Let's Keep Christmas Reverend Peter Marshall 1953

Book Description: McGraw-Hill, N.Y. 1953.  Hard cover with dust jacket.  Book Condition: Good plus. Dust Jacket: Good plus.  Barbara Cooney (illustrator). Not Stated. 6 3/4" x 5 /3/4". Introduction by Catherine Marshall; This book is unpaginated; message on title page; author of 'A Man Called Peter' and 'God Loves You';  The book has 29 pages with 15 Barbara Cooney illustrations. This book is exceedingly scarce, particularly with the dust jacket.  It carries an important Christmas message from one of the most beloved ministers of the 20th century.  The book also reflects about family customs, etc.  The dust jacket is complete with no significant tears.  It has a light wear spot in the paper with a tiny tear at the top of the spine.  The white dust jacket is slightly off-color and has some surface dirt with a small spot the size of a few pinheads.  The pictorial hardcover is good to good plus.  The spine is solid and the pages are clean.  There are several very think brown glue overspray lines on the front of the boards with a few on the back.  I imagine these will come off, although I did not remove them.  The back of the dust jacket has a lovely picture of the author with his family.

The Reverend Dr. Peter Marshall (May 27, 1902 – January 26, 1949) was a Scottish-American preacher, and twice served as Chaplain of the United States Senate. He is remembered most popularly from the biography A Man Called Peter, and the film made from it.

Born in Coatbridge (North Lanarkshire), Scotland, Marshall heard a strong calling to the ministry at a young age. Despite having no money, he nevertheless migrated to New York in 1927 when he was 24. He graduated from Columbia Theological Seminary in 1931, when he became the pastor of First Presbyterian Church, a small, rural church in Covington, Georgia. After a brief pastorate, Marshall accepted a call to Atlanta's Westminster Presbyterian Church in 1933. It was in Atlanta that he met his future wife, Catherine Wood, a student at Agnes Scott College whom he married in 1936. Marshall became pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. in 1937 and was appointed twice as U.S. Senate Chaplain, serving from January 4, 1947 until his sudden death just over two years later. He was 46 years old.^[1] Marshall is buried at Ft. Lincoln Cemetery (Section C, Lot 344, Site 1) in Bladensburg, Maryland. He was survived by his wife and one son, Peter John Marshall.

Marshall's widow went on to write her husband's biography, A Man Called Peter (1951), which was later made into an Oscar-nominated film of the same title (1955) directed by Henry Koster and featuring Richard Todd as Peter Marshall.^[2] Todd studied tape recordings of several Peter Marshall sermons from 1947-48; some of these historic recordings were later released to the public by Caedmon Records.

Catherine Marshall eventually wrote over 20 books, including many editions of her late husband's sermons, several inspirational books, and the best-selling novel Christy. She married divorcé Leonard LeSourd, executive editor of Guideposts magazine, in 1959.^[3] Catherine died on March 18, 1983, and was buried next to Peter Marshall.

Marshall's son followed his father into the Presbyterian clergy and now runs a national ministry from Orleans, Massachusetts. He has also authored many books on the Christian faith in the United States.