# "A Visit from St. Nicholas" — the documentary record of the authorship question Compiled from primary documents (scans, OCR of period printings, and transcriptions of manuscripts), covering the claim for Clement Clarke Moore (1779–1863; public claim 1837/1844) and the claim advanced by the descendants of Henry Livingston Jr. of Poughkeepsie (1748–1828). Raw copies of every text quoted here, each headed by its URL and a provenance note, are in `docs/sources/` (49 text files plus three scans). ## Conventions - Quotations are verbatim, in the original spelling, capitalisation and punctuation. Line-turnovers in newspaper columns are silently closed up; `[sic]` and square-bracket interpolations are mine. - **Verification flags.** **[V]** = I read the words on a scan or OCR of the original document or of the period printing named. **[S]** = second-hand: quoted from a transcription (henrylivingston.com, Melvilliana, Seth Kaller, the MCNY blog, Wikipedia, Weise 1891, etc.) that I could not check against the original. **[not seen]** = document reported by others; no text available to me. When a quotation is only second-hand, the flag says so. - Abbreviations: **HL** = henrylivingston.com (Mary S. Van Deusen, a Livingston descendant; hosts transcriptions of the Livingston-family letters in the Thomas Collection, now at the New-York Historical Society), read via the Wayback Machine because the live site fails TLS here; **Norsworthy** = Scott Norsworthy's Melvilliana blog and 2026 Substack article; **Kaller** = Seth Kaller, "The Authorship of The Night Before Christmas" (adapted from *New-York Journal of American History*, 2004); **Lawrence 1964** = G. H. M. Lawrence, *"The Night Before Christmas": An Exhibition Catalogue* (Pittsburgh Bibliophiles, 1964), quoted on HL; **N-YHS** = New-York Historical Society; **MCNY** = Museum of the City of New York; **DCHS** = Dutchess County Historical Society. - Reference dates: Moore b. 15 July 1779, d. 10 July 1863 (Newport, R.I.). Livingston b. 13 Oct. 1748, d. 29 Feb. 1828 (Poughkeepsie). First printing 23 Dec. 1823. First printing under Moore's name Dec. 1836/1837. Earliest dated written record of the Livingston claim: 4 Mar. [1879]. --- ## Part I — Dated timeline, Moore side (including the rival claims of 1838 and 1843) ### I.1 — 1821: "Old Santeclaus with much delight" [S] - **Document.** Anonymous eight-stanza poem with eight lithographed plates, *The Children's Friend. Number III. A New-Year's Present, to the Little Ones from Five to Twelve* (New York: William B. Gilley, 1821). Copy: Beinecke Library, Yale (record 3437144). - **Quotation.** "Old Santeclaus with much delight / His reindeer drives this frosty night, / O'r chimney tops, and tracts 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 peace and love have made their home. / Through many houses he has been, / And various beds and stockings seen ..." - **Where read.** Wikipedia transcription (wikitext), not checked against the Beinecke copy. - **Proves / does not.** A reindeer-drawn sleigh over chimney-tops, stockings, and a Christmas-eve visit were in print in New York two years before the *Sentinel* printing. Says nothing about who wrote the 1823 poem. ### I.2 — [1822]: the traditional composition date — no contemporary document - No document of 1822 mentions the poem. The date "1822" first appears in print in Pelletreau 1897 ("This little poem ... was written in 1822, as a Christmas present for his children") **[V]** and is repeated by the N-YHS Bulletin 1919 ("said to have been composed in 1822") **[V]**. Moore's own dating statements are: "many years ago, I think somewhere between 1823 and 1824" (letter of 27 Feb. 1844, **[V]**, see I.19); "about 40 years ago" (reported by T. W. C. Moore after interviewing him, 15 Mar. 1862, **[V]**, see I.22); and the note on the 1862 autograph as given by the N-YHS catalogue and by Pelletreau's facsimile: "originally written many years ago" **[S]**. - The turkey-errand / moonlight-on-the-snow story of composition: its earliest written record I could find is Maria Jephson O'Conor's two statements of 20 and 23 Dec. 1920 (I.26). I found no print appearance before 1920. ### I.3 — 23 Dec. 1823: Troy Sentinel, first printing [V] - **Document.** *Troy Sentinel* (Troy, N.Y.; Orville L. Holley, editor; Norman Tuttle, proprietor), Tuesday 23 Dec. 1823, p. 2, col. 5 (Lawrence 1964; NYS Historic Newspapers image "seq-3"). Copy: Troy Public Library. Scan: nyshistoricnewspapers.org (blocked to this environment) and Wikimedia Commons (the file checked; copy in `sources/1823-12-23_troy-sentinel_scan.png`). - **Holley's introduction (opening and closing).** "We know not to whom we are indebted for the following description of that unwearied patron of children—that homely, but delightful personification of parental kindness—SANTE CLAUS, his costume and his equipage, as he goes about visiting the fire-sides of this happy land, laden with Christmas bounties; but, from whomsoever it may have come, we give thanks for it. There is, to our apprehension, a spirit of cordial goodness in it, a playfulness of fancy, and a benevolent alacrity to enter into the feelings and promote the simple pleasures of children, which are altogether charming. We hope our little patrons, both lads and lasses, will accept it as proof of our unfeigned good will toward them—as a token of our warmest wish that they may have many a merry Christmas; ... and that they may never part with that simplicity of character, which is their own fairest ornament, and for the sake of which they have been pronounced, by authority which none can gainsay, the types of such as shall inherit the kingdom of heaven." - **Heading.** "For the Sentinel. / ACCOUNT OF A VISIT FROM ST. NICHOLAS." - **Text features (full text in sources).** "all thro' the house"; "sugar plums danc'd in their heads"; "Mama in her 'kerchief"; "I sprung from the bed"; "new fallen snow"; "eight tiny rein-deer"; "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"; "With the sleigh full of Toys"; "look'd like a peddler"; "turn'd with a jirk"; "He sprung to his sleigh"; last line "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night." - **Proves / does not.** Anonymous first printing; the editor disclaims knowledge of the author; "For the Sentinel" marks it as a contributed manuscript. It names no one and gives no provenance beyond Troy. ### I.4 — 23 Sept. 1824: Harriet Butler and Sarah Sackett in one document [S] - The Troy ladies' address to Lafayette, printed with the signatories in the *New York Evening Post*, 23 Sept. 1824, includes both "Harriet Butler" and "Sarah Sackett" (Norsworthy 2018). Proves only that the two women later named as intermediaries were acquainted and active together in Troy in 1824. ### I.5 — 1825 (issued late 1824): first book printings, anonymous [S] - *New Brunswick (N.J.) Almanack, for the Year of Our Lord 1825* (calculated by Joshua Sharp; Griggs & Dickinson, Philadelphia, for Joseph C. Griggs), pp. [25–26]: "Dunder and Blixem"; line 21 already "now Prancer and Vixen"; "Happy Christmas". - David McClure, *The United States National Almanac ... 1825* (Philadelphia: R. Desilver; title registered 27 Aug. 1824), p. 40: "Dunder and Blixen" — first appearance of "Blixen"; "Happy Christmas". - Source: HL transcriptions with Lawrence 1964 notes ("The two present the first publication of the poem in any book"). ### I.6 — 2 Jan. 1826: Washington *National Intelligencer* reprints the poem anonymously from the Charleston *Mercury* (Norsworthy 2026) [S]. Shows early southern circulation without a name. ### I.7 — 16 Jan. 1828: *Poughkeepsie Journal* prints the poem anonymously [S] - Livingston's home-town newspaper, six weeks before his death. Text (HL transcription): "eight tiny red deer" [sic]; "Mamma"; "I sprang from the bed"; "Dunder and Blixem"; "Happy Christmas to all". - **Proves / does not.** The poem circulated in Poughkeepsie in Livingston's lifetime with no name attached, and no one in Poughkeepsie is recorded as having claimed it then. This is the only Poughkeepsie printing before Livingston's death that anyone has located; the family's later recollections of a Poughkeepsie printing "between 1780 and 1800" in "The Po'keepsie Gazette" (Goodrich, 3 Jan. 1900) or in the "Poughkeepsie Eagle" kept by Charles as "an especial treasure" (G. Thomas, 1905) have no located exemplar. ### I.8 — 1 Jan. 1829: *Morning Courier* (New York) prints the lines "at the request of a lady" and asks the Albany editors for the author. Known from Holley's reply (I.9); the date is given by West 1920. [not seen] ### I.9 — 20 Jan. 1829: Troy Sentinel, Holley's note on the author [V via Weise 1891; S via Norsworthy's transcription of the NYSHN scan] - **Quotation (Weise 1891, pp. 96–97).