-
According to legend, Clement Clarke
Moore wrote his immortal poem,
- A Visit from St. Nicholas, also known
as The Night Before Christmas, for his family on Christmas Eve
1822.
- He never intended that it be published, but a family friend,
Miss Harriet Butler, learned of the poem sometime later from Moore's
children. She copied it into her album, and submitted it to the editor
of the
Troy (New York)
Sentinel
where it made its first appearance in print on December 23, 1823.
Soon, the poem began to be reprinted in other newspapers, almanacs and
magazines, with the first appearance in a book in
-
The New York Book of Poetry,
edited by Charles Fenno Hoffman, in 1837.
-
-
It was not until 1844, however, that Moore himself
acknowledged authorship in a volume of his poetry entitled Poems,
published at the request of his children. One hundred and eighty years
later it is the most-published, most-read, most-memorized and
most-collected book in all of Christmas literature.
