old Christmas by Washington Irving.  If you haven’t heard of Old Christmas, well, I think you will be pleasatly surprised.  Washington Irving wrote the 5 sections of Old Christmas in a collection of other works called The Sketch Book.  It is felt that Old Christmas had a major impact on Charles Dickens when he wrote A Christmas Carol - and that was 30 years later!  Washington Irving also influenced how we celebrate Christmas - far more than he is usually given credit for - but this podcast episode will be going into that later.

01:15 Remembering Poe and other writers

First, I want to explain something that might help you understand things a bit more - Not surprisingly, Edgar Poe came in contact with quite a few writers - some he seemed to think of his competitors, some writers he really admired, and some he seemed to enjoy dissing.

And he was not above taking a lukewarm recommendation from a contemporary as a glowing review.  And sometimes Poe seemed to criticize other writers - not because he sincerely had strong feelings - but because the public would talk about his literary feuds, and that would give him publicity.  Edgar Poe learned how to use the media.  In that respect, he wasn’t that different from Elton John’s feuds with Madonna, or Kim Kardashian feud’s with Paris Hilton, or Taylor Swift feud’s with … well  practically everybody.    I can’t believe I am comparing Edgar Allan Poe to Kim Kardashian!

But I digress …

Over the months that I have planned for Celebrate Poe - and from my outline it looks like the podcast will last for years - I want to go into some of those ninteenth century writers who were Poe’s literary contemporaries.

02:52  Remembering Irving

I know that it is far too easy to mix the names up - to let one name wash over another - to hear a name, and think - I know that from somewhere, but am not exactly sure.  And I used to be an English major and would like to think I KNOW this stuff. So I want to be sure that I give each writer an IDENTITY - something to remember him or her by - don’t know if I will always succeed, but hopefully there will be less chance of confusing them.

Let me take Washington Irving as an example - for some wierd reason - and maybe I am the only one - I seem to ALWAYS confuse Washington Irving with Nathaniel Hawthorne.  At first glance, both their first names have roughly three syllables depending on how you say it - Washington and Nathaniel - and their last names have two syllables - Irving and Hawthorne.

And being from the South, there is often a tendency to lump all Northern writers into one group.

I know when I worked at the Poe Museum, I couldn’t have told you much of anything about Washington Irving and Nathaniel Hawthorne except that they were both assiciated with the North and wrote dark stories.  They WERE both associated with the North - Irving from New York and Hawthorne from New England.  And lately, after I read Old Christmas, decided it might make a good podcast subject, and intend to look up Washington Irving, I would somehow lookup Nathaniel Hawthorne - was ALWAYS confusing the two.

So I came up with a memory aid.

BUZZER (Memory Aid sound)

Washington Irving came first - in fact, it is said that he was the first American to make his living from writing.

George Washington actually visited an excited young Irving, when Irving was six years old.  Irving’s last work was a 6 volume biography of George Washington.

And George Washington was the first President.

Think first.

The writer who came first was Washington Irving.

The young Irving’s meeting with Washington can be thought of as his Lafayette moment.  You see, it is generally agreed that Edgar Poe met the Marquis Lafayette in 1824 in Richmond when Lafayette came to the United States.

In other words, both young men experienced the excitement of meeting their heros.

So again, think first president - George Washington

First professional American writer - professional in this case meaning making a living from writing - another Washington - Washington Irving.

And if you need another memory aid - George Washington is often called the Father of his country.   Washington IRVING is known as the father of American literature.  (Before Washington Irving, writers were not held in high esteem. - but I will go into this in future episdoes.)

Sorry to belabor this.  I just wanted to give you that memory aid to impress the writer Washington Irving on your mind.

