Sunday, December 24, 2006
Who Wrote "The Night Before Christmas"? Part Two
LITERARY LORE
Four copies of the most famous Christmas poem ever written are extant today. Three are held by scholarly institutions: the New-York Historical Society, the Huntington Library in Los Angeles and the Strong Museum in Rochester, N.Y. A fourth copy, the only one in private hands, is owned by historical manuscript dealer Seth Kaller, director of Kaller Americana, headquartered in Marlboro, New Jersey. All are in the handwriting of Clement Clarke Moore.
The Kaller firm bought the manuscript for $211,000 at Christie's in 1997 and has a price tag of $795,000 on its copy of the 56-line poem titled "An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas." It is more commonly known as "The Night Before Christmas," and is attributed to Clement Clarke Moore. There's no question that Moore penned each of those four manuscripts later in his life. What is in doubt, however, is whether Moore, a professor at the General Theological Seminary in New York City and a member of the prominent family that once owned large portions of the section of New York City called Chelsea, was the one who originally penned the famous verse years before Moore claimed authorship.
For years, the descendants of Hudson Valley gentleman poet Henry Livingston Jr. of Poughkeepsie have argued that Livingston was the Christmas poem's true author. Also in Poughkeepsie, Vassar College English literature professor Don Foster, who exposed Joe Klein as the author of the book Primary Colors, sides with the Livingston family. Four years ago, Foster's book, Author Unknown: On the Trail of Anonymous (New York: Henry Holt & Co. 2000) presented a strong case arguing for Livingston provenance.
We know that "A Visit from St. Nicholas" was first published anonymously in a newspaper, the Troy, N.Y., Sentinel, on Dec. 23, 1823. Moore's name was not attached to it publicly until fourteen years later in a poetry anthology published nine years after Livingston's death. In 1844 Moore "admitted" authorship, claiming that he was embarrassed that his little poetic trifle intended only for his children had reached the eyes of the public. Prodded by Livingston's descendants, Foster examined the poem and became convinced that the poem closely matched Livingston's literary style and point of view. He argued that the curmudgeonly Moore's writing was full of doleful words like "dread" and "strife," In contrast, Livingston was a jolly country gentleman whose light verse much more resembled the famous poem.
Unhappy with the charges leveled by Professor Foster, Mr. Kaller hired investigator Joe Nickell, senior research fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Claims of the Paranormal ,who writes regularly for the thirty-year-old journal titled Skeptical Inquirer. Nickell's report on the Moore-Livingston controversy included biographical sketches of both men. These sketches are reproduced here:
Clement C. Moore
Son of an Episcopal Bishop, Clement Clarke Moore was born July 15, 1779, in New York City. He graduated from Columbia College in 1798 and prepared for the ministry. However, he instead became a professor of biblical studies at the General Theological Seminary, of which he was both a founder and a benefactor. Later he served as professor of Oriental and Greek literature. His two-volume A Compendious Lexicon of the Hebrew Language (1809) established him as a pioneer lexicographer in America.
Although his detractors portray him as a humorless curmudgeon (hoping to convince others he would never have written light-hearted verse), a biographical reference work characterized him as "a man of rare beauty and simplicity of character, kindly disposed and generous to a fault." His book of Poems (1844) was compiled at the request of his children and contained not only the St. Nicholas poem-the authorship of which he then publicly acknowledged-but also the comparable children's verse, "The Pig and the Rooster." These were included in part because he believed in the healthful effects of "a good honest hearty laugh." Moore died July 10, 1863, just five days short of his eighty-fourth birthday. His wife (whom he married in 1813), Catharine Elizabeth Taylor, had preceded him in death; indeed he included a poem "by my late wife" in his little family-oriented volume.
Henry Livingston Jr.
Unlike Clement Moore, whose accomplishments led to his inclusion in such reference works as The National Cyclopedia of American Biography and The Dictionary of American Biography, Henry Livingston Jr. is a relatively obscure figure. His life and works are now largely promoted by his descendants who are eager to prove his authorship of the famous poem.
However, Livingston's life was fruitful in its own right. Born October 13, 1748, into a prominent colonial American family at Poughkeepsie, New York, he became a farmer, lumberman, surveyor, and occasional contributor of light verse and prose satires to local newspapers. In 1774 he married Sarah ("Sally") Welles and the following year, the day after his first child was born, he became a soldier in the American Revolution. After his wife died in 1783, Major Livingston raised their four children; then-on the tenth anniversary of her death-remarried. With his second wife Jane Patterson he had eight more children. On February 29, 1828, at the age of eighty and still in Poughkeepsie, Major Henry Livingston died. In death he has become a figure in a controversy he probably never could have imagined.
After studying all available documents and records, Nickell concluded that without a doubt Moore was the author of the poem Nickell published his findings in an article in Manuscript magazine, widely read by dealers and collectors of historical documents in manuscript form.
