Know Your Neighbor: Robert Sullivan, Author/Editor, Chappaqua

Remembrances of food, music, time off from school, visiting with family and, of course, the anticipation of what’s under the tree on Christmas morning has held children’s imaginations for generations.

Author Robert Sullivan sought to recapture the magic of his Christmases growing up in the 1950s and ’60s in his recently released book, “A Child’s Christmas in New England,” from Bunker Hill Publishing. The book is his memoir of the holiday in the community of Chelmsford, Mass., outside of Lowell.

Sullivan teamed up with illustrator Glenn Wolff, who did the drawings on two of the writer’s earlier books, including his first effort in 1996, “Flight of the Reindeer: The True Story of Santa Claus and His Christmas Mission,” which sold 190,000 copies.

Sullivan, 60, jogged his memory trying to relate some of the special details that almost anyone can relate to.

“When it comes to your memories as a child, you find yourself remembering stuff that you didn’t even know you remembered,” said Sullivan, who when he’s not authoring his own works is managing editor of LIFE Books and lives with his wife and three children in Chappaqua.

Although the 32-page, 7,000-word book which prominently features Wolff’s illustrations might be mistaken for a children’s book, it is meant as a family story, to be read by and shared with anyone of any age. In fact, part of the idea for the book came from Sullivan’s own family; his children would periodically ask their father about what Christmas was like for him as a child.

It was further sparked by Sullivan’s fondness for the Dylan Thomas’ poem “A Child’s Christmas in Wales.” One night last year, Sullivan, inspired by Thomas, started working on it.

He said he was discouraged by his initial effort, unsure how close his memories were to the actual events of his childhood. While it wasn’t his intention to necessarily have a historically accurate portrayal of his family’s life around the holidays, he was relieved when his mother told him that his stories were very close to what she recalled. The colored bubble lights used on the tree, dangerous sledding downhill, cooking the holiday turkey — having a turkey seemed important because it took so long to cook — and the monastery across the river in New Hampshire that he only seemed to notice in December are all embedded in his consciousness around Christmas.

“The processional of the day has never varied,” Sullivan writes in one passage. “I can say that much. One Christmas was always the same as the other, and it still is, which is good. We would rise excitedly, we would rip open the presents, we would present to our parents meager gifts (a cheap wallet or a tie tack; a paste necklace or a brooch), we would run outside and try the outside toys in the snow. It always snowed at Christmas back then.”

 

While today there are many complaints about the increasingly crass commercialism of Christmas, Sullivan said the holiday is what each person and family makes of it.

“It’s still the idea of being with family, of being with a community, of being with friends — that’s the significant stuff,” said Sullivan, a member of The Marmaduke Writing Factory in Pleasantville.

“A Child’s Christmas in New England” is the latest achievement in Sullivan’s long and distinguished career, having written or edited more than 100 books for LIFE Books.

After graduating from Dartmouth in 1975, Sullivan earned a masters in journalism at Boston University. He worked at some smaller New England-based publications until he hooked up with Time, Inc., in 1980, which prompted his move to New York.

Sullivan’s first job was as a fact checker for Sports Illustrated, and over the next 12 years he wrote, reported and edited for the magazine.

In 1993, he moved over to the monthly LIFE, where he served as senior editor and later assistant managing editor. He also helped the company briefly relaunch LIFE weekly, before moving on to his current positions.

While Sullivan’s first and latest books take up the Christmas theme, the writer has written several other critically acclaimed books, including “Atlantis Rising: The True Story of a Sub.” He authored a different kind of memoir, “Our Red Sox: A Story of Family, Friends and Fenway,” in 2007.

He hopes that the book can be a keepsake for years to come.

“It is, finally, the thing I had in mind for the kids,” Sullivan mentioned. “That others might now read it seems a little funny, but I do hope they enjoy it.”

Sullivan will be appearing at three local venues next month to promote “A Child’s Christmas”: Dec. 10 at The Village Bookstore in Pleasantville from 7 to 8 p.m.; Dec. 12 at the Chappaqua Public Library from 7 to 8 p.m.; and at the Mount Pleasant Public Library in Pleasantville Dec. 17 at 7 p.m.