The conclusion of the poem as illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith - from the 1912 edition of ‘Twas the night before Christmas’ Read it again aloud last night. Merry Christmas, to all you who celebrate this day in one way or another, and may you have a happier New Year! In 1837 Moore was finally publicly identified as the author in journalist Charles Fenno Hoffman's The New-York Book of Poetry, to which Moore had submitted several poems. In 1844, he included "Visit" in Poems, an anthology of his works. [19] [20] His children, for whom he had originally written the piece, encouraged this publication. In 1855, Mary C. Moore Ogden, one of the Moores' married daughters, painted "illuminations" to go with the first color edition of the poem. Jessie Willcox Smith was definitely influenced by French impressionist painters in her choice of colors and was equally proficient in working with a whole range of media like oil, watercolor, charcoal and pastels. A large percentage of her works reflects motherly love with children being portrayed as the main subjects. She passed away in 1935. Moore was appointed to the Columbia College board of trustees in 1813 and served until 1857. [13] He was clerk of the board from 1815 to 1850. [14] From 1840 to 1850, Moore also served as a board member of the New York Institution for the Blind at 34th Street and Ninth Avenue (now the New York Institute for Special Education). He published a collection of poems (1844).

Moore's conception of Saint Nicholas was borrowed from his friend Washington Irving, but Moore portrayed his "jolly old elf" as arriving on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day. At the time that Moore wrote the poem, Christmas Day was overtaking New Year's Day as the preferred genteel family holiday of the season, but some Protestants viewed Christmas as the result of "Catholic ignorance and deception" [1] and still had reservations. By having Saint Nicholas arrive the night before, Moore "deftly shifted the focus away from Christmas Day with its still-problematic religious associations". As a result, "New Yorkers embraced Moore's child-centered version of Christmas as if they had been doing it all their lives." [1] On January 20, 1829, Troy editor Orville L. Holley alluded to the author of the Christmas poem, using terms that accurately described Moore as a native and current resident of New York City, and as "a gentleman of more merit as a scholar and a writer than many of more noisy pretensions". [10] In December 1833, a diary entry by Francis P. Lee, a student at General Theological Seminary when Moore taught there, referred to a holiday figure of St. Nicholas as being "robed in fur, and dressed according to the description of Prof. Moore in his poem". [11] Four poems including A Visit from St. Nicholas appeared under Moore's name in The New-York Book of Poetry, edited by Charles Fenno Hoffman (New York: George Dearborn, 1837). The Christmas poem appears on pp.217–19, credited to "Clement C. Moore". Moore stated in a letter to the editor of the New York American (published on March 1, 1844) that he "gave the publisher" of The New-York Book of Poetry "several pieces, among which was the 'Visit from St. Nicholas.'" Admitting that he wrote it "not for publication, but to amuse my children," Moore claimed the Christmas poem in this 1844 letter as his "literary property, however small the intrinsic value of that property may be". A Visit from St. Nicholas appears on pp.124–27 in Moore's volume of collected Poems (New York: Bartlett and Welford, 1844). Before 1844, the poem was included in two 1840 anthologies: attributed to "Clement C. Moore" in Selections from The American Poets, edited by William Cullen Bryant (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1840), pp.285–86; and to "C. C. Moore" in the first volume of The Poets of America, edited by John Keese (New York: S. Colman, 1840), pp.102–04. The New-York Historical Society has a later manuscript of the poem in Moore's handwriting, forwarded by T. W. C. Moore along with a cover letter dated March 15, 1862 giving circumstances of the poem's original composition and transmission after a personal "interview" with Clement C. Moore. [12] From the introduction of the edition from 1912 we can perceive Moore’s motivation behind writing the poem. Strong, George Templeton (1952). Diary, Vol 1: Young Man in New York, 1835-1849. Internet Archive. New York: Macmillan. p.326. Clement C. Moore, who wrote the poem, never expected that he would be remembered by it. If he expected to be famous at all as a writer, he thought it would be because of the Hebrew Dictionary that he wrote. He was born in a house near Chelsea Square, New York City, in 1781; and he lived there all his life. It was a great big house, with fireplaces in it; -- just the house to be living in on Christmas Eve.Burke, John (1838). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland Enjoying Territorial Possessions Or High Official Rank: But Uninvested with Heritable Honours. Colburn. p.241. The Troy sentinel. (Troy, N.Y.) 1823-1832, January 20, 1829, Image 3" (1829/01/20). January 20, 1829: 3. {{ cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= ( help) The matter can never be settled': The controversy over who wrote The Night Before Christmas". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. December 24, 2017 . Retrieved December 23, 2019. Famous holiday poem is credited to Clement Clarke Moore, but some claim true author is Henry Livingston Jr