Nickell's strongest argument revolved around the image of Santa Claus in the poem. The Nickell report claims that the popular American image of a merry Santa portrayed in the poem ("he was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf") is consistent with later authorship. Reindeer, as well, were a new motif introduced in America in 1821, but accepting this ignores the fact that reindeer had been pulling sleds in Scandinavia for centuries. The Livingston family and their supporters date the poem between 1780 and 1808. The Moore camp claims authorship occurred at a later date. Major Henry Livingston died in 1828 at the age of 80, and so had a foot in both periods. One of the claims made for Livingston as author is that, according to family lore, the names of the reindeer were the names of some of the many horses Major Livingston had owned. Nowhere does the Nickell repot acknowledge the persistence of information passed down orally as part of every family's oral tradition.
For whatever reason, Moore had conveniently waited until Livingston had died before he allowed his name to be connected in print to the poem. It was anthologized in The New-York Book of Poetry, edited by Charles Feno Hoffman (New York: G. Dearborn, 1837). Later, it was included in Moore's Poems, a collection of his verse (New York: Bartlett & Welford, 1844) privately printed for distribution to friends and family.
Nickell also read through works by Moore, published and unpublished, to discover what he claimed were examples of similar word usage. Undeterred, Foster called the Kaller and Nickell attempt to discredit him "a very tendentious argument in order to sell a manuscript." And what are the opinions of manuscript experts? "We won't ever know for sure who wrote it," said Sue Hudson, whose title is Curator of Literary Manuscripts at the Huntington Library. "But in a sense, the authorship doesn't matter. It's a beloved poem, with warm, resonating touches for all of us."
Manuscript dealer Kaller obviously has more at stake in the outcome of the debate than the identification of the poet, although he feels that his copy of the poem would retain value even if Moore were exposed as a plagiarist. "Then it would be one of the greatest pieces of fraud in American history, "Mr. Kaller suggests, "and who knows whether it would be worth more or less."
Although the question of the authorship of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" has not been resolved, the mystery has been complicated by an Associated Press news story dated Tuesday, December 19, 2006. According to Greg Rohan, president of Houston-based Heritage Auction Galleries, the only copy of "A Visit to St. Nicholas" in private hands and written in 1860 was not sold at auction but was recently purchased directly by a New York chief executive of a media company for $280,000. What relationship this copy bears to the manuscript copy in the hands of the Kaller Americana of New York has not become clear nor what effect the sale may have had on the value of other copies of the poem written and signed by Clement Clarke Moore. Whoever negotiated the deal must have been a hard bargainer. If the copy that changed hands is indeed the copy priced at $795,000, the $280,000 price still represents a gross profit of $69,000 on an item held for nine years--a simple interest gain of 25 percent. The manuscript of the poem does not now appear on Kaller's on-line catalog. They are offering a copy of a first edition of Moore's 1844 volume of his collected poems inscribed in 1846 to "The Rev. C.S. Henry" at $8,500. It contains the famous poem.
To return to the question of the disputed authorship of the famous poem, here are two samples of poetic works by the respective poets:
Sample A
Old Santeclaus
Santeclaus with much delight
His reindeer drives this frosty night,
O'er chimney-tops, and tracks of snow,
To bring his yearly gifts to you.
The steady friend of virtuous youth,
The friend of duty, and of truth,
Each Christmas eve he joys to come
Where love and peace have made their home.
Through many houses he has been,
And various beds and stockings seen;
Some, white as snow, and neatly mended,
Others, that seemed for pigs intended.
Where e'er I found good girls or boys,
That hated quarrels, strife and noise,
I left an apple, or a tart,
Or wooden gun, or painted cart.
To some I gave a pretty doll,
To some a peg-top, or a ball;
No crackers, cannons, squibs, or rockets,
To blow their eyes up, or their pockets.
No drums to stun their Mother's ear,
Nor swords to make their sisters fear;
But pretty books to store their mind
With knowledge of each various kind.
But where I found the children naughty,
In manners rude, in temper haughty,
Thankless to parents, liars, swearers,
Boxers, or cheats, or base tale-bearers,
I left a long, black, birchen rod,
Such as the dread command of God
Directs a Parent's hand to use
When virtue's path his sons refuse.
Sample B
Such gadding--such ambling--such jaunting about!
To tea with Miss Nancy--to sweet Willy's rout,
New parties at coffee--then parties at wine,
Next day all the world with the Major must dine!
Then bounce all hands to Fishkill must go in a clutter
To guzzle bohea [tea], and destroy bread and butter.
Sample A is a Christmas poem attributed to Clement Clarke Moore. Its last eight lines represents the attitudes of an autocratic authoritarian punishment freak. The rollicking rhythms of Sample B are by Major Henry Livingston Jr. In this contest, our money's on the Major's entry.
