Exactly 200 years ago this week, a 56-line Christmas poem was published anonymously on Dec. 23 in the “Troy Sentinel.” The poem was an instant hit among readers, and was published in other works and attributed to “Anonymous.” Its official title was “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” but is better known as “'Twas the Night Before Christmas.”
The poem changed how people viewed Santa Claus (or St. Nicholas) and how they viewed Christmas altogether. Santa Claus is described as “dressed all in fur,” with “a bundle of toys … on his back,” “his cheeks … like roses,” “his nose like a cherry,” a beard “as white as snow,” “chubby and plump,” with “a little round belly that shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.”
Crediting the Author
Fourteen years after the poem’s first appearance in print, Clement Clarke Moore, a theological scholar in New York, was credited as the author. Moore himself didn’t make a personal claim to the poem until 1844―21 years after initial publication. But how did that come about and why did it take so long?According to Pamela McColl, author of “‘Twas the Night: The Art and History of the Classic Christmas Poem,” the poem was taken from the Moore house and sent to the newspaper without his permission.
“Moore was the father of six children at the time he wrote the poem. It is thought that he wrote it for his six-year-old daughter who had asked especially for a Christmas poem,” she said.
Although Moore did write poetry, which was published in various periodicals, his work was often of the scholarly nature. He wrote “A Compendious Lexicon of the Hebrew Language” in two volumes, the biography “George Castriot, Surnamed Scanderbeg, King of Albania,” and he translated from French “A Complete Treatise on Merinos and Other Sheep.” Moore’s scholarship stemmed from his father, Benjamin Moore, who was fifth president of Columbia College (University). The senior Moore was the Episcopal bishop of New York and participated in George Washington’s first presidential inauguration. Interestingly, he also administered Alexander Hamilton’s last rites after the fatal duel with Aaron Burr.
Perhaps the poem’s lack of scholarly accomplishment caused Moore to demur regarding taking credit for the poem.
Author Controversy
Over the past few decades, there has been some controversy over who was the actual author. In 1999, the family of Maj. Henry Livingston Jr. claimed that their ancestor was the actual author. Livingston had died in 1828. The controversy caught the attention of Donald Foster, English professor at Vassar College. Foster first came onto the scene in 1996 with a front page “New York Times” article claiming to have solved the mystery of the authorship for “The Funeral Elegy”―the author was William Shakespeare. In 2000, he wrote his book “Author Unknown” in which he broke down the science behind his “literary forensics” with some of his famous cases, including Shakespeare, the Unabomber, and “Twas the Night Before Christmas.”According to McColl, the Livingston claim “is conjecture and family lore started 60 years after the poem first appeared. Moore claimed it was his, signed his name to it.” She added that there is also Moore’s reputation for high moral character and honesty to consider as evidence for his claim.
McColl has been on a mission to permanently meld Moore and the poem together. Through her efforts, the poem, with Moore as the author, appears to be heading to the New York Library Hall of Fame.
“I wrote to the New York Center for the Book, an affiliate of the Library of Congress, which got the ball rolling and they voted on my nomination after other people had seconded my nomination,” she said.