** "A few days since the editors of the New York Courier, at the request of a lady, inserted some lines descriptive of one of the Christmas visits of that good old Dutch saint, St. Nicholas, and at the same time applied to our Albany neighbors for information as to the author. That information, we apprehend, the Albany editors cannot give. The lines were first published in this paper. They came to us from a manuscript in possession of a lady in this city. We have been given to understand that the author of them belongs by birth and residence to the city of New York, and that he is a gentleman of more merit as a scholar and a writer than many of more noisy pretensions. We republish the lines in a preceding column just as they originally appeared, because we still think of them as at first, and for the satisfaction of our brethren of the Courier, one of whom, at least, is an Arcadian." - Norsworthy's transcription from the newspaper scan reads "a manuscript copy in possession of a lady in this city" and italicises *more* ("a gentleman of *more* merit"). In the Troy Library file copy of this issue the poem itself has been clipped out. - **Proves / does not.** Eleven months after Livingston's death, the original editor states the author is a New York City man "of more merit as a scholar and a writer than many of more noisy pretensions" (read since Tryon 1920 as a pun on "Moore"; the italics support this but the name is not printed). The "lady in this city" is not named. Says nothing for or against Livingston except that the description does not fit a Poughkeepsie man. ### I.10 — c. 1830: Tuttle's broadside "A Gift for Christmas" [S; the date V via Weise 1891] - **Document.** Broadside "A GIFT FOR CHRISTMAS ... Published and Sold by N. TUTTLE at his Book and Job Printing Offices, 225 River-street, Troy", woodcut by Myron King (first illustration of the poem). Weise 1891 **[V]**: "Myron King, now deceased, made, about the year 1830, the wood-cut which embellished the popular poetical composition, which was printed at the Troy Sentinel office for a number of successive years, and sold by the newsboys of the city at the approach of Christmas." N-YHS Bulletin 1919 **[V]**: sold as a "Carrier's Address". - **Text (HL collation).** MCNY copy (54.331.17, the sheet Tuttle sent Moore in 1844): "Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen! / On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Dunder and Blixem!"; "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night." Carnegie Mellon (Haight) copy: "now, Prancer! now, Vixen!". HL counts 55 differences between the 1823 text and this broadside, and only 13 (five substantive) between the broadside and the 1844 *Poems*. - **Proves / does not.** The familiar rhythm of the reindeer line originates with a Troy printer, not with the 1823 text; the 1844 text follows the broadside closely. Bears on what copy-text Moore used in 1844, not on who wrote the poem. ### I.11 — 1830 and 1833: John F. Watson, *Annals of Philadelphia* (pp. 242–243) and *Historic Tales of Olden Time* (pp. 156–157): a 24-line abridgment, anonymous (HL/Lawrence) [S]. ### I.12 — 31 Dec. 1834: the diary of Francis P. Lee [S] - **Document.** Francis P. Lee Papers, Mss. 65 L51, Box 11, Folder 2, Special Collections Research Center, William & Mary Libraries; entry for Wednesday 31 Dec. 1834 (Lee, a General Theological Seminary student in Moore's Hebrew class, at a church fair in Morristown, N.J.): "It was held in the court room and under the auspices of a figure called St. Nicholas who was robed in fur, and dressed according to the description of Prof Moore in his poem." - **Where read.** Quoted by Norsworthy (Melvilliana, Feb. 2025) and earlier by Nissenbaum, *The Battle for Christmas* (1996), p. 345 n. 85. - **Proves / does not.** The poem was being attributed to Moore in private, inside his own circle, two years before the first printed attribution and ten years before his public claim. It does not show how Lee knew. ### I.13 — 24 Dec. 1836 / 1837: *The New-York Book of Poetry* — first printing under Moore's name [V] - **Document.** *The New-York Book of Poetry* [ed. Charles Fenno Hoffman] (New-York: George Dearborn, 38 Gold Street, 1837; printed by Scatcherd & Adams; "Advertisement" dated "38 Gold Street, Dec. 24, 1836"), pp. 217–219: "A VISIT FROM ST. NICHOLAS / BY CLEMENT C. MOORE." Index: "Moore, Clement C." Moore's other contributions are signed "BY CLEMENT C. MOORE.—1804." - **Text features.** "danced through their heads"; "I sprang from the bed"; "“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer! now, Vixen! / On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Donder and Blixen—"; "pedlar"; "jirk"; "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!" — first appearance of "Donder". - **Proves / does not.** The first printing with Moore's name, in his lifetime, in a New York anthology to which, by his own 1844 account, he himself gave the piece ("I gave the publisher several pieces, among which was the 'Visit from St. Nicholas'"). Livingston had been dead nine years. ### I.14 — 28 Dec. 1836: Holley's retrospective statement [S] - **Document.** Orville L. Holley, "Santa Claus, with his Christmas gifts", *Ontario Repository and Freeman* (Canandaigua, N.Y.), 28 Dec. 1836; reprinted Auburn *Journal and Advertiser*, 4 Jan. 1837 (Norsworthy 2016). - **Quotation.** "The following lines appeared in print for the first time—though very often copied since—in the Troy Sentinel of Dec. 23d, 1823, which paper we then conducted. They were introduced, on that occasion, with the following remarks; which, as they continue to be a true expression of our opinion ... we repeat them, only observing that although when we first published them, we did not know who wrote them, yet, not many months afterwards we learnt that they came from the pen of a most accomplished scholar and and [sic] estimable man, a professor in one of our colleges". - **Proves / does not.** The original editor, writing independently of Moore, says he learned the author's identity "not many months" after Dec. 1823 — i.e. in 1824, while Livingston was alive. He still does not print the name. ### I.15 — 31 Dec. 1836 to 1840: printed attributions to Moore before his 1844 claim [S — all via Norsworthy's newspaper transcriptions unless flagged] - *New York American*, Sat. 31 Dec. 1836: "As appropriate to the season, and because it has long circulated without a name, we also copy A Visit from St. Nicholas.—By Clement C. Moore." - *American Monthly Magazine*, Jan. 1837 (notice of the *New-York Book*): "The lines which follow have been much admired, and have appeared in a variety of publications, but never, we believe, before under the name of the real author—CLEMENT C. MOORE." - *New-York Mirror*, 23 Dec. 1837: "It is written by Professor Clement C. Moore, who, in stealing leisure from the gravest and most important studies, for so light and graceful a production, has set an example which austere wisdom should oftener imitate". - Alexandria *Gazette* and Washington *National Intelligencer*, 25 Dec. 1837 ("BY CLEMENT C. MOORE"); Nashville *Republican Banner*, 5 Jan. 1838; Columbia (Pa.) *Democrat*, 6 Jan. 1838 ("By Professor Moore"); Boston *Weekly Messenger*, 26 Sept. 1838 ("the lines written by Clement Moore, of New York, which may have suggested ... the painter [Weir]"); *Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer*, 25 Dec. 1838 ("the following beautiful lines by Professor MOORE"); *Troy Budget*, 25 Dec. 1838 (per N-YHS Bulletin 1919 and West 1920, "it was not until 1838 that its authorship was publicly acknowledged when it appeared in the Troy Budget" — **[not seen]**); John Keese, *The Poets of America* (1840) and W. C. Bryant, *Selections from the American Poets* (1840), both crediting Moore. - **Proves / does not.** Between Dec. 1836 and 1840 the attribution to Moore was repeated by New York, Washington, Boston, Virginia, Tennessee and Pennsylvania papers and by two anthologies; no contemporary objection from Poughkeepsie is recorded. ### I.16 — 3 Jan. 1838: the Curtis claim, Danbury (Conn.) *Times* [S — Norsworthy 2026] - **Quotation.** Letter signed "ONE WHO KNOWS": "Allow me to assure you that not one word of that production emanated from the pen of the worthy Professor, nor will he claim it. It was written by a young man now no more. ... it was the late Editor of the New York Churchman, the Rev. JOHN B. [recte W.] CURTIS. The four lines in quotation were written by his room-mate SULLIVAN C. VAN WYCK, of Albany, who is still living ... 'Now! Dasher, now! Dancer, now! Prancer and Vixen, / On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Dunder and Blixen! ...'" - John Washington Curtis (1804–1835): native of Troy, Union College 1824, General Theological Seminary 1824–27, first editor of the *Churchman*. - **Proves / does not.** The earliest known claim that someone other than Moore wrote the poem — posthumous and made by a third party, five years before the Wood claim and 41 years before the first written Livingston claim. Its author evidently did not know that the poem had already been printed under Moore's name. ### I.17 — 22/25 Dec. 1843 and 28 Dec. 1843: the "Joseph Wood" claim and its correction - *National Intelligencer* (Washington), 25 Dec. 1843, printing a letter dated "Washington, Dec. 22d, 1843": "The enclosed lines were written by Joseph Wood, artist, for the National Intelligencer, and published in that paper in 1827 or 1828, as you may perceive from your files. By republishing them, as the composition of Mr. Wood you will gratify one who has now few sources of pleasure left." **[V** as quoted verbatim in Moore's printed letter, I.19; the *Intelligencer* itself **not seen]**. - Correction, *Daily National Intelligencer*, 28 Dec. 1843, signed "C." **[S]**: "I perceive in your paper of the 25th instant that an extract from the beautiful little poem entitled 'A Visit from St. Nicholas' is given to the pen of Jos. Wood. This is a mistake. It is well known to be the production of CLEMENT C. MOORE, of the city of New York, and is published as his in the volume of American Poems edited by John Keese." - **Proves / does not.