A Visit from St. Nicholas, The Night Before Christmas, 1864
"The Night Before Christmas" is considered on of the best-known verses ever written by an American and is largely responsible for some of the conceptions of Santa Claus today. It was first published anonymously in the Troy Sentinel on December 23, 1823. It was sent to the paper by a friend of Moore. It was reprinted frequently thereafter and published as a small book in illustrated versions. It was not until 1837, in The New York Book of Poetry, that the poem was first attributed in to Clement Clarke Moore. Moore claimed authorship by including it in his Poems, an 1844 anthology of his works. His children, for whom he had originally written the piece, encouraged this publication. At first Moore had not wished to be connected with the popular verse, given his public reputation as a professor of ancient languages. By then, the original publisher and at least seven others had already acknowledged him as author. Published by L. Prang & Company, 1864.
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