DeGraff on Dickens

DePaul blessed with a Dickens archive 

strong on ‘Christmas Carol’

Kathryn DeGraff poses with her favorite edition of A Christmas Carol, a 1940 edition, at DePaul University's Richardson Library in Chicago, Ill., on Wednesday, December 19, 2012. | Andrew A. Nelles~Sun-Times Media

There are no twinkling lights, North Pole elves or candy canes, but tucked into a quiet third-floor office in DePaul University’s Richardson Library is a rare collection of books that speaks to the essence of the modern Christmas experience.

DePaul’s library, 2350 N. Kenmore, is home to more than 1,000 volumes and items relating to Charles Dickens, with an emphasis on “A Christmas Carol.”

“When Dickens wrote ‘A Christmas Carol,’ Christmas was not the holiday we know today,” said Kathryn DeGraff, who has curated the Dickens collection since 1980. “ ‘A Christmas Carol’ was the right story at the right time, and Dickens was clearly the right author for it.” 

Dickens penned the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, his spunky son Tiny Tim and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come in 1843 as a quick way to make a buck. When it was published, Christmas celebrations were making a comeback from a series of Puritanical rules meant to quash what was formerly a bawdy medieval celebration. Dickens’ iconic story and character became synonymous with the modern-day Christmas celebration. 

“This is really about the power of family but it’s also a very important story about the power of giving,” DeGraff said. “By the end [Scrooge] is distributing charity.” 

DeGraff sees the roots of not only the family Christmas celebration in the book.

Kathryn DeGraff shows an 1844 first edition of A Christmas Carol that is part of the Dickens collection at DePaul University's Richardson Library in Chicago, Ill., on Wednesday, December 19, 2012. | Andrew A. Nelles~Sun-Times Media 

Click the photo gallery to view more items from the Dickens' collection photographed by the Sun Times.

Chicago Sun Times, December 21, 2012,  BY KARA SPAK Staff Reporter/kspak@suntimes.com December 20, 2012 5:34PM.  Online @ http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/books/17134625-421/dickensat-depaul.html