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New York, NY 10020

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 1943 by Philip Van Doren Stern

Copyright renewed © 1971 by Philip Van Doren Stern

Afterword copyright © 1996, 2011 by The Greatest Gift Corporation

Previously published in 2011 by Graphic Image

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Simon & Schuster Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition October 2014

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Interior design by Ruth Lee-Mui

Jacket design by Marlyn Dantes

Jacket illustration by Andrew Davidson

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Stern, Philip Van Doren, 1900–1984.

The greatest gift : a Christmas tale / Philip Van Doren Stern ; with an afterword by Marguerite Stern Robinson ; illustrations by Andrew Davidson. — First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.

pages cm

1. Christmas stories. I. Title.

PS3537.T453G74 2014

813′.54—dc23

2014016872

ISBN 978-1-4767-7886-0

ISBN 978-1-4767-7887-7 (ebook)