Books for Under the Tree: A Letter to Santa

Mr Pearce writes Santa asking for books. Not for himself, mind you, but for 'those good boys and girls who enjoy reading the same sort of books' he does.

From The Imaginative Conservative

By Joseph Pearce

Dear Santa,

This year I’m not going to ask for any new books for myself because I’ve been blessed to receive so many new books throughout the year that the bookshelves and bookcases around our home are filled to the point of bursting. My bibliophilic cup runneth over! Instead, I’d like to send you a list of new books that I’ve discovered this year, which I would like you to place under the tree of those good boys and girls who enjoy reading the same sort of books that I do.

Since it’s always a joy to receive a new tome on Tolkien and Lewis each year, I’d like to request that The Making of C. S. Lewis: From Atheist to Apologist (1918-1945) by Harry Lee Poe be placed under the tree of those children of grown-up age who rejoice that there is always Christmas and that it is not always winter. This book will serve as a good accompaniment to the new film about Lewis’ conversion, The Most Reluctant Convert, which many of these childlike grown-ups might have seen in recent weeks. The new Tolkien tome that I would put on my wish list is Tolkien’s Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle-Ages by Holly Ordway, a fine work of scholarship which shows that there is more to Tolkien than meets the eye of those who have sought to make him a medieval relic.

Anything published by Cluny Media warrants a place under the tree, especially any tree in the home of bibliophiles who rejoice in new editions of neglected classics. Were I to choose just two of their newest offerings, I would select The Unknown God by Alfred Noyes and The Shattered Fountain: Selected Tales of Nathaniel Hawthorne. The former is the autobiographical account of the journey towards religious conversion by one of the most significant poets of the twentieth century, a literary convert who fell out of favour for his refusal to embrace the fashionable modernism of his poetic contemporaries. The latter contains some of Hawthorne’s finest short stories, including my personal favourite, “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”.

Staying with the theme of literary converts, albeit converts of a very different literary ilk, I’d recommend Solzhenitsyn and American Culture: The Russian Soul in the West and Lionel Johnson: Poetry and Prose. Solzhenitsyn, a convert from atheism to Russian Orthodoxy, should need no introduction. This new book of essays on the crucial importance of his legacy, edited by David P. Deavel and Jessica Hooten Wilson, is a welcome and much-needed corrective to those on the prideful wing of politics who are seeking to demonize Russia for her refusal to raise the banner of hedonistic Pride, as earlier generations of prideful politicos had sought to demonize Solzhenitsyn himself for refusing to toe the prideful line. Lionel Johnson, a convert to Catholicism, is much less known than he should be. It is, therefore, a delight that Robert Asch has so painstakingly assembled this compendious collection of Johnson’s writings, most of which had been effectively lost to all but the scholarly cognoscenti.

Another perfect book for under the tree is The Music of Christendom by Susan Treacy. Subtitled “a history”, it is “the story of Christendom told through its music”. Every Christian should own at least one book on the history of music. This should be the one they choose. A good pairing with The Music of Christendom is 365 Days of Catholic Wisdom, which, as its title suggests, contains sagacious nuggets of brilliance by a veritable who’s who and who’s anyone of Catholic culture, from the Church Fathers to writers and thinkers of our own day. These nuggets have been mined and sifted by Deal W. Hudson to provide, as the subtitle proclaims, “a treasury of truth, beauty and goodness”. Its six hundred pages contain enlightening and ennobling readings for every day of the year by many of the finest minds and greatest writers of the past two millennia. Who could ask for more or want less? Or who could have a worthier New Year’s resolution than to read each of the entries, on a daily basis, throughout 2022?

Since it feels a little odd to be thinking of New Year’s resolutions when we are still in the midst of Advent, I think, Santa, that it would be good to make an end. I know that you will agree that the New Year is not a fitting topic of conversation when we still await the imminent birth of the New Life. On that sobering and yet oh-so-happy note, dear Santa, I’ll leave my list of wishes in your safest of hands.