The Very Real Truth About Christmas

Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1961. First Edition First Printing . Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 12mo - over 6¾ - 7¾" tall. Reisie Lonette. 12mo. 24 pages. A small book measuring 7 1/2 inches tall by about 5 1/4 inches wide. Hardcover with a grey and green pictorial dust jacket, which is not price-clipped. The jacket shows moderate rubbing and wear, and the jacket spine is a bit tanned. There is some browning and foxing on the front and rear paste downs as well as in the gutters. The fore edge of the text block is a little foxed, but the interior of the book itself is clean. Illustrated with several charming drawings. Bernice Kelly Harris (1891-1973) was born in rural eastern Wake County, North Carolina and grew up among farmers. As a youth she absorbed the rural lifestyle of independent folk, baseball games, pig pickin's, Saturday night parties, and Baptist churching. She went to Meredith College in Raleigh and studied at the University of North Carolina, where she was introduced to play writing under Frederick H. Koch, with a focus on folk plays. She wrote several plays, which were published in 1939 under the Federal Writers' Project, and Jonathan Daniels suggested she write a novel. Her first novel, Purslane, was also published in 1939. She wrote several novels and plays, and she was awarded an honorary Litt.D. degree from Wake Forest University in 1959 and from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1960. She was president of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association in 1966 and was active in the North Carolina Arts Council. She taught creative writing at Chowan College in 1963. This is one of two Christmas gift books she wrote. The other, "The Santa on the Mantel," was published in 1964.