** A second posthumous third-party claim; by 1843 Moore's authorship was "well known" enough to be corrected within three days by an unrelated reader. ### I.18 — 23 and 26 Feb. 1844: Moore's inquiry to Norman Tuttle and Tuttle's reply [S — MCNY 54.331.17A-B, via HL, the MCNY blog (2016) and Kaller] - Moore's letter of 23 Feb. 1844 is not extant; it is known only from Tuttle's reply. - **Quotation (Tuttle to "Prof C C Moore", "Troy. Feb 26. 1844").** "Sir - Yours of 23d inst. making inquiry concerning the publication of "A Visit from St. Nicholas," is just received. The piece was first published in the Troy Sentinel December 23, 1823, with an introductory notice by the Editor, Orville L. Holley, Esq., and again two or three years after that. At the time of its first publication I did not know who the Author was - but have since been informed that you were the Author. I understand from Mr. Holley that he received it from Mrs. Sackett, the wife of Mr. Daniel Sackett who was then a merchant in this city. It was twice published in the Troy Sentinel; and being much admired and sought after by the younger class, I procured the Engraving which you will find on the other side of this sheet, and have published several editions of it. The Sentinel has for several years been numbered with the things that were - and Mr. Holley, I understand, is now in Albany, editing the Albany Daily Advertiser. I was myself the proprietor of the Sentinel. Very Respectfully Yours, &c N Tuttle". - The letter is written on the back of a copy of Tuttle's broadside (I.10). On that broadside "Blixem" (MCNY blog: "Blixom") is corrected in manuscript to "Blitzen"; Kaller attributes the correction to Moore; HL: "Who made the changes we don't know." - **Proves / does not.** The only period document naming the Troy intermediary — "Mrs. Sackett" — and the only evidence that Moore, four months before publishing the poem as his own, asked the original publisher about its publication. It does not preserve what Moore asked, and Tuttle's knowledge of the author is second-hand ("have since been informed"). ### I.19 — 27 Feb. / 1 Mar. 1844: Moore's public claim, *New York American* [V — transcribed from the Commons scan; copy in sources] - **Editor's headnote (Charles King).** "LINES TO ST. NICHOLAS.—The following note from our friend C. C. Moore, the author of those lines which every child among us delights to hear, about Christmas, and which parents with not less delight recite, brings to our notice, one of the boldest acts of plagiarism of which we have any recollection. We ask the National Intelligencer to have the goodness to insert Mr. Moore's note—and if possible to elucidate the mistake, if such it be, or fraud attempted in respect of such well known lines." - **Moore, "New York, Feb. 27, 1844."** "Dear Sir—My attention was, a few days ago, directed to the following communication, which appears in the National Intelligencer of the 25th of December last. [quotes the Wood letter] The above is printed immediately over some lines, describing a visit from St. Nicholas, which I wrote many years ago, I think somewhere between 1823 and 1824, not for publication, but to amuse my children. They, however, found their way, to my great surprise, in the Troy Sentinel: nor did I know, until lately, how they got there. When "The New York Book" was about to be published, I was applied to for some contribution to the work. Accordingly, I gave the publisher several pieces, among which was the "Visit from St. Nicholas." It was printed under my name, and has frequently since been republished, in your paper among others, with my name attached to it. Under these circumstances, I feel it incumbent on me not to remain silent, while so bold a claim, as the above quoted, is laid to my literary property, however small the intrinsic value of that property may be. The New York Book was published in 1827 [sic, for 1837]. Yours, truly and respectfully, CLEMENT C. MOORE. Chas. King, Esq." (The last digit of "1823" is smudged in the scan; Norsworthy also reads 1823.) - The *Intelligencer* replied on 6 Mar. 1844 that it had already corrected the error (Norsworthy) [S]. - **Proves / does not.** Moore's first public first-person claim, made in response to a rival claim; he asserts composition "not for publication, but to amuse my children" and surprise at the Troy printing. His date "between 1823 and 1824" is impossible for a poem printed on 23 Dec. 1823 and differs from the later family date of 1822; "nor did I know, until lately, how they got there" fits the Tuttle inquiry of three days earlier. ### I.20 — 25 June 1844: *Poems* [V] - **Document.** *Poems by Clement C. Moore, LL.D.* (New York: Bartlett & Welford, 7 Astor House, 1844; entered 1844; Wm. Van Norden, printer; issued 25 June 1844 per Norsworthy). Preface pp. v–viii; "A VISIT FROM ST. NICHOLAS" pp. 124–127, without note, date or subtitle. Copy read: archive.org `poemsmoor00moorrich`. - **Preface.** "MY DEAR CHILDREN: IN compliance with your wishes, I here present you with a volume of verses, written by me at different periods of my life. ... I have not made a selection from among my verses of such as are of any peculiar cast; but have given you the melancholy and the lively, the serious, the sportive, and even the trifling; such as relate solely to our own domestic circle, and those of which the subjects take a wider range. ... he thinks we are so constituted that a good honest hearty laugh, which conceals no malice, and is excited by nothing corrupt, however ungenteel it may be, is healthful both to body and mind. ... Another reason why the mere trifles in this volume have not been withheld, is, that such things have been often found by me to afford greater pleasure than what was by myself esteemed of more worth." - **Text features.** "sugar-plums danced in their heads"; "Mamma"; "I sprang from the bed"; "“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen! / On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!"; "As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly"; "A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back"; "pedlar"; "turned with a jerk"; "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night." First appearance of "Blitzen". - Caveat: the archive.org copy shows, between the p. 124 text and the p. 125 header, an extra block reading "... On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Dunder and Blitzen— ..." which looks like a pasted-in slip or clipping, not the printed page; the printed p. 125 reads "Donder and Blitzen". - **Proves / does not.** Moore's formal, signed claim by inclusion in a collection addressed to his children, 21 years after the first printing and 16 after Livingston's death. The preface does not single out the poem. The text descends from Tuttle's c. 1830 broadside (HL) rather than from the 1823 printing, which bears on the question whether Moore had a manuscript of his own to print from. ### I.21 — 1853–1862: the four autograph copies and related manuscripts - **Aug. 1853.** Autograph copy, now Strong National Museum of Play, Rochester (Kaller Appendix C) **[not seen]**. - **24 Mar. 1856.** Autograph copy made for Oscar T. Keeler, now Huntington Library, San Marino, call no. 32507 (Norsworthy: "Facsimile only?"). Covering note **[S — Bixby transcription via Norsworthy; West 1920 quotes it]**: "N. York, Mar. 24, 1856. Dear Sir, I have received your letter of the 16th instant. I wish the inclosed was more worthy of attention. Accept my thanks for your kind wishes; but a man who is nearer to 77 than to 76 has no right to expect many more years of life. Yours respectfully, [Clement C. Moore]". - **1860.** Signed fair copy (Sotheby's, New York, Dec. 2004, lot 442; Heritage 2006, lot 25885; the "Hugh Bullock" / "Kaller copy") **[not seen]**. - **13 Mar. 1862.** Autograph for the N-YHS (catalogued "Holograph manuscript, dated March 13, 1862 ... BV Moore, Clement"). Page 1 checked on the Commons image **[V]**: "'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house"; "sugar-plums danced in their heads"; "Mamma"; "I sprang from the bed to see what what [sic] was the matter"; "“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen! / On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!" (reindeer names underlined). Closing note as reported (N-YHS catalogue; Pelletreau's facsimile) **[S]**: "Clement C. Moore, 1862 March 13 originally written many years ago". - Related: an illuminated copy made in 1855 by Moore's daughter Mary Clarke Moore Ogden (Morgan Library MA 23900; "Happy Christmas") **[S]**; the undated "Chilton" autograph (facsimile in *St. Nicholas* magazine, Jan. 1875, pp. 160–61; manuscript resurfaced Dec. 2024) **[S]**. - **Proves / does not.