Charleston Mercury, early printings of A Visit from St Nicholas

Just in time for the holidays, Newspapers.com has added loads of new pages from the Charleston Mercury to their great and growing online archive. The Mercury was founded and edited in Charleston, South Carolina by Henry Laurens Pinckney. From the trove of digital mages only added in the past three months, here are three early printings of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" in the Charleston Mercury: on January 16, 1824; December 24, 1825; and December 25, 1829. The earliest two versions have the sweet-dreaming children "nested" instead of "nestled" in their beds, but retain the reindeer names "Dunder and Blixem" as in the original first printing in the Troy Sentinel on December 23, 1823. As in the Sentinel, the verses appear anonymously in each version.

Fri, Jan 16, 1824 – 2 · The Charleston Mercury, and Morning Advertiser (Charleston, South Carolina) · Newspapers.com
The anonymous lines were reprinted the following year on Christmas Eve, still with "nested" and "Dunder and Blixem." The original prose intro by Troy editor Orville L. Holley has been dropped in the 1825 version, shown below, but the expanded title incorporates Holley's helpful identification of  St. Nicholas as "Sante Claus," thus:

ACCOUNT 

Of a visit from St. Nicholas or Sante Claus.

Sat, Dec 24, 1825 – 2 · The Charleston Mercury (Charleston, South Carolina) · Newspapers.com\
The same reading of "nested" instead of "nestled" occurs in the version of "Visit" published on December 26, 1826 in the Leesburg, Virginia Genius of Liberty. The Leesburg newspaper reprinted the Christmas poem "from the Charleston Mercury," under the same title that the Mercury had presented on Christmas Eve, 1825. However, the 1826 Genius of Liberty version gives the form "Blixen" where the Charleston Mercury in 1824 and 1825 had printed "Blixem." Likewise, the text of the still anonymous poem in the Lexington, Kentucky Reporter for January 23, 1826 also credits "the Charleston Mercury" and prints "Dunder and Blixen," along with "nested."

Another even earlier reprinting of "Visit" from the Charleston Mercury appears in the Washington, D.C. National Intelligencer for January 2, 1826. As in the Kentucky Reporter, the National Intelligencer text is headed "Christmas Times" and includes the variant forms "nested"; "Blixen"; and singular "hope" instead of "hopes" in the fourth line. Oddly, in the next-to-last line, the December 1825 Charleston Mercury version has Santa Claus "explain" rather than "exclaim" his parting benediction. The 1826 reprintings "from the Charleston Mercury" in the National Intelligencer, Kentucky Reporter, and Leesburg Genius of Liberty all exhibit the usual verb, exclaim.

Washington Daily National Intelligencer 
January 2, 1826 via GenealogyBank

At present, no digital images are available on Newspapers.com for the Charleston Mercury in the month of January, 1826. Eventually another version of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" may turn up in the Mercury on or about New Year's Day 1826--one headed "Christmas Times," perhaps, with the distinctive variants "hope," "nested," and "Blixen."

The influential printing in The National Gazette (Philadelphia, PA) on December 24, 1827 follows the 1825 Charleston printing in keeping "Blixem," as well as in the phrasing of the title and the printing of "hope" for "hopes"; and "nested" for "nestled." But the speaker in the National Gazette version hears Santa "exclaim," not "explain," before driving off.

A different, untitled version was submitted "FOR THE MERCURY" and published in the Charleston Mercury on December 25, 1829. In the 1829 version, shown below, the "Children were nestled" not "nested" as in the earlier Charleston printings. Dunder is still Dunder, but Blixem has become Blixen. And St. Nick in 1829 wishes all a Merry Christmas, instead of a Happy one.

