“I have not tried to paint the portrait of a man, but merely to present a personality and hazard a guess as to the motivation that makes Santa Claus the wondrous figure he is — a figure who more than any other exemplifies the beauty of selflessness.” — Seabury Quinn ​Drawing upon the original Christian legends that coalesced over centuries into the familiar, jolly form of Saint Nicholas, pulp fiction pioneer Seabury Quinn weaves a spellbinding new origin for this most beloved of children’s icons in his classic novella Roads.

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus is a 1902 children's book, written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by Mary Cowles Clark

Set in a dark fantastic past of myth and magic, Klaus tells the story of how Santa Claus really came to be. Where did he begin? What was he like when he was young? And what happens when he faces his greatest challenge? Drawing on Santa Claus' wilder roots in Viking lore and Siberian shamanism, taking in the creepier side of Christmas, and characters like the sinister Krampus, Klaus is Santa Claus: Year One.

Much of the modern-day vision of Santa Claus is owed to the Clement Moore poem "The Night Before Christmas." His description of Saint Nicholas personified the "jolly old elf" known to millions of children throughout the world. However, far from being the offshoot of Saint Nicholas of Turkey, Santa Claus is the last of a long line of what scholars call "Wild Men" who were worshipped in ancient European fertility rites and came to America through Pennsylvania's Germans. This pagan creature is described from prehistoric times through his various forms--Robin Hood, The Fool, Harlequin, Satan and Robin Goodfellow--into today's carnival and Christmas scenes. In this thoroughly researched work, the origins of Santa Claus are found to stretch back over 50,000 years, jolting the foundation of Christian myths about the jolly old elf.

"A heartwarming true-life fable from the Radio City Christmas Spectacular Santa--including his personal journey of discovering the magic of Christmas"--Provided by publisher.

The year was 1898 and army private Patrick Henry Frank was in New Orleans awaiting transport to Cuba to fight in the Spanish-American War. A change in orders and Private Frank was instead going to the Philippines. Admiral Dewey had stunningly defeated the Spanish navy at Manila Bay, but President McKinley wanted boots on the ground. Patrick Henry Frank's country was seeking its manifest destiny further west than America had ever moved. Through a riveting narrative history, author John Russell Frank chronicles the events of his family's half-century on America's frontier in the Philippineswar, adventure, colonialism, the heartbreaking deaths of family members, businesses ravaged by WW II, and internment in brutal Japanese prison camps. It is an epic story about his familys triumph and tragedy in a strange land, a story of how they came to absorb and become a part of another culture. The narrative flows from a substantial amount of intimate archival material: historically rich letters, war diaries, photographs, memoirs, and oral and video histories from the familys experiences in the Philippines. He shares a way of life and a time-period unknown or forgotten by the present generationpivotal years of America's past. In the process, the author discovers his own roots.

Will Lightbody is a man with a stomach ailment whose only sin is loving his wife, Eleanor, too much. Eleanor is a health nut of the first stripe, and when in 1907 she journeys to Dr. John Harvey Kellogg's infamous Battle Creek Spa to live out the vegetarian ethos, poor Will goes too. So begins T. Coraghessan Boyle's wickedly comic look at turn-of-the-century fanatics in search of the magic pill to prolong their lives--or the profit to be had from manufacturing it. Brimming with a Dickensian cast of characters and laced with wildly wonderful plot twists, Jane Smiley in the New York Times Book Review called The Road to Wellville "A marvel, enjoyable from beginning to end."