American Folk Songs for Christmas

Garden City: Doubleday & Co, 1955. Early printing of this collection of traditional American songs suitable for use at Christmas, compiled by composer and folklorist Ruth Seeger, mother of Peggy and Mike Seeger, and adoptive mother to Pete Seeger. Drawn from a variety of regional musical traditions, the songbook encompasses folk carols, “shouts,” spirituals, shape-note hymns, and fiddle tunes. Selections include “Stars in the Heaven (Bye and Bye);” “Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow;” “Sing-a-Lamb;” “Wasn’t That a Mighty Day;” and “Almost Day (Looka Day.)” More than a dozen pieces are drawn from field recordings in the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress. This is an early printing, in a jacket priced at $3.50; the 1953 first edition was priced at $3.00. A very good copy, illustrated by two-time Caldecott medalist Barbara Cooney. Single volume, measuring 11 x 8 inches: 80. Original blue pictorial cloth stamped in gilt; later unclipped color pictorial dust jacket. Musical scores and black-and-white illustrations throughout text. Light edgewear and soiling to jacket.