** In his last decade, partially blind, Moore repeatedly wrote the poem out as his own and dated the copies. None is the original draft; no one has ever recorded seeing a pre-1823 manuscript in Moore's hand. Casimir de R. Moore (1920): "What became of the original manuscript I cannot say." ### I.22 — 15 Mar. 1862: T. W. C. Moore to George H. Moore, N-YHS [V — N-YHS Quarterly Bulletin, vol. II no. 4 (Jan. 1919), pp. 111–115] - **Quotation.** "73 East 12th St. New York, March 15th 1862. Geo. H. Moore Esqr Librarian of The New-York Historical Society: Dear Sir: I have the pleasure to inform you that Doctor Clement C. Moore has been so kind as to comply with my request (made at your suggestion) to furnish, for the Archives of our Society, an Autograph Copy of his justly celebrated "Visit from St. Nicholas." I now enclose it to you.— I hardly need call your attention to the distinctness and beauty of his hand writing:—very remarkable, considering his advanced age, (he completed his 82d year in July last) and his much impaired eye sight. These lines were composed for his two daughters, as a Christmas present, about 40 years ago.—They were copied by a relative of Dr. Moores in her Album, from which a copy was made by a friend of hers, from Troy, and, much to the surprise of the Author, were published (for the first time) in a Newspaper of that city.— In an interview that I had yesterday with Dr. Moore, he told me that a portly, rubicund, Dutchman, living in the neighbourhood of his fathers country seat, Chelsea, suggested to him the idea of making St. Nicholas the hero of this "Christmas piece" for his children. I remain, very respy. Your obt. st. T. W. C. Moore". - The writer, Thomas W. C. Moore (1794–1872), was the son of John Moore and Judith Livingston Moore — the latter a first cousin of Henry Livingston Jr., so that the intermediary of 1862 was himself a Livingston kinsman — and a kinsman by marriage of Clement C. Moore (his uncle, the Rev. Thomas Lambert Moore, married Clement's aunt Judith Moore) (HL; Norsworthy 2018). His niece Frances Livingston Hart married Harriet Butler's brother, the Rev. Clement Moore Butler, in 1836 (Norsworthy 2018; HL). - **Proves / does not.** The earliest first-hand account of transmission, taken from Moore in his lifetime: composition "about 40 years ago" (≈1822) for "his two daughters" (Margaret b. 1815, Charity b. 1816); two stages of copying — a relative's album, then "a friend of hers, from Troy"; and the "rubicund Dutchman" as the source of the idea. It does not name the relative or the friend, and it was recorded 39 years after the event by an interested party. ### I.23 — 1862–1863: "Merry Christmas", Darley, Nast, Moore's death - 1862: James Gregory's separate edition (Haight no. 19) first substitutes "Merry Christmas to all" for "Happy Christmas" (Lawrence 1964 via HL) **[S]**; 1862 edition illustrated by F. O. C. Darley (West 1920) **[S]**; *Harper's Weekly*, Jan. 1863, with Thomas Nast's illustration (Kaller: "most likely elicited the first Livingston claim") **[S]**. Moore died at Newport, R.I., 10 July 1863 (Pelletreau 1897) **[V]**. ### I.24 — 23 Dec. 1871: John T. Parker, "The 'Visit of St. Nicholas'—Moore's Poem—Some Account of Its History", *Troy Daily Times*: the first naming of Harriet Butler as the copyist (Norsworthy 2018) [not seen]. ### I.25 — 1891, 1897, 1919: the Butler story in print [V] - **Weise 1891, p. 96.** "In 1823, Harriet, the eldest daughter of the Rev. David Butler, rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, while visiting the family of Professor Moore, heard the erudite linguist read to his children the metrical composition which he had written for their entertainment. Delighted with its agreeable rhythm and happy conceits, she requested the privilege of making a transcript of it. On her return to Troy, she sent it to the editor of the Troy Sentinel ... The publication of it, anonymous as it was, caused Professor Moore some regrets regarding it. ... Five years after the first publication of the legend in the Troy Sentinel, the name of the author was disclosed to the editor of that journal." - **Pelletreau 1897.** "Among their many friends were the family of Rev. Dr. David Butler, then rector of St. Paul's church, in the city of Troy. The eldest daughter of Dr. Butler, while visiting the Moore family, saw the poem and quickly copied the verses in her 'album' ... she sent a copy to an editor, and they were first printed in the 'Troy Sentinel,' of December 23, 1823 ... Strange to say the name of the author did not then appear. It is said that Dr. Moore was displeased at first". - **N-YHS Bulletin 1919.** "The story of this charming Christmas poem runs, that Miss Harriet Butler ... was visiting the Moore family in New York City in 1823, when she met with the poem. ... On her return to Troy she sent it to the Editor of the Troy Sentinel, Orville L. Holley ... It is recorded that the publication of it caused Professor Moore regret and chagrin as he did not wish it to be published ... it was not until 1838 that its authorship was publicly acknowledged when it appeared in the Troy Budget, December 25th of that year". - **Proves / does not.** These are the printed forms of the Moore-side tradition, 48–96 years after the event; Weise 1891 is the earliest print naming Harriet Butler that I could read. None cites a document; West 1920 calls the story "lacking documentary authenticity" though "explicit and plausible". ### I.26 — Dec. 1920: the O'Conor statements and Casimir de R. Moore [S — HL transcription; originals MCNY] - Maria Jephson O'Conor (née Post), 109 East 38th St., 20 Dec. 1920: "My grandfather, Elliot. Taylor was a brother-in-law of Clement C. Moore ... my father [Col. Henry Post] became well acquainted with the above Clement C. Moore. He related to me the manner in which Dr Moore told him the little poem ... came to be written. On Christmas Eve Mrs clement C. Moore was preparing baskets to be sent to the poor of the neighbourhood. She found one turkey was lacking ... On his return with the turkey he was struck with the beauty of the moonlight on the snow and the brightness of the starlit sky. ... He also told my father when the same was published, without his knowledge, that there were only two errors in the printed copy." Second version, signed before Casimir de R. Moore, 23 Dec. 1920: "He told my father he immediately went to his study and wrote the poem. Mr Moore also told my father when he came to publish the same, with some of his other poems, he only made two slight changes in the lines as originally written by him." - Casimir de R. Moore (grandson), letter printed by West 1920: "My grandfather, Clement C. Moore, wrote it for the enjoyment of his children and had no intention of publishing it, A connection of the family saw it while on a visit to my grandfather, copied it, and had it published anonymously in a Troy paper, I believe. There were at once several persons who claimed to be the author; and it was not until urged to do so that my grandfather acknowledged that he was the author. ... What became of the original manuscript I cannot say." - **Proves / does not.** These are the first written records of the turkey-errand story, set down 98 years after the event by a great-niece by marriage, in reaction to the 1920 Livingston publicity; they show the Moore family's own tradition but are not contemporary evidence. --- ## Part II — Dated timeline, Livingston side ### II.1 — Biography of Henry Livingston Jr. (from W. S. Thomas, DCHS Year Book 1919, pp. 32–46 [V]; HL genealogy [S]) - Born Poughkeepsie 13 Oct. 1748, son of Henry Livingston (county clerk) and Susannah Conklin. Letter of 30 Dec. 1773 to his fiancée: "A happy Christmas to my dear Sally Welles!" (Thomas 1919 **[V]**; HL notes this as an early "happy Christmas"). Married Sarah Welles 1774; Major, 3rd New York Regiment, on Montgomery's Canada expedition 1775 (journal ed. Gaillard Hunt, *Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography*, Apr. 1898; last entry 22 Dec. 1775); commissioner of sequestration 1781; wife d. 1 Sept. 1783; a manuscript verse book of 44 pieces, one "versified 1776", the rest 1784–89; verses in the *New-York Magazine* 1791–94 signed "R"; married Jane McLean Paterson 1 Sept. 1793; surveyor and map-maker (eight state maps), justice of the peace ("Judge"), principal assessor 1799; d. 29 Feb. 1828 "in his eightieth year", Dutch Reformed. Children by the second marriage include Charles Paterson (b. 18 May 1794, d. 1847, physician, Ohio), Sidney Montgomery (b. 4 Oct. 1796, d. 15 Nov. 1856), Henry Welles, Edwin George (d. 1863, Wisconsin), Helen Platt (1802–1859), Elizabeth/Eliza Davenport (1805–1886; m. Judge Smith Thompson, then Judge R. R. Lansing), Jane Paterson, Susan. His eldest child by the first marriage, Catharine (Mrs Arthur Breese), d. 21 Aug. 1808. - Thomas 1919 closes: "The descendants of this same dweller in Dutch Hudson River surroundings are unanimous in their belief in a family tradition taught them from infancy, that he was the author of the verses ... His own children and grandchildren have borne written testimony to their belief that he wrote the poem. The circumstances of its production, its first reading to the family by him, as he brought it forth from "the arch" years before its anonymous publication in the Troy Sentinel in 1823, the loss of the manuscript by fire—all these details are matters of common talk among his posterity. ... The story of Livingston's authorship of the poem and of the events which caused it to be credited to another is too long to allow of its presentation here. Some of its salient points are touched upon in an article by Mr. Winthrop P. Tryon, published in the Christian Science Monitor for August 4, 1920. The matter is referred to here in the hope that its publication may elicit new evidence." **[V]** ### II.2 — 1748–1828: documents from Livingston's lifetime - 11 June 1821: verse letter from son Edwin to his father ("The visions of gaiety cheering till morn"), printed by Thomas 1919 **[V]** — evidence of a versifying household; it does not mention the St. Nicholas poem. - 16 Jan. 1828: anonymous printing in the *Poughkeepsie Journal* (I.7) **[S]**. - **Finding.