Four copies of the most famous Christmas poem ever written are extant today. Three are held by scholarly institutions: the New-York Historical Society, the Huntington Library in Los Angeles and the Strong Museum in Rochester, N.Y. A fourth copy, the only one in private hands, is owned by historical manuscript dealer Seth Kaller, director of Kaller Americana, headquartered in Marlboro, New Jersey. All are in the handwriting of Clement Clarke Moore.
The Kaller firm bought the manuscript for $211,000 at Christie's in 1997 and has a price tag of $795,000 on its copy of the 56-line poem titled "An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas." It is more commonly known as "The Night Before Christmas," and is attributed to Clement Clarke Moore. There's no question that Moore penned each of those four manuscripts later in his life. What is in doubt, however, is whether Moore, a professor at the General Theological Seminary in New York City and a member of the prominent family that once owned large portions of the section of New York City called Chelsea, was the one who originally penned the famous verse years before Moore claimed authorship.
For years, the descendants of Hudson Valley gentleman poet Henry Livingston Jr. of Poughkeepsie have argued that Livingston was the Christmas poem's true author. Also in Poughkeepsie, Vassar College English literature professor Don Foster, who exposed Joe Klein as the author of the book Primary Colors, sides with the Livingston family. Four years ago, Foster's book, Author Unknown: On the Trail of Anonymous (New York: Henry Holt & Co. 2000) presented a strong case arguing for Livingston provenance.
We know that "A Visit from St. Nicholas" was first published anonymously in a newspaper, the Troy, N.Y., Sentinel, on Dec. 23, 1823. Moore's name was not attached to it publicly until fourteen years later in a poetry anthology published nine years after Livingston's death. In 1844 Moore "admitted" authorship, claiming that he was embarrassed that his little poetic trifle intended only for his children had reached the eyes of the public. Prodded by Livingston's descendants, Foster examined the poem and became convinced that the poem closely matched Livingston's literary style and point of view. He argued that the curmudgeonly Moore's writing was full of doleful words like "dread" and "strife," In contrast, Livingston was a jolly country gentleman whose light verse much more resembled the famous poem.
Unhappy with the charges leveled by Professor Foster, Mr. Kaller hired investigator Joe Nickell, senior research fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Claims of the Paranormal ,who writes regularly for the thirty-year-old journal titled Skeptical Inquirer. Nickell's report on the Moore-Livingston controversy included biographical sketches of both men. These sketches are reproduced here:
Clement C. Moore
Son of an Episcopal Bishop, Clement Clarke Moore was born July 15, 1779, in New York City. He graduated from Columbia College in 1798 and prepared for the ministry. However, he instead became a professor of biblical studies at the General Theological Seminary, of which he was both a founder and a benefactor. Later he served as professor of Oriental and Greek literature. His two-volume A Compendious Lexicon of the Hebrew Language (1809) established him as a pioneer lexicographer in America.
Although his detractors portray him as a humorless curmudgeon (hoping to convince others he would never have written light-hearted verse), a biographical reference work characterized him as "a man of rare beauty and simplicity of character, kindly disposed and generous to a fault." His book of Poems (1844) was compiled at the request of his children and contained not only the St. Nicholas poem-the authorship of which he then publicly acknowledged-but also the comparable children's verse, "The Pig and the Rooster." These were included in part because he believed in the healthful effects of "a good honest hearty laugh." Moore died July 10, 1863, just five days short of his eighty-fourth birthday. His wife (whom he married in 1813), Catharine Elizabeth Taylor, had preceded him in death; indeed he included a poem "by my late wife" in his little family-oriented volume.
Henry Livingston Jr.
Unlike Clement Moore, whose accomplishments led to his inclusion in such reference works as The National Cyclopedia of American Biography and The Dictionary of American Biography, Henry Livingston Jr. is a relatively obscure figure. His life and works are now largely promoted by his descendants who are eager to prove his authorship of the famous poem.
However, Livingston's life was fruitful in its own right. Born October 13, 1748, into a prominent colonial American family at Poughkeepsie, New York, he became a farmer, lumberman, surveyor, and occasional contributor of light verse and prose satires to local newspapers. In 1774 he married Sarah ("Sally") Welles and the following year, the day after his first child was born, he became a soldier in the American Revolution. After his wife died in 1783, Major Livingston raised their four children; then-on the tenth anniversary of her death-remarried. With his second wife Jane Patterson he had eight more children. On February 29, 1828, at the age of eighty and still in Poughkeepsie, Major Henry Livingston died. In death he has become a figure in a controversy he probably never could have imagined.
After studying all available documents and records, Nickell concluded that without a doubt Moore was the author of the poem Nickell published his findings in an article in Manuscript magazine, widely read by dealers and collectors of historical documents in manuscript form.