Fri, Dec 25, 1829 – 2 · The Charleston Mercury (Charleston, South Carolina) · Newspapers.com
Editor Orville L. Holley did not know who wrote "A Visit from St. Nicholas" when he first published it in the Troy Sentinel on December 23, 1823. In January 1829, however, Holley would confidently allude to New York scholar and seminary professor Clement C. Moore as the author. Later, and still without naming Moore directly, Holley revealed in print that he had learned the author's identity only a few months after publishing the merry Christmas lines. Moore himself finally acknowledged his authorship in 1837 by submitting "A Visit from St Nicholas" with three other poems of his for publication in The New-York Book of Poetry. Moore is also credited with authorship of "A Visit from St. Nicholas in two important 1840 anthologies of American poetry, The Poets of America, edited by John Keese; and Selections from the American Poets, edited by William Cullen Bryant.

Early in 1844, a false attribution in the Washington National Intelligencer on Christmas Day 1843 prompted Moore to contact ex-publisher Norman Tuttle in Troy, and to state his claim openly and directly in a letter to his good friend Charles King, then editor of the New York American. On March 1, 1844 King published Moore's claim, really the confession of an embarrassed academic and bereaved husband and father, that he wrote the Christmas lines

"not for publication, but to amuse my children."  --Clement C. Moore, letter to Charles King dated February 27, 1844; published March 1, 1844 in the New York American.

Moore subsequently included A Visit from St. Nicholas aka 'Twas the Night Before Christmas in his 1844 volume Poems.


Related posts:

• Now, Dasher! in 1826
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2019/12/now-dasher-in-1826.html

• Genius of Liberty, 1826 reprinting of A Visit from St Nicholas
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2019/12/genius-of-liberty-1826-reprinting-of.html

• First printing of A Visit from St Nicholas
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2019/04/first-printing-of-visit-from-st-nicholas.html

• Lines written after a snow-storm, 1824 and 1844 versions
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2019/04/lines-written-after-snow-storm-by.html

1823 version of "A Visit from St. Nicholas," reprinted in Philadelphia from Troy SENTINEL

Just found this previously unrecorded item in the great collection of newspaper archives at genealogybank.com, a very early reprinting in Poulson's American Daily Advertiser (Philadelphia, PA) of Clement C. Moore's immortal Christmas poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" from the Troy Sentinel where it first appeared in print, anonymously published, on December 23, 1823. On the following Tuesday (exactly one week later), and duly credited to the "Troy Sentinel," the complete "Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas" appeared in Poulson's American Daily Advertiser for December 30, 1823 along with Troy editor Orville L. Holley's original introduction. Melville aficionados may be interested to know that the now-classic Christmas rhymes appeared on page 2, immediately above an advertisement by J. W. Corlies for "Sperm. Oil, Candles, Cheese, Mackerel, &c."

Honored as the first daily newspaper in the United States, Poulson's American Daily Advertiser was edited and published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by Zachariah Poulson. 

Zachariah Poulson of Philadelphia
James Peale, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

On New Year's Day 1824 the New-York Spectator copied "A Visit from St. Nicholas" and commended it to readers as fine fanciful poetry. That January 1, 1824 Spectator version has long been considered the earliest known reprinting of "Visit" from the Troy Sentinel. Nancy H. Marshall listed the Spectator reprinting as number 2 in her magnificent Descriptive Bibliography of The Night Before Christmas (Oak Knoll Press, 2002). Now, however, we need to make room for the earlier Philadelphia item, first copied from the Troy Sentinel by Zachariah Poulson. Let's call it 1a: the reprinting of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" in Polson's American Daily Advertiser on Tuesday, December 30, 1823.

Poulson's American Daily Advertiser
December 23, 1830

Poulson's American Daily Advertiser
December 23, 1830

Poulson's American Daily Advertiser
December 23, 1830

Headed "Christmas Times," a slightly different version of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" appeared in Poulson's American Daily Advertiser on December 24, 1828. This later copy has the children being "nested" instead of "nestled" and gives the last two reindeer names as "Dunder and Blixen" where the earlier reprinting on December 30, 1823 had followed the Troy Sentinel reading "Dunder and Blixem." As previously noted on Melvilliana

• https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2019/12/now-dasher-in-1826.html
• https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2019/12/charleston-mercury-early-printings-of.html

the "Christmas Times" version of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" aka 'Twas the Night Before Christmas enjoyed a wide circulation in the later 1820's and 1830's, with distinctive textual variants that may derive from the Charleston Mercury.

