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As part of the project to discover the truth behind the disputed authorship of Account of A Visit From St. Nicholas, I collected early versions of the poem. Don Foster's guess was that if the poem was not Moore's, it might not have stayed in Moore's household from 1823, when it was taken by a guest to the Troy Sentinel, until 1844, when Moore would have wanted to put it into his own book. But if that was the case, Moore might have had to go to a recent published version to get a copy for his book. The more elements in Moore's 1844 copy that could be shown to have been created by earlier editors, the more likely it was that the poem hadn't been Moore's to start with. In my attempt to convert parts of my research site into a public site, I've tried to keep some of the research elements, so that you could have the fun of being your own detective. I had a ball working on this, so I'm assuming that you might enjoy making the trip yourself. In that vein, you'll find that I've put line numbers on each line of the versions to make it easier to compare between versions. I've chosen to keep a continuous numbering for the two 24 line extract versions, but I'm open to changing that to numbering that correlates to the longer versions if people aren't happy with the current approach. I've put the parts of the poem that change between versions (other than punctuation) in red. As for the punctuation changes, never again will I believe that everyone agrees on how to punctuate a sentence. In these versions, you'll find that no one agrees!
The Night Before Christmas," An Exhibition Catalogue, Compiled by George H.M. Lawrence,
The Pittsburgh Bibliophiles, Pittsburgh PA, 1964. |
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Since most of the poems that we have of Henry's are written before A Visit From St. Nicholas
was published in 1823, it is more significant for Henry to reuse phrases from "A Visit From St. Nicholas" than it is for Moore to do so.
Hemry wouldn't, after all, have known of those phrases while writing his voluminous early work.
Moore, on the other hand, knows of the poem when writing any of his poems between 1823 and 1844, when he
published his book. Remember, most of Moore's poems are written later than Henry's, because Moore is in the
generation of Henry's children.
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Punctuation changes. Removes contractions.
New Brunswick, (N.J.) Almanack, for the Year of Our Lord 1825 (pp. [25-26]). Calculated by
Joshua Sharp. Printed by Griggs and Dickinson, Philadelphia, for Joseph C. Griggs, New
Brunswick (New Jersey).
The poem appears on the recto and verso of leaf C5 [pp.25-26] of the Haight copy. The poem,
printed in full, is unaccompanied by a credit line to The Troy Sentinel, and the latter's
prefatory commentary is omitted.
It is not known whether this Almanack preceded McClure's Almanac (no.3 below) or not.
Both were probably published late in 1824. The two present the first publication of the poem
in any book.
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Happy Christmas and all the same. Basically it's the 1823
Troy Sentinel version with the Blixen difference.
The United States National Almanac ... (p.40). By David McClure. Philadelphia, R. Desilver.
McClure's National Almanac bears the title-page date 1825. The title was registered with the
Clerk of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on 27 August 1824. The contents provide the
usual calendar-almanac details for each month of 1825, including January. It is reasonable
to believe that publication must have been late in 1824. It is placed here following the New
Brunswick Almanack, only because of the imprint date of 1825 on its title page.
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And could it be the Smoking Gun?
Line 6: sugar plums to sugar-plums;
Broadside, designed by Myron King. Printed by N. Tuttle, at the office of The Daily Troy
Sentinel, 225 River-street. [Troy, N.Y.], n.d. [ca. 1830].
This is the first known illustrated publication, and first broadside, of the poem. Myron King, the
artistic engraver, clearly based his figure of pipe-smoking St. Nicholas, in the reindeer-drawn sleigh,
from Moore's poem (see Foreword, p. xvi).
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Watson, John F. Annals of Philadelphia, being a collection of memoirs, anecdoes, incidents of the City
and its inhabitants from the days of the Pilgrim Founders (pp.242-243). Philadelphia, E.L. Carey & A.
hart; New York, G. & C. & H. Carvill, 1830.
This is the first known illustrated publication, and first broadside, of the poem. Myron King, the
artistic engraver, clearly based his figure of pipe-smoking St. Nicholas, in the reindeer-drawn sleigh,
from Moore's poem (see Foreword, p. xvi).
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Watson, John F. Historic Tales of Olden Time, concerning the Early Settlement and Progress of
Philadelphia and Pennsylvania (pp.156-157). Philadelphia, E. Littell and Thomas Holden, 1833.
This is essentially a reprint of Watson's notes and 24-line abridgement as published in his Annals of
Philadelphia (1830).
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This is the first time Dunder changes to Donder, AND Blixem changes to Blixen!!
Hoffman, C. The New-York Book of Poetry (pp.217-218). New-York, George Dearborn, 1837.
The first publication of the poem identifying Clement C. Moore as its author is in this
anthology, edited by the literary editor and critic, Charles Fenno Hoffmann (1806-1884).
This appearance of the poem inspired Moore's friend, and artist, Robert W. Weir, to paint his
famous portrait of St. Nicholas, and reproduced here as the Frontispiece.
The copy exhibited once belonged to J.D. Ogden, husband of Clement Moore's daughter
Margaret, and later, also, of daughter Mary, and bears fly-leaf annotations by him.
A VISIT FROM ST. NICHOLAS
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house |
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Bryant, W. C. Selection's from the American Poets. (pp.285-286). New York, Harper & Brothers, 1840.
The inclusion of this poem by William Cullen Bryant in a selected anthology of American poems of
literary merit gave it hitherto unattained stature.
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Seems based off Bryant's Selections, but
is additionally removing contractions; maintains Donder and Blixen.
The New-York Mirror: a weekly gazette of literature and the fine arts. Vol. 19, no. 1, p. 7, col. 2 [of3].
Saturday, January 2, 1841.
The publication of the poem, in full, on page 7, untitled but credited to C.C. Moore, is supplemental to
the explanation of the woodcut on page 1 (crudely colored in the Haight copy, probably by a child)
"designed by Mr. Ingrham and beautifully engraved on wood by Mr. [R.] Roberts, a young artist of much
promise..." The opening article St. Nicholas, on his New Year's Eve Excursion, by Daniel Fanshaw
(signed "D.F.") reports that it was intended to give "...a Steel Plate engraving of Weir's celebrated
painting of St. Nicholas, but we were disappointed by the artist,..." The ensuing 8-column account of the
St. Nicholas legend was extracted from Washington Irving's Knickherbocker's History of New York.
Charles C. Ingham (1796-1863), Irish-born portrait painter, was one of the leading artists of his day.
Nothing is known of R. Roberts.
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Uses the NY Mirror version of Line 21 and 22, except "Donder and Blixen" becomes "Donder and Nixen."
The Rover: A Weekly Magazine of Tales, Poetry, and Engravings, Vol. 2, no. 14, p. 210. Dec. 1843.
Edited by Seba Smith.
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Another mix and match is that he picks up "dry leaves before" from the Troy broadsheet, and combines it
with Bryant's Selections change to "leaves that before" and creates "dry leaves that before."
So he had
to know both versions!
Poems, C. C. Moore, LL. D., New York, Bartlett & Welford, 1844.
A Visit from St. Nicholas appears on pp. 124-127. The Poems was published for members of the Moore
family, and the Preface is addressed to "My Dear Children:" Presumably it was published in limited
edition, and today it is a rare work.
The Haight copy is inscribed by C. C. Moore: "Mr. Crosby, with respects of the author. Apr. 1851."
In this volume of 37 poems by Moore, the punctuation of "A Visit" is changed somewhat from that of
earlier versions (see no. 1) and may be taken to be the author's preference.
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Mary S. Van Deusen Copyright © 2003, InterMedia Enterprises |
