I had encountered Tim Ladwig's work before, in the version of Good King Wenceslas that he illustrated, but it was good to see more of it. Leaving that flaw aside, I did greatly appreciate this one, both for its text and for its gorgeous illustrations. Given that this is meant to be an informational book, I found the lack of afterword or source notes truly disappointing. I do wish that the author had included her sources however, as I cannot find any information on that second anecdote, or on the one set in a Russian prisoner-of-war camp (also during WWI). There were moments, during my reading, that I found myself tearing up, particularly when Hodges described how the song was sung across the trenches of World War I, or how a Korean Army unit sang it as they moved along during the Korean War. That part of the story - the creation of the song - was the only part I already knew, so the rest of it - how it spread and became popular, how its singing has bridged many divides, even in the midst of war - was new to me. I found Silent Night: The Song and Its Story both informative and moving, and appreciated the history it provided of the carol after it was initially created by Mohr and Gruber. It went on to be translated into many languages, to be sung at key moments in various conflicts, including the 1914 Christmas Truce during World War I, and remains a most popular Christmas carol today. It was brought to America by another singing family of the Ziller Valley, and was first translated into English in 1863, by John Freeman Young. It eventually caught the attention of King Frederick William IV of Prussia, who had it sung every Christmas by his Cathedral Choir, and whose curiosity about its origins led to its true authorship being revealed. Sung by the Strasser Family of the Ziller Valley. The origin of the song was forgotten for a time, but it was popularized by an Austrian family who sang it at a fair in Leipzig, leading to its inclusion in a small book entitled Four Songs of the Tyrol. Written by Austrian priest Joseph Mohr on Christmas Eve, 1818, when his church's organ broke down, thereby threatening the music that made such an integral part of their congregation's Christmas Eve mass, the words of the song were paired with a tune composed by church organist Franz Gruber. "I need good ideas, and they don't come out of machines," she once said.Īuthor Margaret Hodges and illustrator Tim Ladwig join forces in this picture-book history of one of the world's most beloved Christmas carols. She wrote her stories on a notepad or a typewriter. Hodges died of heart disease on Decemat her home in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. She was a professor of library science at the University of Pittsburgh, where she retired in 1976. Her 1985 book Saint George and the Dragon, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman, won the Caldecott Medal of the American Library Association. Beginning in 1958 with One Little Drum, she wrote and published more than 40 books. She trained as a librarian at Carnegie Institute of Technology, now Carnegie Mellon University, under Elizabeth Nesbitt, and she volunteered as a storyteller at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. when in 1937 he became curator at the Stephen Foster Memorial. A 1932 graduate of Vassar College, she arrived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with her husband Fletcher Hodges Jr. She enrolled at Tudor Hall, a college preparatory school for girls. She was born Sarah Margaret Moore in Indianapolis, Indiana to Arthur Carlisle and Annie Marie Moore. Margaret "Peggy" Hodges was an American writer of books for children.
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