Rock Crystal

Seemingly the simplest of storiesa passing anecdote of village life Rock Crystal opens up into a tale of almost unendurable suspense. This jewel-like novella by the writer that Thomas Mann praised as "one of the most extraordinary, the most enigmatic, the most secretly daring and the most strangely gripping narrators in world literature" is among the most unusual, moving, and memorable of Christmas stories. Two childrenConrad and his little sister, Sannaset out from their village high up in the Alps to visit their grandparents in the neighboring valley. It is the day before Christmas but the weather is mild, though of course night falls early in December and the children are warned not to linger. The grandparents welcome the children with presents and pack them off with kisses. Then snow begins to fall, ever more thickly and steadily. Undaunted, the children press on, only to take a wrong turn. The snow rises higher and higher, time passes: it is deep night when the sky clears and Conrad and Sanna discover themselves out on a glacier, terrifying and beautiful, the heart of the void. Adalbert Stifter's rapt and enigmatic tale, beautifully translated by Elizabeth Mayer and Marianne Moore, explores what can be found between Christmas Eve and Christmas Dayor on any night of the year.

Adalbert Stifter (1805—1868) was an Austrian writer, poet, and painter. He grew up in the idyllic landscape of nineteenth-century Bohemia and was educated at the University of Vienna. He developed a passion for painting and it was not until 1840 that he published his first novel. He was celebrated in Viennese literary circles until his death in 1868.

Fanny Howe is the author of more than twenty books of poetry and prose. She was the recipient of the 2001 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for her Selected Poems, and has won awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Poetry Foundation, the California Council for the Arts, and The Village Voice. She was short-listed for the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2001 and 2005.

Marianne Moore (1887—1972) was a poet, essayist, book reviewer, and translator. She is considered one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century.

Elizabeth Mayer (1884—1970) was a German-born American translator and editor. In the 1940s her homes in Long Island and New York served as an artistic salon for many émigré writers.