Among the least-known form of Edward Stratemeyer’s writings are his short stories for newspapers, especially the Newark Sunday Call. This weekly from his home town ran a group of stories by Stratemeyer that were timed and themed to the holidays of the year. With only a local audience in mind, locations known to Newark-area readers were included. When some of the stories were republished as filler material in other story papers, they were edited to removed the regional details.
“Davy’s Christmas” is a Christmas story from 1891 shows Stratemeyer’s interest in themes common in Horatio Alger, Jr., stories.
On occasion we will publish other scarce Stratemeyer stories of this type. More than a dozen examples of his newspaper short stories, with variant texts, found illustrations, introductions and annotations may be seen in our Holiday Stories for Boys, volume 1.
Other examples of stories from this book can be found on the Stratemeyer Short Story page.