What People Are Saying about The Christmas House

Georja - I found your book utterly captivating, and I literally could not put it down once I started reading it. That comment seems like a cliche, but who was it who said, "the first duty of an author is to make you want to keep reading"? Well, you certainly did that, and much more. I hope you don't mind this uninvited review of The Christmas House, but I must first tell you that I receive queries and information requests from polio sufferers and their families almost every day.

Because I'm so close to this subject and constantly mining for information about it in our Archives, I'm all the more astonished at the story you've told, mainly for two reasons: you've brought the subject to life in a most vivid fashion, and you've documented the kind of personal heroism that is typically "lost to history." Without a doubt, this is a beautiful story, simple and direct, but the photographs - the fact that these photos are actually preserved and now published (along with the clippings and other memorabilia) in the context of this story is really priceless. The "official" March of Dimes photo you were so kind to include really pales in comparison to the photos of George Skinner in rehab, exercising, and building the Christmas House. Finally, I believe this story fills a major gap in the existing polio literature because its primary time frame is the 1930s, before the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis was created and its subsequent publicity brought increasing attention to polio.

Your story also brings a surprisingly philosophical perspective to the subject of Christmas. Like many others, I utterly deplore the hyper-commercialization of the Christmas season and yet have a deep nostalgia for all the warm associations to family and childhood that Christmas used to bring. Recently, I read a biography of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein by Ray Monk. Now, the subject of Wittgenstein would normally not be associated with Christmas, and it's not really, except for this: one of LW's favorite books was Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Wittgenstein, an unbelievably cerebral and deeply ethical man, believed that this story was one with the profoundest ethical meaning.

For some reason, this fact sang out from the back of my mind as I read The Christmas House, because the portrait of your father's struggle also revealed a profoundly ethical man. There's a lot that's really upbeat and cheerful in the telling of your story, but on some level it also works as a kind of parable that blends the cultural history of Christmas in the U.S. with the reality of Christmas spirit in the generosity and integrity of George Skinner. The fact that this man was your father must be a resource of enormous emotional and ethical potential to you.

Best Wishes Always and Aloha from the East,

David W. Rose
Archivist
March of Dimes