Neither reprinting of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" in Poulson's American Daily Advertiser is listed in Nancy H. Marshall's bibliography or the online inventory of Some early printings at merrycoz.org, compiled by Pat Pflieger.

Related posts:

• First printing of A Visit from St. Nicholas
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2019/04/first-printing-of-visit-from-st-nicholas.html

• Fine fanciful poetry
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2018/12/1824-spectator.html

• How we know Clement C. Moore wrote The Night Before Christmas
  http://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2017/05/how-we-know-that-clement-c-moore-wrote.html

• Dunder-Donder, Blixem-Blixen, Dunder Mifflin, Donder and Blitzen
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2017/03/dunder-donder-blixem-blixen-dunder.html 
  

Now, Dasher! in 1826

A Visit from Saint Nicholas. New York: James G. Gregory, 1862
 via Library of Congress <www.loc.gov/item/24005582/>.

The Charleston Mercury was an important and influential medium for the early transmission of the classic Christmas poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas," first published anonymously in the Troy Sentinel on December 23, 1823. Henry Laurens Pinckney (1794-1863), founder and editor of the Mercury, reprinted the Christmas verses in 1824, 1825, and 1829--and maybe in other years, too. (At Newspapers.com digital images are currently lacking for January 1826, a likely time I'm guessing for the "Account of a visit from St. Nicholas, or Sante Claus," perhaps in the form of a newsboy's address or similar New Year's feature.) In 1826 and after, numerous other newspapers reprinted "A Visit from St. Nicholas, or Sante Claus" from Pinckney's Charleston Mercury, often under the heading "Christmas Times."

Daily National Intelligencer - January 2, 1826
via GenealogyBank

The text of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" aka "The Night Before Christmas" is transcribed below from the Washington, D.C. Daily National Intelligencer (January 2, 1826); found on GenealogyBank.com

CHRISTMAS TIMES.

FROM THE CHARLESTON MERCURY.

Account of a visit from St. Nicholas, or Sante Claus. 

’Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro’ the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hope that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
The children were nested all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads,
And Mamma in her ’kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap —
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters, and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow,
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below;
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny rein-deer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer! and Vixen.
“On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Dunder and Blixen;
“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,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys—and St. Nicholas too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof,
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof;
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys was flung on his back,
And he look’d like a pedlar just opening his pack;
His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples, how merry,
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry;
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face, and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laugh'd when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye, and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And fill’d all the stockings; then turned, with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle:
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight—
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night."

Some distinctive features of 1826-7 newspaper reprintings "from the Charleston Mercury," not present in the Troy Sentinel first printing:

1. Singular "hope" in line 4 instead of "hopes." 
2. Children "nested" not "nestled" in line 5. 
3. Reindeer names Dunder and "Blixen" not "Blixem" 
4. Re-ordering of exclamation marks and commas around first three reindeer names, for example "Now, Dasher!" instead of "Now! Dasher, now!" 

A Visit from St. Nicholas. Boston: L. Prang & Co., 1864
via Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/73169323/>.

As indicated by the many versions "from the Charleston Mercury" published in 1826, the editorial re-punctuation of some reindeer names began to occur at least four years before the poem circulated on a decorative broadside that was issued as a holiday gift by Norman Tuttle, publisher of the Troy Sentinel. Now held by the Museum of the City of New York, the 1830 broadsheet is cited by MacDonald P. Jackson as the first instance of such changes:

"It was not until the Sentinel broadsheet of 1830 that the exclamation marks and commas were transposed, to read "Now, Dasher!" --Chapter 3, Who Wrote The Night Before Christmas, (McFarland & Company, 2016) page 18; see also page 23.

