The Christmas Classics

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was an English author and social reformer. He is widely considered the greatest Victorian novelist, having written such classics as Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol, and Oliver Twist. Aside from his novels, he also wrote short stories, nonfiction, poetry, plays, and countless letters.

Washington Irving (1783-1859) is an American author best known for his short stories Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. He is largely considered to be America's first internationally best-selling author.

Kate Douglas Wiggin (1856 – 1923) was an American educator and children’s writer best known for the novel Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and for her work establishing and training Kindergartens and Kindergarten teachers.

Agatha Christie (1890-1976) was an English crime novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. She is best known for her sixty-six detective novels and fourteen short-story collections, particularly those revolving around her fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, and six romances under the name Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was elevated to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for her contribution to literature.

Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) was a prolific American author known for her novel, Little Women, and its sequels, Little Men and Jo's Boys. She received instruction from several famous authors, including Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, and she is commonly considered to be the foremost female novelist of the Gilded Age.

Anthony Trollope (1815 - 1882) was one of the most successful English novelists during the Victorian era. Among his best-known works is a series of novels collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, but he also wrote novels on political, social, and gender issues as well as other topical matters.

Henry van Dyke (1852-1933) was an American author, educator, diplomat, and clergyman.

Clement Clarke Moore (1779–1863) was a writer and American Professor of Oriental and Greek Literature, as well as Divinity and Biblical Learning. Moore gained considerable wealth by subdividing and developing other parts of his large inherited estate in what became known as the residential neighborhood of Chelsea.

Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (commonly abbreviated as E. T. A. Hoffmann) (1776-1822) was a Prussian Romantic author of fantasy and Gothic horror, a jurist, composer, music critic, draftsman and caricaturist. His stories form the basis of Jacques Offenbach's famous opera The Tales of Hoffmann, in which Hoffmann appears (heavily fictionalized) as the hero. He is also the author of the novella The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, on which Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker is based.

Ralph Cosham, a narrator with dozens of fine performances of British classics including The Wind in the Willows and The Time Machine, also records as Geoffrey Howard, whose long audiography of titles includes works by C.S. Lewis. Ralph, as Cosham or Howard, has performed more than 100 audiobooks while keeping an active stage career in regional theater. Changing careers from British journalist to actor in the 1970s, Ralph has been recording for nearly 15 years.

Phil Paonessa is a U.S. Army Veteran of the Vietnam era who works as an automotive-industry project engineer, a public speaker, an actor, a voice actor, and, formerly, a local-newspaper feature writer. The father of three adult children, he is a lifelong resident of Michigan, where he currently resides with his wife.

Suzie Althens is an experienced narrator who works regularly with major publishers. She narrates titles in a wide variety of genres, including nonfiction, cozy mysteries, chick lit, suspense, and romance. A resident of Alaska, she spends her free time gardening, sketching, cooking for friends and family, and staring at the mountains.

Charles Armstrong trained at the Drama Studio. His theatre work includes Stop Messing About (Leicester Square Theatre) and Round the Horne Revisited (West End and Tour). He has also worked for the Royal Shakespeare Company, National, and many repertory theaters. His work on film and TV includes Scoop, EastEnders, Poirot, Head Over Heels, and The Navigators. He has recorded numerous voiceovers, documentaries, radio dramas, and audiobooks.

Susie Berneis is a versatile voiceover artist with numerous narration credits to her name. She has an ear for dialect and a love for the process of developing characters, which has been cultivated through her twenty-plus years of experience as a community and regional stage actress. Based in Ann Arbor (home of the University of Michigan, where she received her BA in English and theatre), she now takes great joy in playing all the characters she encounters in her narration.

Laural Merlington is an Audie-nominated and Earphones award-winning narrator who has recorded and directed over two hundred titles, including works by Margaret Atwood and Alice Hoffman. She has performed and directed for thirty years in theaters throughout the country. In addition to her extensive theater and voiceover work, she teaches college in her home state of Michigan.

Robin Sachs was born and raised in London, England, and studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). After RADA, Robin spent time performing everything from Shakespeare to Tom Stoppard and touring various parts of the known world. His British TV appearances include Brideshead Revisited, Upstairs Downstairs, and Rumpole of the Bailey. He is probably best known in America for his role on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as being in several films.

Patrick Lawlor is an accomplished audiobook narrator, stage actor, director, and combat choreographer. The recipient of an Earphones Award, he has also been a finalist for an Audie Award.

Michael Page has narrated over two hundred audiobooks and has won several Earphones Awards. As a professional actor, he has performed regularly with the Peterborough Players in New Hampshire. Currently a professor of theater at Calvin College, he lives with his wife and their two daughters in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

A diverse cast of individuals worked together to achieve the brilliant sound and performances contained in this audiobook.