** I found no document written before 29 Feb. 1828 — no letter, manuscript, notebook entry, newspaper item or inscription — that connects Henry Livingston Jr. with "A Visit from St. Nicholas". Thomas 1919, Tryon 1920, West 1920 and HL likewise cite none: West **[S]**: "There is not extant a single written document which shows that Henry Livingston himself ever laid claim to authorship"; Goodrich 1900 **[S]**: "We have as you see, no actual proof, no mss". ### II.3 — 15 Dec. 1851: Henry Livingston Thomas to Abraham Lansing (NYPL, Lansing-Gansevoort Collection) [S — HL] - The grandson writes from Poughkeepsie hoping the snow will "allow an easy passage to Santa Claus with his 'eight tiny reindeer,' for my sympathy is enlisted on the side of such juveniles as those whom his visits gladden." He quotes the poem but makes no claim for his grandfather. (HL presents this as familiarity; it is neutral on authorship.) ### II.4 — 1847/48, 1856, 1859, 1862, 1869: the manuscript, its loss, and the family's "discovery" of Moore's name — as later recounted [all S] - Loss of the manuscript by fire. Babylon Henry Livingston, 10 Jan. 1900: Sidney "had the original manuscript, with many corrections in his possession, for a long time, and by him was given to his brother Edwin. Edwin's person effects were destroyed when his sister Susan's home was burned at Kaskaskia, Wis., about 1847 or 8." Goodrich, 3 Jan. 1900: "His son Edwin Livingston had the original poem in manuscript and prized it very highly but it was destroyed in a fire when out West with all his household articles." West 1920 places the fire at Waukesha; HL's own timeline places Sidney's gift to Edwin at Sidney's death (1856) and the fire in 1859 — chronologies that cannot all be right. - Lansing [1879]: "Many years after my father's decease ... my brothers in looking over his papers found the original in his own handwriting, with his many fugitive pieces which he had preserved. ... I remember my brother Charles took the poem home with him, he was then living in Ohio". (Charles lived in Ohio from c. 1826; he died 1847.) - A separate blank book of Livingston's poems, belonging to a daughter, "was burned when our house burned in 1869" (Jeannie Gurney, 5 Oct. 1920). - When the family met Moore's name: Denig (14 Mar. 1917, per HL): "In 1859 a paper covered edition of it was put upon the market & it was then grandmother Livingston [Eliza Brewer Livingston, 1798–1878] saw it & was indignant that it was not attributed to its author, Henry Livingston!"; Babylon Henry Livingston (1900): "The question of the authorship ... was never brought up, to my knowledge, until after 1862, when it was published and credited to Clement C. Moore. Moore was then a very old man, and died the same year. It does not appear, however, that he ever laid claim to the authorship" — a statement contradicted by I.13, I.19 and I.20. - **What this establishes.** By the family's own accounts, no member is recorded as having seen the poem attributed to Moore before 1859–62, although it had been printed under his name since 1836/37 and in his *Poems* of 1844; and the manuscript said to be in Livingston's hand was reportedly destroyed a decade or more before any family member wrote the claim down. ### II.5 — 4 March [1879]: the EARLIEST DATED WRITTEN RECORD of the Livingston claim [S — HL transcription; manuscript in the Thomas Collection] - **Document.** Eliza (Elizabeth Davenport) Livingston Thompson [Lansing] (1805–1886), daughter of Henry Livingston Jr., to her great-niece Anne Livingston Goodrich, "Elm Cottage", "March 4th". The year 1879 is HL's assignment; the letter says her father's death "took place more than fifty years ago", which fits 1878/79, and HL's "Quest" page states that "in 1879" she "replied to a letter". - **Quotation.** "Dear Annie Your letter has just reached me, and I hasten to tell you all I know about the poem 'Night Before Christmas.' It was approved and believed in our family to be Father's, and I well remember our astonishment when we saw it claimed as Clement C. Moore's. Many years after my father's decease, which took place more than fifty years ago; at that time my brothers in looking over his papers found the original in his own handwriting, with his many fugitive pieces which he had preserved. And then, too, the style was so exactly his, when he felt in a humorous mood. We have often said, could it be possible that another could express the same originality of thought and use the same phrases so familiar to us, as Father's! What my brother Edwin said to your mother, no doubt, was true, but I do not remember the circumstances. I remember my brother Charles took the poem home with him, he was then living in Ohio, and I have an indistinct idea that he intended to have it published, but I am not at all sure on that point, so don't like to assert it as fact. My father had a fine poetical taste, and wrote a great deal both prose and poetry, but not for publication, but for his own and our amusement ... Yours very truly E L Thompson". - **Proves / does not.** This is the earliest document I could find in which any Livingston states in writing that Henry Livingston wrote the poem: 51 years after his death, 35 years after Moore's *Poems*, 16 years after Moore's death, and written by a daughter born in 1805 who does not claim to remember the composition or the first reading. It attests the family belief, the "astonishment" at Moore's claim, and a manuscript found by "my brothers" (all dead by 1879: Charles 1847, Sidney 1856, Edwin 1863). It mentions no governess, no fire, and no Poughkeepsie printing. - Goodrich (1900) refers to "letters in my posession testifying to this, at the time the question was asked in the daily papers about 25 years ago [c. 1875] as to who was the author of Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes, and who the author of 'Twas the Night Before Xmas'" — so there may have been family letters of c. 1875; HL's index begins its witness letters with the 1879 Lansing letter, and I found none earlier. ### II.6 — 25 Nov. and 6 Dec. 1886: Benson J. Lossing to Cornelia Griswold Goodrich [S — HL; Thomas Collection] - Lossing (the Dutchess County historian), 25 Nov. 1886: "The circumstantial evidence that your G. G. Grandfather wrote 'The Visit of St. Nicholas' seems as conclusive as that which has taken innocent men to the gallows. ... I should be highly gratified by finding positive proof that the Poem was the product of a son of my native county of Duchess. ... 1. Will one or more of Henry Livingston's grandchildren who heard him re[a]d the poem, after he had written it, give me, in writing, an account of the circumstances? 2. Were the copies of Mr. Livingston's poems which you have kindly sent me, taken from the original manuscript? 3. Have you a drawing or a photograph of the venerable stone house at 'Locust Grove' where it is alleged it was written? 4. At about what date, and in what Poughkeepsie paper did the poem appear?" 6 Dec. 1886: identifies Henry Livingston as "the author of the poem" on the family's information and asks for dates. - **Proves / does not.** The claim reached a professional historian in 1886, on the family's evidence; Lossing asked for written first-hand accounts and for the Poughkeepsie printing, and no reply supplying either is recorded. (MacCracken 1958 **[S]**: Lossing "looked up the matter seventy-five years ago; but lacking the source materials ... did not proceed to expound his views. As early as 1860, however, the opinion was expressed" — MacCracken gives no document for 1860.) ### II.7 — 1899: first appearance in print [not seen] - The Major's grandson Henry Livingston (1837–1906), editor of the *South Side Signal*, Babylon, L.I., published the claim in his own newspaper in 1899 (HL: "the first member of the huge Livingston clan to publish the Major's authorship"); Simon W. Cooper's letter in the New York *Sun*, 29 Dec. 1899, "cites you as contesting the point" (Goodrich, 3 Jan. 1900). I could not obtain either text; HL's *Sun* page is a stub ("Mr. Henry Livingston claims that his grandfather, Henry Livingston, and not Clement C. Moore, was the author"). ### II.8 — 3 Jan. 1900 (postmark): Cornelia Griswold Goodrich to Henry Livingston of Babylon — first written record of the GOVERNESS story and of the burned manuscript [S — HL; Thomas Collection] - **Quotation.