The revision to "Now, Dasher!" is not an original feature of the holiday poem as published in 1830 by the Troy Sentinel. Nevertheless, as Jackson correctly states, the 1830 Troy Sentinel broadside did make significant changes to the usual punctuation including exclamation marks in the next line of reindeer names. With revised punctuation the new and metrically improved line in 1830 reads, "On, Comet! On, Cupid! On, Dunder and Blixem!" After further investigation, however, I'm finding that these 1830 revisions in the second line of reindeer names had almost no direct influence on subsequent reprintings. Newspapers long continued to favor the weirdly punctuated second line of reindeer names as exemplified in the first printing:

On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Dunder [or Donder] and Blixem [or Blixen, or Bltizen]

So did many books, including the landmark New-York Book of Poetry with text presumably authorized by Clement C. Moore himself.

The New-York Book of Poetry (New York, 1844) page 218

The same old same old placement of exclamation marks occurs in two 1840 anthologies, The Poets of America, edited by John Keese, and Selections from the American Poets, edited for Harper's Family Library by William Cullen Bryant. The version of "Visit" in Moore's 1844 volume Poems finally adopted punctuation around reindeer names from the 1830 Troy broadside. Here and elsewhere, as Jackson has convincingly demonstrated, the 1830 broadside published by Norman Tuttle served as copy text for A Visit from St. Nicholas in Clement C. Moore's 1844 Poems.

Despite the availability of Moore's best text after 1844, the odd punctuation around Comet and Cupid, Dunder and Blixem persisted for decades in published anthologies.

The Poets and Poetry of America
Ed. Rufus W. Griswold (Philadelphia, 1858)

Notable exceptions include the article on Clement C. Moore in the Cyclopaedia of American Literature (New York, 1856) edited by Evert A. Duyckinck and George L. Duyckinck; and schoolbook anthologies of texts deemed suitable for public speaking. The example below exhibits the superior punctuation of the 1830 broadside and 1844 Poems, combined with the 1837 reindeer names Donder and Blixen. From William Russell, Sequel to the Primary Reader of Russell's Elementary Series (Boston, c. 1845):

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

It's Dunder not Donder in The Young Speaker (New Haven, 1845), but editor John E. Lovell still gives the improved punctuation in the second line of reindeer names.

Marked passage in "Christmas Times" by "Moore" (Lesson 151)
in The Young Speaker, ed. John E. Lovell (New Haven, 1845) page 200

As Ruth K. MacDonald has pointed out, the roll of eight reindeer names may be indebted to the "alliterative catalog of fairies in Michael Drayton's Nymphidia."

Hop, and Mop, and Drap so clear,
Pip, and Trip, and Skip, that were
To Mab their sovereign dear,
     Her special maids of honour;
Fib, and Tib, and Pinck, and Pin,
Tick, and Quick, and Jill, and Jin,
Tit, and Nit, and Wap, and Win,
     The train that wait upon her.  

--Michael Drayton,  Nymphidia. The History of Queen Mab; or, The Court of Fairy

Wed, Dec 24, 1845 – Page 2 · Wilmington Chronicle (Wilmington, North Carolina) · Newspapers.com
Why then did so many newspaper editors, and apparently even Moore himself in 1837, fail to fix the punctuation in the second line of reindeer names? I blame Dunder and Blixem. Not the reindeer, but their resonant names, in all their varying forms, as triggers of a stereotype with comical and also potentially offensive associations in the 19th century. Moore's St. Nicholas is mainly "Dutch" by association: with the pseudo-Dutch heritage invented by Washington Irving in the guise of Diedrich Knickerbocker; and according to T. W. C. Moore, by mental association with a "portly rubicund Dutchman" living near the poet's family home in Chelsea. Readers with real Dutch ancestry might justly protest with Irving's friend (and Clement C. Moore's seminary colleague) Gulian Crommelin Verplanck that Americans had "imbibed much of the English habit of arrogance and injustice towards the Dutch character.” In Verplanck's view, Irving's "burlesque History of New York" betrayed a talented mind

"wasting the riches of its fancy on an ungrateful theme, and its exuberant humour in a coarse caricature"  --Quoted by Derek Kane O’Leary, Journal of the History of Ideas blog,  Dutch Pasts and the American Archive.

