The Story of Other Wise Man - Tapa dura

One of the most meaningful stories ever written... "You know the story of the Three Wise Men of the East, and how they traveled from far away to offer their gifts at the manger-cradle in Bethlehem. But have you ever heard the story of the Other Wise Man?" So begins Henry van Dyke's Christmas classic, told in the manner of the great fairy tales-and like a great fairy tale, it couldn't be more true! This beautiful edition is designed so that you can read The Other Wise Man as it is intended to be read-slowly. His name was Artaban, and he told his doubting friends why he wanted to travel far away to see the promised king: "It has been shown to me and to my three companions among the Magi-Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. We have searched the ancient tablets of Chaldea and computed the time. We have studied the sky. We saw a new star there, which shone for one night and then vanished. Now again the two great planets are meeting. This night is their conjunction." Try as he might, Artaban was unable to join the three Magi on that historic night. But as it turns out, he had even more important things to do-and he learned what it really means to know God.

Henry Van Dyke, American clergyman, educator, and author, was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1852. Educated in theology at Princeton University and in Berlin, he served as a pastor for twenty years, first in Newport, Rhode Island, and then at Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City. In 1900 he became professor of English Literature at Princeton, and from 1913 to 1916 he was United States minister to the Netherlands. Later, as naval chaplain he was awarded the Legion of Honor. The Story of the Other Wise Man, written in 1896, and The First Christmas Tree, 1897, were first read aloud to his congregation in New York. His Christmas sermons, essays, poetry, and short stories, revealing a classical education combined with a charming, down-to-earth sensibility, have made him a popular and enduring writer. Van Dyke died in 1933.