** "it is a long established belief in our family that our great g. grandfather was the author. ... His son Edwin Livingston had the original poem in manuscript and prized it very highly but it was destroyed in a fire when out West with all his household articles. He and all his brothers and sisters remember distinctly their father coming from out his "den" as he called his study in the old Manor House at Locust Grove ... and reading this poem to his children just before Xmas. ... We could find no paper in which it was published altho' all his children remember its having been published in a Po'keepsie paper at that time, between 1780 and 1800. They think the paper was called "The Po'keepsie Gazette" tho it may have been the Knickerbocker Mag;-- His children declare that the Moore's must have been possessed of the poem in the following manner; a young governess was visiting in my g-g-grandfather's family at Locust Grove who was employed in the Moore family somewhere down South. She was a mutual friend of both families- At the time of her visit this poem had just been written and was read to her, she was much struck by it and asked for a copy and taking it down South after returning to the Moore family, no doubt it lay there for years without a claimant and no doubt minus a name ... Clement C. Moore I think was dead when his children or g. children laid claim to this poem ... We have as you see, no actual proof, no mss, only the actual eye-witnesses of the birth of this charming poem on the spot and at the time I indicate, and I am sure 5 people out of a family could not have been so positive were there not truth in the assertion." - **Proves / does not.** First written statements (72 years after Livingston's death) of: the "den" reading, the governess as the channel to the Moores, a Poughkeepsie printing "between 1780 and 1800", and the fire. The writer (b. 1842) reports what "his children declare"; she believed Moore never claimed the poem in his lifetime, which is wrong (I.13, I.19, I.20). The "Moore family somewhere down South" does not match Clement C. Moore, who lived at Chelsea, Manhattan. ### II.9 — 10 Jan. 1900: Henry Livingston of Babylon to Cornelia G. Goodrich [S — HL; Thomas Collection] - **Quotation.** "My father, (Sidney Montgomery) as long ago as I can remember, claimed that his father (Henry, Jr.) was the author: that it was first read to the children at the old homestead below Poughkeepsie, when he was about eight years old, which would be about 1804, or 1805. He had the original manuscript, with many corrections in his possession, for a long time, and by him was given to his brother Edwin. Edwin's person effects were destroyed when his sister Susan's home was burned at Kaskaskia, Wis., about 1847 or 8. I think the poem was first published in the Knickerbocker Magazine early in this century, but whether the author's name was attached or not I do not know." - **Proves / does not.** The source of the c. 1804–05 (later "1807–08") date: Sidney (b. 4 Oct. 1796) "about eight"; and of the "manuscript with many corrections". Second-hand (son reporting father, who d. 1856), written 44 years after Sidney's death. Note "Wis." with "Kaskaskia" (Kaskaskia is in Illinois; the Livingston Wisconsin connections were Delafield/Waukesha). ### II.10 — 22/29 Jan. 1905: Gertrude Thomas to Cornelia Goodrich [S — HL; Thomas Collection] - "Uncle Charles was the oldest of the family and the one who always said he remembered well, when his father came from his little 'Den' with the newly written poem in his hand, and read it aloud to the family, of which Charles was the only one old enough to remember. It was published in the 'Poughkeepsie Eagle'. Uncle Charles kept the old paper as an especial treasure, and often read the poem to friends. After his death - some years after - the paper disappeared, and cousin Jeannie Hubbard - his daughter - cannot remember the date of the paper. If any one knew that, it might settle the claim entirely. I think Uncle Charles was born in 1794, and was probably 8 or 10 years old at the time". - **Proves / does not.** Third-hand; makes Charles (b. 1794), not Sidney, the sole child old enough to remember (contrast II.9), and moves the newspaper to the "Poughkeepsie Eagle" (the *Eagle* was founded 1828 after Livingston's death and the *Journal* printing of 16 Jan. 1828 is the only located exemplar). ### II.11 — 3 Mar. 1917: Mary Goodrich Montgomery to Dr. W. S. Thomas — the governess story elaborated [S — HL; Thomas Collection] - **Quotation.** "The little incident connected with the first reading of the "Visit of St. Nicholas" was related to me by my grandmother, Catherine Walker Griswold, who was a daughter of Catherine Breese, the eldest daughter of Henry Livingston. As I recollect her story, there was a young lady spending the Christmas holidays with the family at "Locust Grove" on Christmas morning. Mr. Livingston came into the dining room, where his family and their guests were just sitting down to breakfast. He held the manuscript in his hand, and said that it was a Christmas poem he had written for them. He then sat down at table, unfolded the manuscript, and read aloud to them "The Visit of St. Nicholas" All were delighted with the verses, and the guest, in particular, was so much impressed by them that she begged Mr. Livingston to let her have a copy of the poem. He consented, and made a copy in his own hand which he gave to her. On leaving Locust Grove, when her visit came to an end, this young lady went directly to the home of Mr. Clement C. Moore, where she filled the position of Governess to his children. ... One is that the young lady was either a Canadian or an English woman (I am inclined to think the former) and that other is that, on leaving Locust Grove, she went to join Mr. Moore's family in one of the Southern states. I heard this spoken of by Mrs. Griswold after I had reached years of discretion (20 years)." - **Proves / does not.** Fourth-hand (writer b. 1859, hearing c. 1879 from a grandmother b. 1798 whose mother, Catharine Breese, died in 1808). It moves the reading to Christmas morning at breakfast, makes the copy Livingston's own hand, names no governess, and again places Moore's family in "one of the Southern states". If the reading was c. 1804–08, Moore (married 1813; daughters b. 1815–16) had no children for a governess to teach until well after 1815. ### II.12 — 13/14 Mar. 1917 and 23 Dec. 1918: Jeanne Hubbard Denig to W. S. Thomas [S — HL; Thomas Collection] - "Eliza Brewer at this time [1822] was twenty-two years of age, yet she always maintained she had heard the poem read by Henry Livingston himself, which she was yet a child, & she had been familiar with the verses before 1822. ... My mother, Jean Paterson Livingston ... said all during her early childhood she often listened to "The Night Before Xmas" recited to her by both her parents, who invariably told her that her grandfather Livingston had written the verses. It was a surprise to them when they first saw the verses published under the name of Clement C. Moore. My grandmother said the mistake should be corrected". 23 Dec. 1918 (per HL timeline): "My mother was greatly excited when the first edition of the "Night Before Christmas" was published in the name of Clement C. Moore- She bought a copy & brought it to my grandmother, who calmly said "Some one has made a mistake- Clement Moore did not write the "Night Before Christmas." Your grandfather Henry Livingston wrote it." - **Proves / does not.** Eliza Clement Brewer (b. 13 July 1798; m. Charles P. Livingston 1826; d. 1878) is the only non-family "witness" named, and her testimony survives only as reported by a granddaughter (b. 1856) in 1917–18. ### II.13 — 1919–1920: the claim enters the scholarly and national press - **1919** W. S. Thomas, DCHS Year Book (II.1) **[V]** — the first public statement by a researcher, explicitly appealing for "new evidence". - **4 Aug. 1920** Winthrop P. Tryon, *Christian Science Monitor* **[S — HL]**: reports the manuscript verse book of "about 45 poems ... dating from 1784 to 1789. One-third of them are composed in pairs of anapaestic verses, as is the ballad of 'St. Nicholas'"; "Unless the family tradition errs, the 'St. Nicholas' ballad was written ... some time near 1805. But the first date of publication that has been verified is 37 years later, or December 23, 1823"; reads Holley's 1829 note as "a pun on the word 'more'". - **Dec. 1920** Henry Litchfield West, "Who Wrote 'Twas the Night before Christmas'?", *The Bookman* 52 **[S — HL]**: "It must be admitted, first of all, that the evidence is purely circumstantial. There is not extant a single written document which shows that Henry Livingston himself ever laid claim to authorship, but this may be explained by the fact that he had been dead sixteen years when Dr. Moore's volume appeared." West prints Mrs Montgomery's letter and Casimir Moore's reply (I.26). - **5 Oct. 1920** Jeannie Gurney to Thomas (II.4) **[S]**; **20/23 Dec. 1920** O'Conor statements (I.26) **[S]**. - Later (treated in `docs/scholarship.md`): MacCracken, *Blithe Dutchess* (1958); Foster, *Author Unknown* (2000); Nissenbaum (2001); Kaller (2004); Jackson, *Who Wrote "The Night Before Christmas"?