by D. B. Wyndham Lewis and G. C. Heseltine
First Edition | J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd. | 1928
Born Llewellyn Bevan Wyndham Lewis (1891-1969) but better known as Dominic, Wyndham Lewis originally intended to pursue a legal career. But WWI had other ideas. After his service with the Welch Regiment, Wyndham-Lewis turned instead to journalism, pursuing a career at the Daily Express. His work at the newspaper was primarily as a humorist. And under the pen name Beachcomber he wrote the “By the Way” column–which launched his literary career. Beachcomber was a pen name adopted from the column’s previous contributor and later passed on to his own successor, J. B. Morton.
During the following years Wyndham-Lewis converted to Catholicism (changing his first name to Dominic, which all of his successive work is known by), took up the biography of French nobles, and produced a number of historical nonfiction.
But Wyndham-Lewis is perhaps best known for being an editor and satirist. In fact, his comic sensibilities are on full display in The Stuffed Owl, an anthology of “bad verse” by well-known poets such as Edgar Allan Poe, William Wordsworth, and many others.
It is this type of satirical work that is on full display in A Christmas Book: An Anthology for Moderns. In it, Wyndham Lewis maligns the modern world. It’s all a very tongue-in-cheek “kids these days” while also very seriously reminding his readers that not every poem, song, ballad, and recipe made it to the modern celebration of the holiday. The holiday traditions that we know and love–the Christmas stories that everyone knows and that get reprinted hundreds of times every year–are just the lucky few that were popular enough to make it through.
In fact, the preface very clearly states that “The following essentials to any Christmas Anthology will be found nowhere in this Anthology: extracts from Dickens, Pepys (with one exception), and (with one exception) Washington Irving, and reference (with one exception) to Father Christmas; also fake-Gothic carols (including Good King Wenceslas), robins, property Yule-logs, synthetic snow, redfaced jovial Squires, wigs by Clarkson, Ye Olde Englysshe Yuletyde Cheere (18—), and all manifestations of the coloured Christmas Supplement.”
And like any good satirist, Wyndham Lewis pretends to be a scrooge about who and what is included in his anthology…but also allows one or two exceptions. Because they’re classics and nostalgic and what’s the holiday season without a bit of fun?
This is a great book for any ultra-modern readers who have an interest in how the celebration of Christmas has evolved over the years–or who’d just like to spend a very merry afternoon reading holiday stories that you’ve likely never heard before. So pull up a chair, grab a hot beverage, and start your own modern reading tradition this Christmas.