TRANSITIOM

06:49 Festive (and non-festive) Christmas

Now think back centuries ago during England’s medieval era.  That was a time when people REALLY celebrated Christmas - maybe a little bit too much. Oh, Christmas was an extremely joyous occasion - in fact, maybe sometimes a little big TOO joyous.  It seemed that estates were like communities that had noblemen masters.  Then, of course, the estates had their share of masters, workers, and servants.  The populations developed their own share of merry festivals for feasting, fellowship, gift-giving, games, and lots and lots and LOTS of drinking. Those people knew how to party!  But, not surprisingly, their celebrations often ended up getting out totally out of control.

By around the mid-1600’s, there had been a great deal of religious, economic and political turmoil.  Many of the Christmas customs - especially ones that might be seen as wild - were completely banned. Parliament even imposed punishments on merchants who closed their stores on December 25th.  And their were even punishments for people who tried to decorate their churches with traditional Yuletide greens.

I guess you could say that when it came to celebration, Christmas in England wasn’t much of a holiday at all.  I know that when I worked as a guide at Woodlawn - a house built by George Washington for his grandaughter - people would come to the house in December expecting to see the Christmas lights.  The guides would always have to point out that the house was a gift from George Washington to his grandaughter and her husband in 1799, and they were still largely influenced by England in cultural customs back then and did not have as elaborate a Christmas celebration. 

I did not know the reason that there were few Christmas festivities was that Washington Irving had not begun doing research.  You see, when Irving started doing research in the early 1800’s, most people were unaware of the early Christmas traditions of medieval England.  And many of his ideas and findings became the root of our modern customs for celebrating Christmas. Woodlawn was one of those homes that was built just before the 1800’s when houses were not elaborately decorated at Christmas.

The Christmas that England - and early Colonial society - celebrated was more of a minor event, frequently known as “Twelfth Night.”  But remember, this began to change with Washington Irving. From an early age, Washington Irving developed an interest in holiday traditions.  He was especially interested in those of the Dutch communities along the Hudson River where he lived for a time as a teenager.
10:15 Irving and Santa Claus

In 1812, he wrote “A History of New York.”  And Washington Irving - he had a tremendous imagination - included a  a dream sequence involving a character by the name of Saint Nicholas, whose name in Dutch is pronounced “Sinterklaas.”

Washington Irving had Saint Nicholas flying through the air over Manhattan in “the self-same wagon wherein he brings his yearly presents to children.” The Saint descended to the ground to smoke his pipe and then, “laying his finger beside his nose (and) mounting his wagon, he returned over the treetops and disappeared.”

In 1815, Irving moved to Europe and began doing even more research into ancient Christmas customs.  I guess you could say he became a regular in the libraries and museums wherever he was.  Then he complied those findings into five chapters of a 34-chapter collection of essays published in 1819 as “The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon.” These 5 chapters, or “Old Christmas” have remained in print for over 2 centuries.  In the next 5 episodes, this podcast will deal with sections from all 5 episodes.  The purpose is to examine how Old Christmas has had a major influence on how we look at the holiday season - beginning with the chapter simply entitled, “Christmas.”

12:00 Christmas (first section of Old Christmas)