Nickell's strongest argument revolved around the image of Santa Claus in the poem. The Nickell report claims that the popular American image of a merry Santa portrayed in the poem ("he was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf") is consistent with later authorship. Reindeer, as well, were a new motif introduced in America in 1821, but accepting this ignores the fact that reindeer had been pulling sleds in Scandinavia for centuries. The Livingston family and their supporters date the poem between 1780 and 1808. The Moore camp claims authorship occurred at a later date. Major Henry Livingston died in 1828 at the age of 80, and so had a foot in both periods. One of the claims made for Livingston as author is that, according to family lore, the names of the reindeer were the names of some of the many horses Major Livingston had owned. Nowhere does the Nickell repot acknowledge the persistence of information passed down orally as part of every family's oral tradition.
For whatever reason, Moore had conveniently waited until Livingston had died before he allowed his name to be connected in print to the poem. It was anthologized in The New-York Book of Poetry, edited by Charles Feno Hoffman (New York: G. Dearborn, 1837). Later, it was included in Moore's Poems, a collection of his verse (New York: Bartlett & Welford, 1844) privately printed for distribution to friends and family.
Nickell also read through works by Moore, published and unpublished, to discover what he claimed were examples of similar word usage. Undeterred, Foster called the Kaller and Nickell attempt to discredit him "a very tendentious argument in order to sell a manuscript." And what are the opinions of manuscript experts? "We won't ever know for sure who wrote it," said Sue Hudson, whose title is Curator of Literary Manuscripts at the Huntington Library. "But in a sense, the authorship doesn't matter. It's a beloved poem, with warm, resonating touches for all of us."
Manuscript dealer Kaller obviously has more at stake in the outcome of the debate than the identification of the poet, although he feels that his copy of the poem would retain value even if Moore were exposed as a plagiarist. "Then it would be one of the greatest pieces of fraud in American history, "Mr. Kaller suggests, "and who knows whether it would be worth more or less."
Although the question of the authorship of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" has not been resolved, the mystery has been complicated by an Associated Press news story dated Tuesday, December 19, 2006. According to Greg Rohan, president of Houston-based Heritage Auction Galleries, the only copy of "A Visit to St. Nicholas" in private hands and written in 1860 was not sold at auction but was recently purchased directly by a New York chief executive of a media company for $280,000. What relationship this copy bears to the manuscript copy in the hands of the Kaller Americana of New York has not become clear nor what effect the sale may have had on the value of other copies of the poem written and signed by Clement Clarke Moore. Whoever negotiated the deal must have been a hard bargainer. If the copy that changed hands is indeed the copy priced at $795,000, the $280,000 price still represents a gross profit of $69,000 on an item held for nine years--a simple interest gain of 25 percent. The manuscript of the poem does not now appear on Kaller's on-line catalog. They are offering a copy of a first edition of Moore's 1844 volume of his collected poems inscribed in 1846 to "The Rev. C.S. Henry" at $8,500. It contains the famous poem.
To return to the question of the disputed authorship of the famous poem, here are two samples of poetic works by the respective poets:
Sample A
Old Santeclaus
Santeclaus with much delight
His reindeer drives this frosty night,
O'er chimney-tops, and tracks of snow,
To bring his yearly gifts to you.
The steady friend of virtuous youth,
The friend of duty, and of truth,
Each Christmas eve he joys to come
Where love and peace have made their home.
Through many houses he has been,
And various beds and stockings seen;
Some, white as snow, and neatly mended,
Others, that seemed for pigs intended.
Where e'er I found good girls or boys,
That hated quarrels, strife and noise,
I left an apple, or a tart,
Or wooden gun, or painted cart.
To some I gave a pretty doll,
To some a peg-top, or a ball;
No crackers, cannons, squibs, or rockets,
To blow their eyes up, or their pockets.
No drums to stun their Mother's ear,
Nor swords to make their sisters fear;
But pretty books to store their mind
With knowledge of each various kind.
But where I found the children naughty,
In manners rude, in temper haughty,
Thankless to parents, liars, swearers,
Boxers, or cheats, or base tale-bearers,
I left a long, black, birchen rod,
Such as the dread command of God
Directs a Parent's hand to use
When virtue's path his sons refuse.
Sample B
Such gadding--such ambling--such jaunting about!
To tea with Miss Nancy--to sweet Willy's rout,
New parties at coffee--then parties at wine,
Next day all the world with the Major must dine!
Then bounce all hands to Fishkill must go in a clutter
To guzzle bohea [tea], and destroy bread and butter.
Sample A is a Christmas poem attributed to Clement Clarke Moore. Its last eight lines represents the attitudes of an autocratic authoritarian punishment freak. The rollicking rhythms of Sample B are by Major Henry Livingston Jr. In this contest, our money's on the Major's entry.