* (2016). --- ## Part III — The transmission question: Sackett, Butler, Holley, and the Poughkeepsie connection ### III.1 — What each dated document says about how the poem reached the Sentinel | Date | Who | Statement | Flag | |---|---|---|---| | 23 Dec. 1823 | Holley, *Sentinel* | "We know not to whom we are indebted ... from whomsoever it may have come"; headed "For the Sentinel" | V | | 20 Jan. 1829 | Holley, *Sentinel* | "They came to us from a manuscript [copy] in possession of a lady in this city ... the author of them belongs by birth and residence to the city of New York" | V (Weise) / S (scan) | | 28 Dec. 1836 | Holley, *Ontario Repository* | "not many months afterwards we learnt that they came from the pen of a most accomplished scholar ... a professor in one of our colleges" | S | | 26 Feb. 1844 | Tuttle to Moore | "I understand from Mr. Holley that he received it from Mrs. Sackett, the wife of Mr. Daniel Sackett who was then a merchant in this city" | S | | 27 Feb. 1844 | Moore, *N.Y. American* | "They, however, found their way, to my great surprise, in the Troy Sentinel: nor did I know, until lately, how they got there" | V | | 15 Mar. 1862 | T. W. C. Moore (after interviewing Moore) | "copied by a relative of Dr. Moores in her Album, from which a copy was made by a friend of hers, from Troy, and, much to the surprise of the Author, were published" | V | | 23 Dec. 1871 | J. T. Parker, *Troy Daily Times* | names Harriet Butler as the copyist | not seen | | 1891 | Weise | Harriet Butler "while visiting the family of Professor Moore, heard the erudite linguist read to his children ... requested the privilege of making a transcript" | V | | 1897 | Pelletreau | "The eldest daughter of Dr. Butler, while visiting the Moore family, saw the poem and quickly copied the verses in her 'album' ... she sent a copy to an editor" | V | | 1919 | N-YHS Bulletin | "Miss Harriet Butler ... visiting the Moore family in New York City in 1823 ... On her return to Troy she sent it to the Editor" | V | | 1920 | Casimir de R. Moore | "A connection of the family saw it while on a visit to my grandfather, copied it, and had it published anonymously in a Troy paper, I believe" | S | | 1900 / 1917 | Goodrich; Montgomery (Livingston side) | a "young governess ... employed in the Moore family somewhere down South" / "went directly to the home of Mr. Clement C. Moore, where she filled the position of Governess to his children" | S | ### III.2 — The Butlers and the Moores - The Rev. David Butler became rector of St. Paul's, Troy, in 1804–06 (Weise, pp. 61–63 **[V]**: called 2 Aug. 1804, instituted 8 Jan. 1806). Norsworthy (2016) states St. Paul's was consecrated in 1806 by Bishop Benjamin Moore, Clement's father **[S]**. - Butler named a son Clement Moore Butler (b. Troy, 16 Oct. 1810; GTS 1836; Wikipedia **[S]**), who in 1836 married Frances Livingston Hart, niece of T. W. C. Moore (Norsworthy 2018 **[S]**; HL gives the same Hart genealogy and notes the Harts' children were born in Virginia 1816–29 — HL offers this as a possible "Southern Moore connection" for the governess story, but it is a hypothesis, not a document). - Harriet Butler (eldest daughter of David Butler) appears with Sarah Sackett on the Troy ladies' Lafayette address (*N.Y. Evening Post*, 23 Sept. 1824) **[S]**. HL's summary calls her "12 year old" in 1823; Norsworthy's identification of her as an adult signatory in 1824 and Weise's "eldest daughter" point the other way; I found no birth record for her. - No document earlier than Parker 1871 / Weise 1891 names Harriet Butler in connection with the poem; the 1862 letter's "relative of Dr. Moores" whose album was copied is never named in any document. ### III.3 — Mrs Sackett - Sarah Sackett, née Sarah H. Pardee, wife of Daniel Sackett (1788–1845), Troy merchant (Norsworthy 2016, 2018 **[S]**). Documents: Lafayette address 1824; a Greek Fund letter dated Troy, 11 Apr. 1827; Butler, Sackett and Holley were founding members of the Troy Colonization Society (Norsworthy) **[S]**. Tuttle 1844 is the only period document that makes her the person who "received" the poem to Holley. - **Poughkeepsie link.** I found no document connecting Daniel or Sarah Sackett, or any Butler, with Poughkeepsie or with the Livingston family. The only Troy–Livingston link in the record is indirect and later: T. W. C. Moore (the 1862 intermediary) was the son of Henry Livingston Jr.'s first cousin, and his niece married Harriet Butler's brother — links that run through the Moore-side witnesses, not through the Sackett/Butler copy of 1823. Nothing in the record places any Sackett or Butler at Locust Grove. ### III.4 — The governess - First written 3 Jan. 1900 (Goodrich: unnamed, "employed in the Moore family somewhere down South", "a mutual friend of both families"); elaborated 3 Mar. 1917 (Montgomery: Christmas-morning breakfast, a copy "in his own hand", "Canadian or an English woman", "one of the Southern states"). No name, date, or document. Neither letter connects the governess to Troy, to a Butler, or to a Sackett; the two Livingston-side accounts and the four Moore-side accounts of transmission are mutually independent traditions with no document bridging them. --- ## Part IV — Publication-history chronology (reindeer names and the closing greeting per printing) | Date | Printing | Attribution | Line 21–22 (reindeer) | Closing line | Flag | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | 23 Dec. 1823 | *Troy Sentinel*, p. 2 | anonymous ("For the Sentinel") | "Now! Dasher, now! Dancer, now! Prancer, and Vixen, / On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Dunder and Blixem;" | "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night." | V | | 1825 [late 1824] | *New Brunswick Almanack* (Griggs) | anonymous | "now Prancer and Vixen" ... "Dunder and Blixem" | "Happy Christmas" | S | | 1825 [late 1824] | McClure, *U.S. National Almanac* | anonymous | "Dunder and Blixen" (first Blixen) | "Happy Christmas" | S | | 2 Jan. 1826 | *National Intelligencer* (from Charleston *Mercury*) | anonymous | — | — | S (not seen) | | 16 Jan. 1828 | *Poughkeepsie Journal* | anonymous | "Dunder and Blixem" ("eight tiny red deer") | "Happy Christmas" | S | | 1 Jan. 1829 | *Morning Courier*, N.Y. | anonymous, "at the request of a lady" | — | — | not seen | | 20 Jan. 1829 | *Troy Sentinel* (reprint "just as they originally appeared") | author "belongs by birth and residence to the city of New York" | as 1823 (by Holley's statement) | as 1823 | V (Weise) | | c. 1830 | Tuttle broadside "A Gift for Christmas", Troy (King woodcut); several editions | anonymous | MCNY copy: "Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen! / On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Dunder and Blixem!"; CMU copy "now, Prancer! now, Vixen!" | "Happy Christmas" | S | | 1830 / 1833 | Watson, *Annals of Philadelphia* / *Historic Tales* (24-line abridgment) | anonymous | — | — | S | | Dec. 1836 / 1837 | *New-York Book of Poetry* (Dearborn), pp. 217–19 | "BY CLEMENT C. MOORE." | "Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer! now, Vixen! / On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Donder and Blixen—" (first Donder) | "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!" | V | | 31 Dec. 1836 | *New York American* | "By Clement C. Moore" | — | — | S | | Jan. 1837 | *American Monthly Magazine* (reprints whole poem) | "the real author—CLEMENT C. MOORE" | — | — | S | | 23–25 Dec. 1837 | *N.Y. Mirror*; Alexandria *Gazette*; *National Intelligencer* | Moore | — | — | S | | 25 Dec. 1838 | *Morning Courier & N.Y. Enquirer*; *Troy Budget* | "Professor MOORE" | — | — | S / not seen | | 1840 | Keese, *Poets of America*; Bryant, *Selections from the American Poets*, pp. 285–86 | "C. C. Moore" / "Clement C. Moore" | "Donder and Blixen" (Keese, per HL); Bryant: "leaves that before" | "Happy Christmas" | S | | 2 Jan. 1841 | *New-York Mirror*, vol. 19 no. 1, p. 7 | "C.C. Moore" | "Donder and Blixen" | (New-Year adaptation) | S | | Dec. 1843 | *The Rover* (Seba Smith), vol. 2 no. 14, p. 210 | — | "Donder and Nixen" [sic] | — | S | | 25 Dec. 1843 | *National Intelligencer* | "Joseph Wood, artist" | — | — | S | | 25 June 1844 | *Poems* (Bartlett & Welford), pp. 124–27 | Moore, by inclusion | "Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen! / On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!" (first Blitzen) | "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night." | V | | 1853, 1856, 1860, 1862 | Moore autographs | signed | 1862: "Donder and Blitzen!" | 1862: (page 2 not seen) | V (1862 p. 1) / not seen | | 1855 | M. C. M. Ogden illuminated ms (Morgan MA 23900) | family copy | — | "Happy Christmas" | S | | 1858 | *Art Journal* | anonymous | "on Dunder, on Blixem!" (per HL) | — | S | | 1862 | James Gregory ed. (Haight no. 19) | Moore | — | first "Merry Christmas to all" (Lawrence 1964) | S | | 1862 | Darley-illustrated ed. | Moore | — | — | S (West) | | Jan. 1863 | *Harper's Weekly* (Nast) | Moore | — | — | S | Summary of the name-changes: "Blixem" (1823) → "Blixen" (McClure 1825; Hoffman 1837) → "Blitzen" (Poems 1844, and Moore's autographs); "Dunder" (1823–1830) → "Donder" (Hoffman 1837; Poems 1844; autographs) → "Donner" (20th century, not in this record). "Happy Christmas" is the reading of every printing and manuscript in this record through 1855; "Merry Christmas" is first recorded in 1862 (Lawrence 1964, via HL — second-hand). --- ## Part V — What the documents establish and what they do not This section is limited to what the dated documents above show. It does not weigh the stylistic, statistical or biographical arguments, which are covered in the report and in `docs/scholarship.md`. ### Established by contemporary or near-contemporary documents 1. The poem was first printed anonymously in the *Troy Sentinel* on 23 Dec. 1823 from a manuscript sent in by a Troy woman; the editor did not then know the author (1823 **[V]**; 1829 **[V]**; 1836 **[S]**; 1844 **[S]**). 