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Author of 'Night Before Christmas' questionable
I read an interesting Associated Press story last week about the controversy over who wrote "The Night Before Christmas." I guess if we can argue over who authored Shakespeare's plays, we can also question the legitimacy of the poem that gave us our present-day image of Santa Claus. The first publication of what has become known as "The Night Before Christmas" was in the Troy (N.Y.) Sentinel on Dec. 23, 1823. Entitled "Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas," the poem was submitted anonymously and was buried deep on an inside page. People read it though. And copied and recopied it as it spread like wildfire to become one of the most popular Christmas stories of all times (not surpassing the Bible's, of course!). For whatever reason, it would be 21 years later, in 1844, before Clement Clarke Moore claimed credit for the poem when it was published in a book with other poems. The Associated Press story describes Moore as a "wealthy Bible scholar, the sort of man that the phrase 'pillar of society' was meant to describe - pious, accomplished, esteemed family- and the claim was universally accepted. Or almost so." Relatives of Revolutionary War veteran Henry Livingston came forward to say he was the author, and that he had written the poem before 1808 and regularly read it aloud to his family on Christmases years before it was first printed. The problem is, he never claimed authorship, even in the five years between its initial newspaper printing in 1823 and his death in 1828. Nevertheless, his descendants said he was the author and the Bible scholar Moore was, in effect, a liar. Vassar College English professor Don Foster, who unmasked journalist Joe Klein as the author of "Primary Colors" during the Clinton administration, looked at the lives and writings of the two men and suggests in a book "Author Unknown," written in 2000, that Livingston is a better match to be the author. C.C. Moore taught at Columbia College and lived with his family on a big estate in Manhattan. Before the Christmas poem came along his one claim to literary fame was a two-volume Hebrew dictionary. Moore's family says he was inspired to write the poem while sleigh riding on Christmas Eve in 1822. He later said he wrote the poem as a lark, for the private enjoyment of his family. However, Foster suggests Moore was more Scrooge than a "jolly old elf" described in the poem. For instance, he chastised in prose the fun-loving girls of Manhattan as relying on the "arts first taught by prostitutes of France!" Livingston's background is harder to investigate. He was a gentleman farmer who lived in Poughkeepsie, New York, about halfway between New York City and Troy. He was given to writing light verse in anapest- two short syllables followed by a long stressed one, such as "Twas the NIGHT before CHRISTmas." Foster says Livingston is the more "jocular soul" whose poems better match the spirit, meter and word usage of the famous poem. He thinks Livingston, not Moore, is the author. I will never again read "The Night Before Christmas" without wondering who the real author is. Now, I may have put the bug in your head, too, as you read the classic to your children and grandchildren this Christmas.
It really doesn't matter who wrote it though. What is important, is the magic and the love of Christmas that the poem conveys and its simple but heartwarming conclusion: "…I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight, 'Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!' "
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