Labels: "The Night Before Christmas", Christmas, Clement Clarke Moore, Major Henry Livingston
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Who Wrote "The Night Before Christmas"? Part One
LITERARY LORE
No name is more closely associated with Christmas than Santa Claus and the description of him in the poem popularly called "The Night Before Christmas." The name Santa Claus, of course, is an alteration of St. Nicholas, and the poem's original title was "An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas." Other spellings of this name have included Sancte Klaas or St. Aclaus. We associate St. Nicholas with the Christmas season because his "feast day" is December 6.
The original St. Nicholas was born in Patara, near Myra, in present-day Turkey. The exact date of his birth is unknown but is sometimes given as A.D. 280. He died in the middle of the fourth century, supposedly on December 6. Stories about Nicholas's good deeds multiplied. He became famous as a rescuer and protector of children and, later, of parents, sailors and others. According to Martin Ebon, his biographer, he was the "favorite saint" of nearly everyone: "yearning virgins, barren wives, helpless infants, thieves and financiers, traveling students and pirating Vandals." St. Nicholas, whose bones are now reputed to be in Bari, Italy, is the patron saint of both Greece and Russia.
St. Nicholas in America
In New York City, after the Revolution the city's boosters rediscovered the city's rich Dutch history. John Pintard, a founder of the New-York Historical Society, set the Society's annual meeting on December 6, the saint's feast day. Just as Pintard had promoted St. Nicholas locally, upriver in Westchester, Washington Irving introduced Santa to a national readership in his bestselling satirical Knickerbocker's History of New York. In it, Irving mentions St. Nicholas 25 times, including references to his horse and wagon, his pipe and his habit of "laying his finger aside of his nose."
Irving's History supplied the first description of St. Nicholas (or Santa Claus). In it, he claimed that the figurehead on the first Dutch ship to enter New York Harbor was carved in the saint's image: a figure with "a low, broad-brimmed hat, a huge pair of Flemish trunk hose and a pipe that reached to the end of the bowsprit." Surprisingly, there is no evidence that the cult of St. Nicholas existed in New Amsterdam or for more than a century after the British occupation in 1664.
Before 1820, St. Nicholas was pictured as a tall, skinny, stern bishop in clerical vestments who visited children and dispensed discipline as often as gifts. Our image of Santa Claus in a fur-trimmed red outfit, with a sack of toys, sleigh and reindeer owes much to an unattributed poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas," that first appeared in the Troy (N.Y.) Sentinel on December 23, 1823.
The Poem
According to the legend that sprang up years afterward, Miss Sarah Harriet Butler of Troy was visiting the home of Clement Clarke Moore in New York City. She saw a written version of the poem, copied it without the permission of the author and submitted it anonymously to Orville Holley, the editor of the Sentinel. After its original publication, the poem--still unattributed--appeared occasionally and seasonally in newspapers and almanacs. Newspaper carriers also distributed it as a holiday gift to their customers. Not until 1844, did an "author" take credit for the poem. Clement Clarke Moore, a part-time professor at the Episcopal General Theological Seminary in New York City, published it in a book of 37 poems, some of which were by other authors, including one by friend William Bard, one by diarist Philip Hone, and two by Moore's late wife.
Interestingly, before publishing this volume, Moore wrote to the former owner of the Troy Sentinel asking him how and from whom "A Visit from St. Nicholas" had reached the newspaper. A prompt response said that the text had been received from the wife of Daniel Sackett, a Troy merchant--an explanation that gave the lie to the Butler story. Before publishing the poem as his own, Clement Moore apparently had made sure that his claim to the poem as his own would not be challenged.
In the meantime, still farther up river friends and relatives of the late Maj. Henry Livingston, Jr. had been making claims that the now-famous anonymous poem had been written by him, a Revolutionary War veteran who had lived in Poughkeepsie. Major Livingston died in 1828, long before Clement Clarke Moore claimed to be its author. What was going on? Was Clement Clarke Moore, one of the wealthiest men in New York and a respected citizen, a plagiarist appropriating the work of another? Let's look at the record.
More about Clement Clarke Moore
After returning from the French and Indian War, Captain Thomas Clarke, an officer in the Colonial provincials, bought a farm in Manhattan from Jacob and Tunis Somerindyck. He named it Chelsea, after an institution for retired soldiers in London. The farm lay roughly between the present-day 19th and 24th streets and between 8th Avenue and the Hudson River. After the deaths of Capt. Clarke and Mrs. Clarke, the farm passed in 1802 to their daughter Charity and son-in-law, Benjamin Moore, Episcopal Bishop of New York. Bishop Moore and his wife conveyed the property to their son, Clement Clarke Moore. A 1798 graduate of Columbia College, in 1809 he published A Compendious Lexicon of the Hebrew Language.
As the finishing touches were being put on the facade of New York's City Hall in 1811, the Streets Commission issued a grid plan for streets to be laid out north of the city's existing jumble of streets in lower Manhattan. Twelve avenues, each 100 feet wide, would strike north from about Houston Street. Every 200 feet, narrower streets 50-60 feet wide would cut across the avenues at right angles. Every half mile or so, streets would be 100 feet wide (14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd, 57th). Thus did today's street pattern come into being on Manhattan Island.
