This short piece, written by Stephen Vincent Benét, is a modern drama of the Nativity originally written for broadcasting on the radio. It was originally published in 1942 and is now republished here with a new introductory biography. Benét was an accomplished writer at an early age, having had his first book published at 17. His best known works are the book-length narrative poem American Civil War, John Brown's Body (1928), and two short stories, The Devil and Daniel Webster (1936) and By the Waters of Babylon (1937).