There is nothing in England that exercises a more delightful spell over my imagination than the lingerings of the holiday customs and rural games of former times. They recall the pictures my fancy used to draw in the May morning of life, when as yet I only knew the world through books, and believed it to be all that poets had painted it; and they bring with them the flavour of those honest days of yore, in which, perhaps with equal fallacy, I am apt to think the world was more home-bred, social, and joyous than at present. I regret to say that they are daily growing more and more faint, being gradually worn away by time, but still more obliterated by modern fashion. Of all the old festivals, however, that of Christmas awakens the strongest and most heartfelt associations. There is a tone of solemn and sacred feeling that blends with our conviviality, and lifts the spirit to a state of hallowed and elevated enjoyment. The services of the church about this season are extremely tender and inspiring. They dwell on the beautiful story of the origin of our faith, and the pastoral scenes that accompanied its announcement. They gradually increase in fervour and pathos during the season of Advent, until they break forth in full jubilee on the morning that brought peace and goodwill to men. I do not know a grander effect of music on the moral feelings than to hear the full choir and the pealing organ performing a Christmas anthem in a cathedral, and filling every part of the vast pile with triumphant harmony. It is a beautiful arrangement, also derived from days of yore, that this festival, which commemorates the announcement of the religion of peace and love, has been made the season for gathering together of family connections, and drawing closer again those bands of kindred hearts which the cares and pleasures and sorrows of the world are continually operating to cast loose; of calling back the children of a family who have launched forth in life, and wandered widely asunder, once more to assemble about the hearth, that rallying-place of the affections, there to grow young and loving again among the endearing mementoes of childhood. There is something in the very season of the year that gives a charm to the festivity of Christmas. At other times we derive a great portion of our pleasures from the mere beauties of nature. The song of the bird, the murmur of the stream, the breathing fragrance of spring, the soft voluptuousness of summer, the golden pomp of autumn; and heaven with its deep delicious blue and its cloudy magnificence, all fill us with exquisite delight, and we revel in the luxury of mere sensation. But in the depth of winter, when nature lies despoiled of every charm, and wrapped in her shroud of sheeted snow, we turn for our gratifications to moral sources. The dreariness and desolation of the landscape, the short gloomy days and darksome nights, while they circumscribe our wanderings, shut in our feelings also from rambling abroad, and make us more keenly disposed for the pleasures of the social circle. Our thoughts are more concentrated; our friendly sympathies more aroused, we feel more sensibly the charm of each other's society, and are brought more closely together by dependence on each other for enjoyment. The pitchy gloom without makes the heart dilate on entering the room filled with the glow and warmth of the evening fire. The ruddy blaze diffuses an artificial summer and sunshine through the room, and lights up each countenance into a kindlier welcome. Where does the honest face of hospitality expand into a broader and more cordial smile—where is the shy glance of love more sweetly eloquent—than by the winter fireside? and as the hollow blast of wintry wind rushes through the hall, claps the distant door, and rumbles down the chimney, what can be more grateful than that feeling of sober and sheltered security with which we look around upon the comfortable chamber? The English, from the great prevalence of rural habits throughout every class of society, have always been fond of those festivals and holidays which agreeably interrupt the stillness of country life; and they were, in former days, particularly observant of the religious and social rites of Christmas.  Conversely, one of the least pleasing effects of modern refinement is the havoc it has made among the hearty old holiday customs. Many of the games and ceremonials of Christmas have entirely disappeared. They flourished in times full of spirit and lustihood, when men enjoyed life roughly, but heartily and vigorously. The world has become more worldly. Pleasure has expanded into a broader, but a shallower stream, and has forsaken many of those deep and quiet channels where it flowed sweetly through the calm bosom of domestic life. Society has acquired a more enlightened and elegant tone; but it has lost many of its homebred feelings and its honest fireside delights. The traditional customs have passed away with the baronial castles and stately manor-houses in which they were celebrated.  However, Christmas is still a period of delightful excitement in England. It is gratifying to see that home feeling completely aroused which seems to hold so powerful a place in every English bosom. Amidst the general call to happiness, the bustle of the spirits, and stir of the affections, which prevail at this period, what bosom can remain insensible? It is, indeed, the season of regenerated feeling—the season for kindling, not merely the fire of hospitality in the hall, but the genial flame of charity in the heart. The scene of early love again rises green to memory beyond the sterile waste of years; and the idea of home, fraught with the fragrance of home-dwelling joys, reanimates the drooping spirit, though for me no social hearth may blaze, no hospitable roof throw open its doors, nor the warm grasp of friendship welcome me at the threshold,—yet I feel the influence of the season beaming into my soul from the happy looks of those around me. Surely happiness is reflective, like the light of heaven; and every countenance, bright with smiles, and glowing with innocent enjoyment, is a mirror transmitting to others the rays of a supreme and ever shining benevolence. He who can turn away from his fellow beings, and sit down in his loneliness when all around is joyful, may have his moments of strong excitement and selfish gratification, but he wants the genial and social sympathies which constitute the charm of a merry Christmas.

