When "A Visit From St. Nicholas" first appeared in print, it was in the Troy Sentinel of 1823, a New York newspaper published by Norman Tuttle. In this first publication, it would be very difficult to recognize those so-familiar reindeer friends.

Now! Dasher, now! Dancer, now! Prancer and Vixen,
On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Dunder and Blixem;

Try to say their names while closely following the punctuation. It's hard, isn't it? We know those lines so well that it's very difficult to muck up their reading. And the last words of the lines don't even rhyme!

Editors felt the same way about it, and right away pulled out their blue editor's pencil.

• In 1825, Grigg's Almanack tried to fix the rhythm by changing the end of the first line to "now Prancer and Vixen."

• That same year, McClure added his fix to the rhyme by changing the name of Blixem to Blixen.

• A few weeks after Christmas, and just before Henry's death in early 1828, the Poughkeepsie Journal reprinted the poem. Henry's hometown paper used the identical two lines for the names of what they called red deer. Guess there weren't too many reindeer running through the forests of old Po'keepsie.

• But the biggest change to the poem occurred under the editorial direction of that first publisher, Norman Tuttle. In 1830, Tuttle published the poem as a single page broadsheet. And this time the lines read with the rhythm that we are so familiar with today.

  Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer! now Vixen!
  On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Dunder and Blixem!

  As long as he was at it, Tuttle included TWENTY-ONE! other changes, as well.

• In 1837 Charles Fenno Hoffman, a friend of Moore's, published the poem and, for the first time, put Moore's name on it. But Hoffman, too, couldn't resist making some changes. His approach was more a mix and match. For the first line, he took the 1830 Troy version, but kept McClure's change to the rhyming Blixen. For the second line, Hoffman went back to the original rhythm of the 1823 version. But his most important change was in that line with the renaming of Dunder, now christened Donder.

  Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer! now Vixen!
  On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Donder and Blixen!

• And then it was Moore's turn with the publication of his book Poems. But before we look at what Moore wrote, let's fast forward to the future. 1920, to be exact.

It wasn't until 1859 and 1862 that Henry's descendants discovered that Moore was claiming credit for their ancestor's poem. The issue incensed them, but they couldn't do more than sputter at the perceived injustice of someone claiming a poem they had known their entire lives as belonging to Henry. The presence of several Episcopalian ministers in the family at the time is thought to have occasioned that early silence -- Moore holding a prominent position within the church seminary.

It wasn't until 1899 that one of the family was pushed into the public light regarding their belief in their ancestor's authorship. In a December 1899 issue of the Sun, a Long Island, New York newspaper published by another Henry Livingston, this Henry argued the the rightful author of A Visit from St. Nicholas was, in fact, his grandsire. And though the article did bring together other descendants to share their stories with Long Island Henry, it didn't result in much impact on the public's attribution of the poem to Moore.

It wasn't until 1920 that another descendant, William Sturges Thomas, decided to try his hand at the authorship issue again. This time, Thomas was successful in bringing the conflicting claims to the public's attention in articles in more major New York City publications. But after the buzz from the stories faded, Moore's claim to the poem's authorship was left undisturbed.

Or so it seemed.

But unbeknownst to Thomas, his articles had had an impact. Casmir de R. Moore, a descendant of Clement Moore, was disturbed enough to get a signed deposition from a second cousin, Maria Jephson O'Conor, telling a story that she had been told by her father -- a story that had been told him by Moore, himself. What Moore said to Maria's father was that when Moore had returned from his turkey errand on that 1822 Christmas eve, he had gone into his study and written down (with no changes!) the poem he had invented and memorized while driving along those snowy city streets. (This, of course, explained why no manuscript existed for Moore with the expected changes engendered by composition. The style was obviously so natural to Moore that it never cried to be repeated, except in a particularly nasty piece about a rooster and a pig.)

But the important part of the deposition was Moore's statement that the original manuscript needed only two slight changes when he came to publish it with some of his other poems!

My grandfather, Elliot. Taylor was a brother-in-law of Clement C. Moore; his daughter Maria Farquahar Taylor married my late father Colonel Henry C. Post. Under these circumstances my father became well acquainted with the above Clement C. Moore. He related to me the manner in which Dr Moore told him the little poem entitled "A visit from St Nicholas" 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 and so told her husband. He said he would immediately get one from the market.

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. This, with the holiday season, suggested to him the idea of writing a few lines appropriate to St. Nicholas. He also told my father when the same was published, without his knowledge, that there were only two errors in the printed copy.

Maria Jephson O'Conor (nee Post)

Original in The Museum of the City of New York

Under these circumstances my father became very well acquainted with Mr Moore. My father told me Mr Moore himself related to him the following circumstances under which he came to write the poem entitled "A Visit from St. Nicholas."

It was Christmas Eve and Mrs. Moore was packing baskets of provisions to be sent to various people in the neighborhood, as was her custom. She found one turkey was lacking and so told her husband. Though late, he said he would try to get one from the market.

On his return from the market he was struck by the beauty of the moonlight on the snow and the brightness of the star lit sky. This, together with the thoughts of the holiday season, suggested to him the idea of writing a few lines in honor of St Nicholas. 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.

Maria Jephson O'Conor

The above Mrs. John C. O'Conor (nee Post) read and signed the above statement in my presence the 23rd day of December 19020 [sic]

Casimir de R. Moore

[Original in The Museum of the City of New York]

Now let's hurry back to 1844.

Before Moore published the Christmas poem as his own, he wrote to Tuttle, the original publisher of the piece. His question must have been whether Tuttle had known the author of the poem, because Tuttle writes back that he didn't then, but has since learned it was Moore. This letter appeared in Don Foster's book with Don's observation that it looked much like something Moore read as meaning that the coast was clear to publish the poem under his own name.

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Prof C C Moore,

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

Original in The Museum of the City of New York

But as I discovered when my packet of Moore papers arrived from the Museum of the City of New York, the letter also included an enclosure -- a copy of Tuttle's 1830 broadsheet. And on that sheet are marked a few handwritten changes. Who made the changes we don't know. But the marks certainly fit with the story told by Maria's father of those few small changes.