2. By 1824 the *Sentinel*'s editor believed he knew the author to be "a professor in one of our colleges" (Holley 1836 **[S]**), and by Jan. 1829 he described him in print as a New York City scholar-writer of "more merit ... than many of more noisy pretensions" (**[V]** via Weise). Both statements were made while Livingston was alive (1824) or within a year of his death (1829), and neither points toward Poughkeepsie. 3. The poem was attributed to Moore in private by Dec. 1834 (Lee diary **[S]**) and in print from Dec. 1836, in an anthology to which Moore himself supplied it (**[V]**), and repeatedly in newspapers and anthologies 1836–1840 (**[S]**). 4. Moore claimed the poem in his own words on 27 Feb. 1844 (**[V]**), printed it among his *Poems* in June 1844 (**[V]**), wrote out signed autograph copies in 1853, 1856, 1860 and 1862 (1862 **[V]**, others **[S]/[not seen]**), and gave an account of its origin to T. W. C. Moore in March 1862 (**[V]**). Two other men were posthumously credited by third parties before any Livingston claim: John W. Curtis (Danbury, 3 Jan. 1838 **[S]**) and Joseph Wood (Washington, 25 Dec. 1843 **[V]** as quoted). 5. The poem was printed anonymously in Livingston's own town six weeks before his death (*Poughkeepsie Journal*, 16 Jan. 1828 **[S]**), and no document records any reaction by him or his household. 6. The text history is documented: the familiar reindeer rhythm comes from Tuttle's c. 1830 Troy broadside; "Donder" first appears in Hoffman 1837; "Blitzen" first in Moore's 1844 *Poems* and his autographs; "Merry Christmas" not before 1862 (mostly **[S]**, 1823/1837/1844 **[V]**). ### Established about the Livingston claim 7. The earliest dated document in which any Livingston states in writing that Henry Livingston wrote the poem is his daughter Eliza Livingston Thompson [Lansing]'s letter of 4 March [1879] (**[S]** — HL transcription; Thomas Collection). Every other family statement I found is later: Lossing 1886, Goodrich and Babylon Livingston 1900, G. Thomas 1905, Montgomery and Denig 1917–18, Gurney 1920. The first print appearance is 1899 (*South Side Signal*; N.Y. *Sun* 29 Dec. 1899 — texts not obtained); the first scholarly statement is Thomas, DCHS Year Book 1919 (**[V]**). 8. The elements of the tradition enter the written record at different dates and from different branches: family belief and "astonishment" at Moore's claim, and a manuscript "found" by the brothers — 1879 (daughter Eliza); the reading "from his den" to the children, the governess, the burned manuscript, and a Poughkeepsie printing "between 1780 and 1800" — 3 Jan. 1900 (great-great-granddaughter Goodrich, reporting "his children"); the date c. 1804–05 and the manuscript "with many corrections" burned at Susan's home "about 1847 or 8" — 10 Jan. 1900 (grandson, reporting his father Sidney, d. 1856); Charles as the sole remembering child and the "Poughkeepsie Eagle" — 1905; the Christmas-morning breakfast, the copy in Livingston's own hand, and the governess going "directly" to Moore's household — 1917 (great-great-granddaughter, from a grandmother born 1798); Eliza Brewer's childhood memory "before 1822" — 1917 (her granddaughter). 9. By the family's own accounts, none of them is recorded as having noticed Moore's name on the poem before 1859–62, though it had been printed under his name since 1836/37; their statements that Moore "never laid claim" (1900) are contradicted by the documents of 1837 and 1844. 10. No document written before 1828 links Livingston to the poem, and the family itself acknowledged in 1900 that it had "no actual proof, no mss". Every manuscript or clipping said to have supported the claim (the corrected draft; Charles's clipping; a daughter's poem-book) is reported as destroyed (c. 1847/48; "some years after" 1847; 1869) before the earliest dated claim was written. ### Not established by the documents (on either side) 11. **No original manuscript exists on either side.** Moore's family could not say what became of the original (Casimir Moore 1920), and the four Moore autographs are fair copies made 30–40 years after the first printing; the Livingston manuscript is known only from descriptions written 50–90 years after its reported loss. 12. **The Sackett/Butler chain is not documented before 1844 and never fully.** "Mrs. Sackett" rests on one letter (Tuttle 1844 **[S]**, itself reporting Holley); Harriet Butler is first named in 1871 (**[not seen]**) and 1891 (**[V]**); the "relative of Dr. Moores" with the album (1862) is never identified; no document connects any Sackett or Butler to Poughkeepsie or to Locust Grove; and the Livingston-side "governess" is never named or dated. The two transmission stories cannot be reconciled or tested against any document. 13. **Moore's own statements about dating are inconsistent** ("between 1823 and 1824", 1844; "about 40 years ago", 1862; "1822" only from 1897), and his family's accounts of composition (the turkey errand) and of his reluctance ("displeased at first", "chagrin") are first written down in 1897–1920. 14. **Holley's 1829 hint does not print a name**, and his 1836 statement does not say from whom he learned the authorship or when exactly; both are consistent with Moore but do not by themselves exclude another New York professor. (The 1834 Lee diary and the 1836–37 printings do the work of naming Moore.) 15. **Absence of a Livingston reaction in 1823–1828, 1837 or 1844 is an argument from silence**; the documents show the poem circulated in Poughkeepsie anonymously in Jan. 1828 and under Moore's name nationally from 1837, but they do not show what the Livingston household read. 16. **Several Livingston-side details conflict with each other or with the record** (Sidney vs. Charles as the remembering child; 1804–05 vs. 1807–08 vs. "before 1822"; Kaskaskia "Wis." vs. Waukesha; "Po'keepsie Gazette" 1780–1800 vs. "Poughkeepsie Eagle" vs. the located *Journal* printing of 1828; a Moore family "down South"), and several Moore-side details are late and unverifiable (Harriet Butler's age and visit; the "album"; the turkey). The documents establish the *dates at which each story was first written down*, not the truth of the stories. ### Gaps I could not fill - The *Troy Budget* of 25 Dec. 1838 (reported as the first Troy acknowledgment of Moore's authorship) and the *Troy Daily Times* of 23 Dec. 1871 (Parker's naming of Harriet Butler) — not seen. - The *South Side Signal* (Babylon) 1899 article and Simon W. Cooper's *Sun* letter of 29 Dec. 1899 — not obtained. - The Strong Museum (1853), Huntington (1856) and Kaller/Bullock (1860) autographs — known only from Kaller/Norsworthy; the Huntington item may be a facsimile. - The MCNY originals (Tuttle letter and corrected broadside, 54.331.17A-B; "From Saint Nicholas", 54.331.4; O'Conor statements) and the Thomas Collection letters at the N-YHS — read only in transcription (MCNY blog; Kaller; HL). - The NYS Historic Newspapers scans of the *Sentinel* (23 Dec. 1823 read via the Commons copy; 20 Jan. 1829 read only via Weise 1891 and Norsworthy). - Moore's letter to Tuttle of 23 Feb. 1844 (lost); any family letters of c. 1875 mentioned by Goodrich in 1900; the album of the unnamed "relative of Dr. Moores". - The year of the Lansing letter (1879) rests on HL's dating and internal evidence, not on a dated original I could see. --- ## Appendix — Files in `docs/sources/` Each text file begins with `SOURCE URL`, `DOCUMENT`, `PROVENANCE OF THIS TEXT`, `VERIFICATION STATUS` and `RETRIEVED` lines. Scans: `1823-12-23_troy-sentinel_scan.png` (Commons copy of the Troy Public Library scan), `1844-03-01_new-york-american_moore-letter_scan.png` (Commons), `1862-03-13_moore-autograph_nyhs_page1_scan.jpg` (Commons; N-YHS). Files directly verified **[V]**: 1823 Sentinel; 1837 New-York Book; 1844 New York American; 1844 Poems; 1862 T. W. C. Moore letter (N-YHS Bulletin 1919); Weise 1891; Pelletreau 1897; Thomas 1919. All henrylivingston.com (`_via-hl`) and Melvilliana (`_via-melvilliana`) files are second-hand transcriptions; the Kaller, MCNY, NYSL, Morgan, N-YHS-blog and Nissenbaum files are modern secondary or repository descriptions kept as finding aids.