When the city cut Ninth Avenue through his estate, Clement Clarke Moore wrote an angry pamphlet addressed to his fellow real estate owners. In it, he described the new grid plan as a destructive conspiracy by patronage-hungry and well-connected "cartmen, carpenters, masons, pavers and all their host of attendant laborers." Moore really had little to complain about. The Streets Commission had made him a wealthy man. An epidemic of yellow fever drove thousands north out of the city. and Clement Moore carved out lots on Ninth Avenue for sale to genteel purchasers. He donated an apple orchard west of Ninth Avenue between 20th and 21st streets for the site of the General Theological Seminary in return for a professorship in Greek and Oriental literature at that institution. He would remain there until 1850.
Enter Don Foster
Don Foster is a professor of English at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie and a literary sleuth. Using a technique he pioneered, he first came to the reading public's attentionin 1995 when he claimed that William Shakespeare was the author of a poem whose authorship had stumped experts. Seven years later, a French Shakespearean scholar, Gilles Monsarrat, offered convincing proof that the poem's true author was John Ford, a contemporary playright. Foster graciously acknowledged his error, saying, "No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes deserves to be called a scholar." He also showed that Joe Klein was the anonymous author of the bestselling novel Primary Colors after Klein publicly denied authorship. In the face of Foster's evidence, Klein sheepishly acknowledged authorship.
Foster's method involves intensive study of a text's wording and syntax to establish authorship. At the behest of descendants of Henry Livingston, Foster embarked on a literary archaeological expedition to try to unravel the mystery of the authorship of "A Visit from St. Nicholas," also known as "The Night before Christmas." The story of that search is told in the final chapter of Foster's book, Author Unknown: On the Trail of Anonymous (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2000). Foster compares Moore and Livingston, their poetic styles, personalities, vocabularies, their writings and habits. His carefully documented case, even though based on circumstantial evidence, appears to leave little room for doubt.
Foster found that Moore, as a young bachelor, had written many poems signed with the initial "L." When Moore's volume of collected poems was published, it was reviewed bitingly. But one reviewer, writing for The Churchman, published by the Protestant Episcopal Church, gave the book a rave review. The anonymous reviewer signed the piece "L." Moore and Livingston were as opposite as day and night. The Taliban would have loved Clement Moore. He opposed democratic reforms, such as free public schools; Livingston argued for equal opportunity, regardless of gender, color or heritage. Moore protected his daughters from the harmful effects of book learning; Livingston praised women's zeal for education. Moore expressed disdain for American "Savages"; Livingston was a friend of the Indians. Moore defended slavery as ordained by God--he owned slaves himself; as early as 1788, Livingston called for emancipation. Moore was the son of a Loyalist during the Revolution; Livingston fought in the Continental Army.
Livingston wrote many of his poems in anapestic meter (with the accent on every third syllable--the same meter as "The Night Before Christmas"). Moore wrote only one undisputed poem, "The Pig and the Rooster" in anapestic meter--but this was after he had been credited with the Christmas poem. You be the judge. Compare these poems with the famous poem that begins, "'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house":
Sample A
To me 'tis giv'n your virtue to secure
From custom's force and pleasure's dangerous lure....
For if, regardless of my friendly voice,
In Fashion's gaudy scenes your heart rejoice
Dire punishments shall fall upon your head;
Disgust, and fretfulness, and secret dread.
Sample B
Such gadding--such ambling--such jaunting about!
To tea with Miss Nancy--to sweet Willy's rout,
New parties at coffee--then parties at wine,
Next day all the world with the Major must dine!
Then bounce all hands to Fishkill must go in a clutter
To guzzle bohea [tea], and destroy bread and butter.
Clement Moore wrote Sample A; Henry Livingston wrote Sample B.
And here's the poem in question. You be the judge:
An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro' the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar plums danc'd in their heads,
And Mama in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter'snap --
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters, and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow,
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below;
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny rein-deer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and call'd them by name:
"Now! Dasher, now! Dancer, now! Prancer, and Vixen,
"On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Dunder and Blixem;
"To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
"Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"
As dry leaves before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
And then in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound:
He was dress'd all in fur, from his head to his boot
And his clothes were all tarnish'd with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys was flung on his back;
And he look'd like a peddler just opening his pack.
His eyes--how they twinkled! his dimples how merry,
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry;
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow.
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face, and a little round belly
That shook when he laugh'd, like a bowl full of jelly:
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laugh'd when I saw him in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And fill'd all the stockings; then turn'd with a jerk
And laying his finger aside of his nose
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.
