December 2, 2025 - Good Morning! It’s Tuesday, December 2.
In 1867, a new concert hall opened in New York City. It boasted 2,500 seats and amazing acoustics and immediately became the premier music venue in America. No, it wasn’t Carnegie Hall. That famed room was still 20 years away. This new auditorium was called Steinway Hall, built by the famous family of piano makers, and on the evening of December 2 of that year, it featured one of the most famous artists in the world. He was not a musician, though, but none other than the author, Charles Dickens, making his very first appearance in the United States.
Dickens is one of my favorite writers, and is considered, by many, to be among the greatest novelists in history. Even to those that have never read him, these titles are familiar - “David Copperfield,” “Oliver Twist,” “Great Expectations,“ “A Tale of Two Cities.” Dickens read excerpts from all of them that night at the new concert hall in Manhattan. And, considering the date, he most certainly shared words from his holiday novella, “A Christmas Carol.” Here are a few of those famous phrases -
- “Bah Humbug!”
- “God bless us everyone!”
- “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year long.”
Biographers tell us that Charles Dickens had a deep and personal faith. That faith echoes in this line from his beloved Yuletide book. “It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.”
Meet you back here tomorrow,
David
cindertex50@yahoo.com
