Philip Van Doren Stern was an author and Civil War historian whose 1943 story "The Greatest Gift" inspired the classic film "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946), which in turn inspired "It Happened One Christmas". Stern was born in Wyalusing, Pennsylvania into a family of humble means. His Pennsylvania-born father was a traveling merchant of Bavarian descent, who came to Wyalusing from West Virginia with his New Jersey-born wife. Wikipedia
The definitive Wikipedia entry for Philip van Doren Stern. Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Van_Doren_Stern