William Taylor Moore (1823-1897), who married Lucretia Post in 1857 and, after her death in 1872, Katherine E. Robinson. He had no children. [39] Gardner, Martin (1991). The Annotated Night Before Christmas: A Collection Of Sequels, Parodies, And Imitations Of Clement Moore's Immortal Ballad About Santa Claus; Edited, with an introduction and notes, by Martin Gardner. Summit Books. ISBN 0-671-70839-2. Columbia University (1888). Catalogue of the officers and graduates of Columbia college (originally King's college) in the city of New York, 1754-1888. New York: Printed for the college. p.23. a b Alstyne, Lawrence Van; Ogden, Charles Burr (1907). The Ogden family in America, Elizabethtown branch, and their English ancestry: John Ogden, the Pilgrim, and his descendants, 1640–1906. Printed for private circulation by J.B. Lippincott company. p. 190 . Retrieved January 18, 2019. After the seminary was built, Moore began the residential development of his Chelsea estate in the 1820s with the help of James N. Wells, dividing it into lots along Ninth Avenue and selling them to well-heeled New Yorkers. [9] Covenants in the deeds of sale created a planned neighborhood, specifying what could be built on the land as well as architectural details of the buildings. [12] Stables, manufacturing and commercial uses were forbidden in the development.AlmaDeutscher, The Night before Christmas – music by Alma Deutscher, archived from the original on 21 December 2021 , retrieved 13 December 2018

After spending a month in their company in the resort town of Sharon Springs, New York, in 1848, the acerbic diarist George Templeton Strong described the unmarried Moore children as, "the sons a compound of imbecility deep beyond all fathoming, with an appetite for chambermaids beyond all precedent—the two Miss M’s very nice indeed." [42] In the 1850s, Moore began summering in Newport, Rhode Island, together with his daughters Terry and Mary, and Mary's family. He died on July 10, 1863, at his summer residence on Catherine Street in Newport, five days before his 84th birthday. His funeral was held in Trinity Church, Newport, where he had owned a pew. His body was returned to New York for burial in the cemetery at St. Luke in the Fields. On November 29, 1899, his body was reinterred in Trinity Church Cemetery in New York. [43] Legacy and honors [ edit ] Clement Clarke Moore Park Moore’s template for the Santa that he drew through his poetry soon replaced the centuries old characteristic depictions of St. Nicholas of Europe. The poem also influenced the ideas of Christmas Eve gifting and is believed to have popularized the concept of Santa visiting homes on Christmas Eve bearing gifts in America. Clement Clarke Moore | American scholar and author". britannica.com. Encyclopedia Britannica . Retrieved January 18, 2019.

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Find sources: "A Visit from St. Nicholas"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( December 2020) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Anonymous or pseudonymous publication of poetry was customary at the time, but as the poem's popularity grew so did curiosity about its author. In response to a query in 1829, Sentinel editor Orville Holley wrote that "We have been given to understand that the author ... belongs by birth and residence to the city of New York, and that he is a gentleman of more merit as a scholar and a writer than many of more noisy pretensions." (Italics his.) [18] Clement Moore, the author of this poem ’Twas the Night Before Christmas, was a reticent man and it is believed that a family friend, Miss H. Butler, sent a copy of the poem to the New York Sentinel who published the poem. The condition of publication was that the author of ’Twas the Night Before Christmas was to remain anonymous. During that time professors were highly respected people in the society and it was shameful for them to author any works for children. The poem was first published on 23rd December 1823 and it was an immediate success. The reason? It set the most appealing and now widely-accepted image of Santa Claus: with his toy-giving activity on Christmas Eve with his sleigh and pulled by the eight reindeers including their individual names. From then on, the tradition of reading ’Twas the Night Before Christmas poem on Christmas Eve is now a worldwide institution and tradition. Moore said to have been inspired by a trader whom he saw doing retails one Christmas morning with goods on a sleigh and also, of course, the image of St. Nicholas. As a girl, Moore's mother, Charity Clarke, wrote letters to her English cousins that are preserved at Columbia University and show her disdain for the policies of the English Monarchy and her growing sense of patriotism in pre-revolutionary days. The poetry was soon reprinted in many newspapers and magazines and was also adapted for many musical renderings.