A Literary Christmas Miscellany at The New York Public Library Runs Through Jan. 4

Just in time for the holiday season, The New York Public Library will display Charles Dickens personal prompt copy of his classic tale A Christmas Carol from December 5, 2008 through January 4, 2009 in the free display A Literary Christmas Miscellany which includes a selection of holiday material from the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature. The display is on view in the Humanities and Social Sciences Library's Rose Main Reading Room located at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Assembled from pages cut from a trade printing (12th edition; London; Bradbury & Evans, 1849), the book was used by Dickens as his script for readings of the work and contains the author's extensive excisions, emendations, and notations, including directions for vocal expression throughout. Also on display will be the 1843 first edition of A Christmas Carol with illustrations by John Leech (the copy that Dickens inscribed for the English essayist and historian Thomas Carlyle), a Royal Doulton china Tiny Tim figurine and bust of Dickens, and a photograph (circa 1848) of Dicken's nephew Harry Burnett, who would become the basis of the legendary Christmas Carol character Tiny Tim.

Other literary items included in this display are the poems The Cultivation of Christmas Trees written by T.S. Eliot and Christmas Tree by E.E. Cummings. Also on view are seven Christmas verses from the Irish dramatist Sean O'Casey as well as a Christmas card inscribed in French by novelist James Joyce. Also on display is a Christmas letter written by Jack Kerouac to his future wife, Stella Sampas. And finally, children's writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak's Christmas greeting card with his own illustrations that he sent to the American poet Randall Jarrell and his wife is also included.

About the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature
The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature was assembled and presented to The New York Public Library by Dr. Albert A. Berg, famous New York surgeon and trustee of the Library, in memory of his brother, Dr. Henry W. Berg. Both men found relaxation from their medical careers in collecting the works and memorabilia of English and American writers. The original collection, which numbered 3,500 items, has grown through acquisitions and gifts to include some 35,000 printed items and 2000 linear feet of manuscripts and archives, covering the entire range of English and American literature.

About The New York Public Library
The New York Public Library was created in 1895 with the consolidation of the private libraries of John Jacob Astor and James Lenox with Samuel Jones Tilden Trust. The Library provides free open access to its physical and electronic collections and information, as well as to its services. It comprises four research centers - the Humanities and Social Science Library; The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; and the Science, Industry and Business Library - and 87 Branch Libraries in Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx. Research and circulating collections combined total more than 50 million items, including materials for the visually impaired. In addition, each year the Library presents thousands of exhibitions and public programs, which include classes in technology, literacy, and English as a second language. The Library serves some 16 million patrons who come through its doors annually and another 25 million users internationally, who access collections and services through the NYPL website, www.nypl.org.