He sprung to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew, like the down of a thistle:
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight--
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
No name is more closely associated with Christmas than Santa Claus and the description of him in the poem popularly called "The Night Before Christmas." The name Santa Claus, of course, is an alteration of St. Nicholas, and the poem's original title was "An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas." Other spellings of this name have included Sancte Klaas or St. Aclaus. We associate St. Nicholas with the Christmas season because his "feast day" is December 6.
The original St. Nicholas was born in Patara, near Myra, in present-day Turkey. The exact date of his birth is unknown but is sometimes given as A.D. 280. He died in the middle of the fourth century, supposedly on December 6. Stories about Nicholas's good deeds multiplied. He became famous as a rescuer and protector of children and, later, of parents, sailors and others. According to Martin Ebon, his biographer, he was the "favorite saint" of nearly everyone: "yearning virgins, barren wives, helpless infants, thieves and financiers, traveling students and pirating Vandals." St. Nicholas, whose bones are now reputed to be in Bari, Italy, is the patron saint of both Greece and Russia.
St. Nicholas in America
In New York City, after the Revolution the city's boosters rediscovered the city's rich Dutch history. John Pintard, a founder of the New-York Historical Society, set the Society's annual meeting on December 6, the saint's feast day. Just as Pintard had promoted St. Nicholas locally, upriver in Westchester, Washington Irving introduced Santa to a national readership in his bestselling satirical Knickerbocker's History of New York. In it, Irving mentions St. Nicholas 25 times, including references to his horse and wagon, his pipe and his habit of "laying his finger aside of his nose."
Irving's History supplied the first description of St. Nicholas (or Santa Claus). In it, he claimed that the figurehead on the first Dutch ship to enter New York Harbor was carved in the saint's image: a figure with "a low, broad-brimmed hat, a huge pair of Flemish trunk hose and a pipe that reached to the end of the bowsprit." Surprisingly, there is no evidence that the cult of St. Nicholas existed in New Amsterdam or for more than a century after the British occupation in 1664.
Before 1820, St. Nicholas was pictured as a tall, skinny, stern bishop in clerical vestments who visited children and dispensed discipline as often as gifts. Our image of Santa Claus in a fur-trimmed red outfit, with a sack of toys, sleigh and reindeer owes much to an unattributed poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas," that first appeared in the Troy (N.Y.) Sentinel on December 23, 1823.
The Poem
According to the legend that sprang up years afterward, Miss Sarah Harriet Butler of Troy was visiting the home of Clement Clarke Moore in New York City. She saw a written version of the poem, copied it without the permission of the author and submitted it anonymously to Orville Holley, the editor of the Sentinel. After its original publication, the poem--still unattributed--appeared occasionally and seasonally in newspapers and almanacs. Newspaper carriers also distributed it as a holiday gift to their customers. Not until 1844, did an "author" take credit for the poem. Clement Clarke Moore, a part-time professor at the Episcopal General Theological Seminary in New York City, published it in a book of 37 poems, some of which were by other authors, including one by friend William Bard, one by diarist Philip Hone, and two by Moore's late wife.
Interestingly, before publishing this volume, Moore wrote to the former owner of the Troy Sentinel asking him how and from whom "A Visit from St. Nicholas" had reached the newspaper. A prompt response said that the text had been received from the wife of Daniel Sackett, a Troy merchant--an explanation that gave the lie to the Butler story. Before publishing the poem as his own, Clement Moore apparently had made sure that his claim to the poem as his own would not be challenged.
In the meantime, still farther up river friends and relatives of the late Maj. Henry Livingston, Jr. had been making claims that the now-famous anonymous poem had been written by him, a Revolutionary War veteran who had lived in Poughkeepsie. Major Livingston died in 1828, long before Clement Clarke Moore claimed to be its author. What was going on? Was Clement Clarke Moore, one of the wealthiest men in New York and a respected citizen, a plagiarist appropriating the work of another? Let's look at the record.
More about Clement Clarke Moore
After returning from the French and Indian War, Captain Thomas Clarke, an officer in the Colonial provincials, bought a farm in Manhattan from Jacob and Tunis Somerindyck. He named it Chelsea, after an institution for retired soldiers in London. The farm lay roughly between the present-day 19th and 24th streets and between 8th Avenue and the Hudson River. After the deaths of Capt. Clarke and Mrs. Clarke, the farm passed in 1802 to their daughter Charity and son-in-law, Benjamin Moore, Episcopal Bishop of New York. Bishop Moore and his wife conveyed the property to their son, Clement Clarke Moore. A 1798 graduate of Columbia College, in 1809 he published A Compendious Lexicon of the Hebrew Language.
As the finishing touches were being put on the facade of New York's City Hall in 1811, the Streets Commission issued a grid plan for streets to be laid out north of the city's existing jumble of streets in lower Manhattan. Twelve avenues, each 100 feet wide, would strike north from about Houston Street. Every 200 feet, narrower streets 50-60 feet wide would cut across the avenues at right angles. Every half mile or so, streets would be 100 feet wide (14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd, 57th). Thus did today's street pattern come into being on Manhattan Island.
