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Article: Alice McDermott.(Christmas Critics)(The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, Einstein: His Life and Universe, City Lights, All Aunt Hagar's Children and The Tidewater Tales )(Book review)
- Article from:
- Commonweal
- Article date:
- December 7, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Commonweal Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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This year's fuss over Harry Potter's grand finale serves as a reminder of both our longing to glimpse some magic behind the veil of the familiar, and literature's unquestioned right, and ability, to address that need. For all the children, and adults, who gorged themselves on the Potter tales this year, L. Frank Baum's much neglected classic, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (Yesterday's Classics, $8.95, 148 pp.) might well serve to restore some magic to that all-too-familiar caricature of the jolly old pitchman in the red suit. In this delightful tale, first published in 1902, the author of The Wizard of Oz places the biography of Claus firmly in the world of ...