A VISIT FROM ST. NICHOLAS

The poem A Visit from St. Nicholas ("Twas the night before Christmas ...") was first published anonymously in the Troy, New York Sentinel on December 23, 1823, and was reprinted frequently thereafter with no name attached. Authorship was later attributed to Clement Moore and included in an anthology of his works, but his connection with the poem has been questioned. Henry Livingston, a New Yorker with Dutch roots, is the chief candidate for true author of the poem.

An American Anthology, 1787–1900, Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed., reprints the Moore version of the poem, including the German spelling of "Donder and Blitzen" he adopted, rather than the earlier Dutch version from 1823, "Dunder and Blixem". (Both phrases translate as "Thunder and Lightning" in English.)

External Links

• Snopes article refuting Moore's authorship
• Foster, Donald. Author Unknown: On the Trail of Anonymous. New York: Henry Holt, 2000. ISBN 0-8050-6357-9 (pp. 221-275).
• Text attributed to Livingston, at University of Toronto's Representative Poetry Online.
• Moore version online at Bartleby