Quote of the Day (Frank Sullivan, on Why To ‘Keep Yule’ Even With ‘No Great Cause for Mirth’)

“It may be argued, and with some reason,

That we could skip this Christmas season,

There being no great cause for mirth

And precious little peace on earth.

Not me. I'm sorry, but I'll keep Yule

With any kindred spirit who'll

Accompany me in a Christmas caper,

So how's about it, Muriel Draper?”—Frank Sullivan, “Greetings, Friends!”, in The New Yorker, Dec. 23, 1939

“Greetings, Friends!” is a New Yorker tradition that began in 1935. Frank Sullivan, who started and maintained it for the next four decades, was, recalled his longtime editor Roger Angell in an interview with Jenna Krajeski eight years ago, not only one of the magazine’s early humor writers, but also “a famously charming and sociable guy” who often listed friends like the Marx Brothers and John O'Hara in these holiday verses. At its best, whether under Sullivan or the successors who carried on the tradition, Angell and, more recently, Ian Frazier, these Yuletide light verses still contain the same verve.

At one point or another, many of us have found “no great cause for mirth” anywhere, either in our personal lives or in the wider world. But back in 1939, this may have been even truer, what with a Great Depression not really shed yet (the economy had experienced another downturn in 1937-38) and, of course, war breaking out beyond the shores of North America. Even so, Sullivan found reason to rejoice—and so, in our own dark time, should we.

(By the way: If, like me, you may have wondered about Sullivan’s Muriel Draper reference, she was a society hostess, arts aficionado, decorator, and writer prominent in the Harlem Renaissance.)