When the city cut Ninth Avenue through his estate, Clement Clarke Moore wrote an angry pamphlet addressed to his fellow real estate owners. In it, he described the new grid plan as a destructive conspiracy by patronage-hungry and well-connected "cartmen, carpenters, masons, pavers and all their host of attendant laborers." Moore really had little to complain about. The Streets Commission had made him a wealthy man. An epidemic of yellow fever drove thousands north out of the city. and Clement Moore carved out lots on Ninth Avenue for sale to genteel purchasers. He donated an apple orchard west of Ninth Avenue between 20th and 21st streets for the site of the General Theological Seminary in return for a professorship in Greek and Oriental literature at that institution. He would remain there until 1850.
Enter Don Foster
Don Foster is a professor of English at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie and a literary sleuth. Using a technique he pioneered, he first came to the reading public's attentionin 1995 when he claimed that William Shakespeare was the author of a poem whose authorship had stumped experts. Seven years later, a French Shakespearean scholar, Gilles Monsarrat, offered convincing proof that the poem's true author was John Ford, a contemporary playright. Foster graciously acknowledged his error, saying, "No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes deserves to be called a scholar." He also showed that Joe Klein was the anonymous author of the bestselling novel Primary Colors after Klein publicly denied authorship. In the face of Foster's evidence, Klein sheepishly acknowledged authorship.
Foster's method involves intensive study of a text's wording and syntax to establish authorship. At the behest of descendants of Henry Livingston, Foster embarked on a literary archaeological expedition to try to unravel the mystery of the authorship of "A Visit from St. Nicholas," also known as "The Night before Christmas." The story of that search is told in the final chapter of Foster's book, Author Unknown: On the Trail of Anonymous (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2000). Foster compares Moore and Livingston, their poetic styles, personalities, vocabularies, their writings and habits. His carefully documented case, even though based on circumstantial evidence, appears to leave little room for doubt.
Foster found that Moore, as a young bachelor, had written many poems signed with the initial "L." When Moore's volume of collected poems was published, it was reviewed bitingly. But one reviewer, writing for The Churchman, published by the Protestant Episcopal Church, gave the book a rave review. The anonymous reviewer signed the piece "L." Moore and Livingston were as opposite as day and night. The Taliban would have loved Clement Moore. He opposed democratic reforms, such as free public schools; Livingston argued for equal opportunity, regardless of gender, color or heritage. Moore protected his daughters from the harmful effects of book learning; Livingston praised women's zeal for education. Moore expressed disdain for American "Savages"; Livingston was a friend of the Indians. Moore defended slavery as ordained by God--he owned slaves himself; as early as 1788, Livingston called for emancipation. Moore was the son of a Loyalist during the Revolution; Livingston fought in the Continental Army.
Livingston wrote many of his poems in anapestic meter (with the accent on every third syllable--the same meter as "The Night Before Christmas"). Moore wrote only one undisputed poem, "The Pig and the Rooster" in anapestic meter--but this was after he had been credited with the Christmas poem. You be the judge. Compare these poems with the famous poem that begins, "'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house":
Sample A
To me 'tis giv'n your virtue to secure
From custom's force and pleasure's dangerous lure....
For if, regardless of my friendly voice,
In Fashion's gaudy scenes your heart rejoice
Dire punishments shall fall upon your head;
Disgust, and fretfulness, and secret dread.
Sample B
Such gadding--such ambling--such jaunting about!
To tea with Miss Nancy--to sweet Willy's rout,
New parties at coffee--then parties at wine,
Next day all the world with the Major must dine!
Then bounce all hands to Fishkill must go in a clutter
To guzzle bohea [tea], and destroy bread and butter.
Clement Moore wrote Sample A; Henry Livingston wrote Sample B.
And here's the poem in question. You be the judge:
An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro' the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar plums danc'd in their heads,
And Mama in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter'snap --
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters, and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow,
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below;
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny rein-deer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and call'd them by name:
"Now! Dasher, now! Dancer, now! Prancer, and Vixen,
"On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Dunder and Blixem;
"To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
"Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"
As dry leaves before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
And then in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound:
He was dress'd all in fur, from his head to his boot
And his clothes were all tarnish'd with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys was flung on his back;
And he look'd like a peddler just opening his pack.
His eyes--how they twinkled! his dimples how merry,
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry;
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow.
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face, and a little round belly
That shook when he laugh'd, like a bowl full of jelly:
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laugh'd when I saw him in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And fill'd all the stockings; then turn'd with a jerk
And laying his finger aside of his nose
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.
He sprung to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew, like the down of a thistle:
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight--
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
Labels: "The Night Before Christmas", Clement Clark Moore, Don Foster, Henry Livingston, Santa Claus, St. Nicholas
