![]() ![]() He brainstormed a list of names that began with the letter “R” for “alliterative purposes,” such as Rollo, Rodney, Roland, Roderick and Reggy. Though Santa’s reindeer already had names - Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen, thanks to the 1820s poem “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” - May came up with a ninth for the list. He figured the story should be about a reindeer because images of Santa’s reindeer already everywhere during the Christmas season, and his toddler daughter was obsessed with the deer at Lincoln Park Zoo. “My wife was suffering from a long illness and I didn’t feel very festive,” he recalled. In a 1975 article for the Gettysburg Times, he described going to work on a windy, icy-cold January day and feeling “relieved” that holiday street decorations by Montgomery Ward had been taken down. He was writing the descriptions of a weeping, “lonesome” reindeer as his wife was dying. He was also feeling “glum” in 1939 for a more serious reason. Instead of writing the great American novel, as I’d once hoped, I was describing men’s white shirts. “Here I was, heavily in debt at 35, still grinding out catalogue copy. “‘And how are you starting the new year?’ I glumly asked myself,'” he later recalled, describing his mindset in early 1939 when he first received the assignment. May was feeling downtrodden about his present life, too. ![]()
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