Other Non-Fiction Church, Francis; Riis, Jacob: Is There a Santa Claus?(Essays, Illus). v1. 21 Dec 2015

[GrannyGrump]

IS THERE A SANTA CLAUS?

TWO ANSWERS BY:
Francis P. Church (1839–1906)
Jacob A. Riis (1849–1914)

The text of this book is in the public domain world-wide because the authors died over 100 years ago.

I'm posting this because I feel that the Patricia Clark Memorial Library needs its own copy of the answers to that perennial question.

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The first answer:
This response by professional newspaperman Francis (Frank) Church to young Virginia Hanlon was printed in the New York Sun in September 1897, and is the most reprinted editorial from any newspaper in the English language. It is frequently used for readings in films and television, and has been adapted several times for television. And of course, the phrase “Yes Virginia, there is …” has passed happily into popular culture.

The second answer:
This essay was written by Jacob A. Riis, writer, photographer, and noted social reform activist who strongly campaigned for years for improvement in New York slum conditions. It was published in book form in 1904.

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Texts obtained from Wikisource and archive.org. Illustrations manually cleaned and enhanced as well as I could. Embedded font. Small drop-caps.
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[kwork]

Thank you very much! Great to have both these essays in one place now.

[doubleshuffle]

I used the first of these essays with one of my English courses on Tuesday. The students loved it!