Congrats for making it this far, as we take a deep dive into the life, works, and influences of America’s Shakespeare.  I know that 19th century literature can sometimes be hard going.

As usual, this podcast began and ends with the melody of Come Rest in This Bosom - said to be Edgar Allan Poe’s favorite song.

21:02 Future episodes

You know, now that the weather (at least here in Indianapolis) is a lot colder   with bone chilling winds, I have far more time to spend inside, and am working a lot more on Celebrate Poe.  The episode to be released tomorrow deals with the next part of Old Christmas, and is called The Stage Coach or Santa Claus Establishes New York

And on the day of Christmas Eve, the episode will deal with - you guessed it - Christmas Eve.  Then Celebrate Poe will release Irving’s Christmas Day ON Christmas Day.  And since I like to keep episodes around 35 minutes or less, I will release the final section of Old Christmas - The Christmas Dinner   a few minutes later by itself on Christmas Day, Then on the day after Christmas, the podcast episode is The Festival by H.P. Lovecraft.  It would hardly be accurate to call The Festival a Christmas story in the traditional sense - it is FAR too dark - but, as you many of you know, Lovecraft was greatly influenced by Poe, and The Festival is a really cool story.

And starting on Monday December 27, I am going to begin a 5 part recap series that looks back at the episodes in this podcast so far. 

You see, when I started this podcast, I did a list of what to cover in Poe’s life using a basic chronological order. With the mass of information available about Poe, if you don’t have a written and thought out  pIan, then you bascially wander around aimlessly and end up no where.

Just the outline was about 50 pages, and I quickly found that as I did research, I would run into subjects that were fascinating and I couldn’t leave out.  For example, in one chronological listing I found in the local library, I saw the eruption of Tambora as an event that took place during Poe’s life.  Well, I had never heard of Mount Tambora before , and was amazed at the massive effect that the eruption had on the world - the explosion took place in Indonesia, and actually affected life in England and Virginia.  And you can’t talk about Mount Tambora without talking about how the volcano’s effects led to a competition between a group of Romantic writers.  This contest led to Frankenstein and the first modern day vampire story.   And that led to the events and dynamics surrounding the series of Frankenstein movies, as well as Dracula.

Meanwhile - to quote the great comedian Stephen Colbert - meanwhile, I will start on Monday December 27 with a 30 minute recap series covering roughly 20 episodes of Celebrate Poe everyday that week. I will talk about format of this podcast, a bit about its background, some of the elements of Poe’s early life, and why I feel qualified to do this podcast.

There will also be episodes every day during that week after Christmas on Tuesday - Friday - each dealing with roughly 20 podcasts each day.  At that rate, it should take 5 episodes in the series until Celebrate Poe reaches 100 episodes - which should happen before the end of 2001. This should all becomes a lot clearer as time goes by.

And one last thing - instead of aiming for 12:00 midnight as a release time for episodes, I am going to try and release the rest of the episodes this month starting at 8:00 am in the morning.  Not that I will be up at 8:00 - that’s asking too much for a night person like me - but I am doing all these episodes in advance.  Then I can upload a podcast episode and set a time for that episode to be released.  For example, the episode regarding Christmas Eve should be available on the morning of Christmas eve.

26:02 Sources

Sources for this episode include “The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon” by Washington Irving, Complete Fictional Works of Washington Irving by Washington Irving, Washington Irving: The Definitive Biography of America’s First Bestselling Author by Brian Jay Jones, The Literary Adventures of Washington Irving by Cheryl Harness, Original Knickerbocker: The Life of Washington Irving by Andrew Burstein, Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography by Arthur Hobson Quinn, The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe by Dwight Thomas and David K. Jackson, and The Reason for the Darkness of the Night. by John Tresch.

Thank you for listening to Celebrate Poe.