The Night Before Christmas

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Once this command has been given, the poet offers one more descriptive flourish, and then the eight reindeer display their most famous magical ability: Scholars have debated whether Moore was the author of this poem. Professor Donald Foster used textual content analysis and external evidence to argue that Moore could not have been the author. [21] Foster believes that Major Henry Livingston, Jr., a New Yorker with Dutch and Scottish roots, should be considered the chief candidate for authorship. This view was long espoused by the Livingston family. Livingston was distantly related to Moore's wife. [21] Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863) was the only child of Benjamin Moore, an Episcopalian minister and rector of Trinity Church in New York City. (The elder Moore would go on to become the Episcopal bishop of New York and president of Columbia College.) His mother, Charity Clarke, was a feisty American patriot. From his mother’s side of the family, Moore inherited the farmland that would, during his lifetime, become New York City’s Chelsea district. Sonne, Niels Henry. "The Night Before Christmas": Who Wrote It? Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church, vol. 41, no. 4 (December 1972), pp.373–80.

How many decades ago did I memorize this poem, "Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash...." Does any kid now hearing this know what a "sash" is, not to mention a chimney etc. "As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly...": now as we await the wet leaves--and yacht boating boots--of the Republicans at their national convention hall in Tampa, a full foot above sea level at least: has anyone ever seen DRY leaves flying before a hurricane?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. Stedman, Edmund Clarence (1900). An American Anthology, 1787-1900 ([6th impression]ed.). Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company. p.15. hdl: 2027/loc.ark:/13960/t72v36z23. Margaret Elliot Moore (1815–1845), who married John Doughty Ogden (1804–1887), a grandson of U.S. Attorney Abraham Ogden and nephew of U.S. Representative David A. Ogden. [38] But what about the child-hating, noise-obsessed Moore? A passage from an unpublished 1849 verse, written by the poet for his granddaughter, puts the lie to that characterization: “The house is all too dull and quiet;/ I long to hear you romp and riot/ When e’er you’re full of harmless fun,/I dearly love to see you run” (Misc. Moore, C.C. Coll. Museum of the City of New York). Fallacy #3: Moore was a Scrooge

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 JrNissenbaum, Stephen (1997). The Battle for Christmas: A Social and Cultural History of Christmas that Shows How It Was Transformed from an Unruly Carnival Season into the Quintessential American Family Holiday. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-41223-9. When Moore's maternal grandmother died in 1802 she left four slaves to Moore's parents. In his 1956 biography of Moore, Samuel W. Patterson asserted that the four remained with the Moore family and were not freed until the full abolition of slavery in New York in 1827, [33] and this assertion has been repeated in many other works. It is incorrect. Manumission records show that Benjamin and Charity Moore freed one of the four, Charles Smith, in 1803. In the 1810 U.S. Census Benjamin Moore is listed as having two slaves in his household, who according to manumission records were subsequently freed in 1811 and 1813 and did not have the same names as the inherited slaves. In the 1820 Census, Clement Moore's first as a head of household, he is listed as having no slaves. [34] Personal life [ edit ] Based likely on this donation, and on the publication of his Hebrew and English Lexicon in 1809, [11] Moore was appointed as professor of Biblical learning at the Seminary. He held this post until 1850. [10] Fact: Even a scientist can be wrong, if he relies on tainted evidence.“Linguistic forensics,” if fairly employed, actually proves that Moore is the author. 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).