Fans or haters, readers of A History of New-York would have been well-prepared for caricature. They already knew that St. Nicholas smoked like a chimney and had been witnessed "laying his finger beside his nose" before flying away "over the treetops" in his aerial wagon. Elsewhere in his influential History, Irving also quoted the oath supposedly characteristic of Dutchmen, "Dunder and blixum!" Moore's St. Nick whistles, shouts, and calls the roll of reindeer names. By the time he gets to Dunder and Blixem, he could be swearing at the lot.

Below, another reprinting "FROM THE CHARLESTON MERCURY" headed "Christmas Times," this one in the Lexington, Kentucky Reporter of January 23, 1826:

Mon, Jan 23, 1826 – 4 · Kentucky Reporter (Lexington, Kentucky) · Newspapers.com
Additional reprintings "From the Charleston Mercury," all with the variant forms "nested"; "Blixen"; and "Now, Dasher!"

• Frankfort, Kentucky Commentator, January 28, 1826

• Leesburg, Virginia Genius of Liberty, December 26, 1826

• Poultney, Vermont Northern Spectator, December 27, 1826

Wed, Dec 27, 1826 – 1 · Northern Spectator (Poultney, Vermont) · Newspapers.com

• Poulson's American Daily Advertiser (Philadelphia, PA) December 24, 1828 [Headed "Christmas Times," without crediting the Charleston Mercury or any source.]

Newspapers in the latter 1820's continued to reprint the Christmas poem "From the Troy Sentinel" with "Blixem" and other distinctive features of the 1823 Sentinel text, as in the Burlington VT Free Press on December 21, 1827. Reprintings from another influential conduit, the Philadelphia National Gazette (December 24, 1827) typically keep "Blixem" as in the Troy Sentinel but also read "nested" as in the Charleston Mercury. Examples of published texts "from the National Gazette" with forms "nested" AND "Blixem" include the Alexandria, Virginia Gazette (December 28, 1827); Boston Daily Advertiser (December 29, 1827); and Poughkeepsie Journal of January 16, 1828.

Related  posts:

• Montreal Visit from St Nicholas, 1826
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2021/11/montreal-visit-from-st-nicholas-1826.html

• Charleston Mercury, early printings of A Visit from St Nicholas
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2019/12/charleston-mercury-early-printings-of.html

• Genius of Liberty, 1826 reprinting of A Visit from St Nicholas
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2019/12/genius-of-liberty-1826-reprinting-of.html

• First printing of A Visit from St Nicholas
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2019/04/first-printing-of-visit-from-st-nicholas.html

• Dunder-Donder, Blixem-Blixen, Dunder Mifflin, Donder and Blitzen
  http://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2017/03/dunder-donder-blixem-blixen-dunder.html

• Pre-1844 attributions to Clement C. Moore
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2018/08/pre-1844-attributions-of-visit-from-st.html

Cleaning up after Don Foster

Author Unknown to me remains truly riveting as autobiographical fiction, but in the name of Jesus, what a mess Don Foster made of the whole Christmas business in that last and obviously hurried chapter. Here we are in 2017, still having to clean up after him. 

As the email trail preserved by Mary Van Deusen shows, Foster ignorantly doubted Clement C. Moore's authorship of "The Night Before Christmas" before he had read a word of Moore's other poetry:

"I haven't yet read Moore's poems, but the case for Moore's authorship of "A Vis[i]t from St. Nicholas" seems, on the face of it, doubtful at best [!!!] and the case for Livingston's authorship quite strong."  --Don Foster, 11 August 1999

In the same 1999 email, Foster acknowledged formidable obstacles to the goal of discrediting Moore, while fantasizing about overcoming them by means of "an authoritative refutation" that would be legitimized in part by his "reputation as an attributional expert":

"Because the attribution to Moore has the weight of tradition behind it, there will have to be an authoritative refutation for Moore's authorship to be discredited. It may take a miracle for publishers to expunge Moore's name from future editions and to replace it with Livingston's, but we may be able to pull it off. If I can prove to my own satisfaction that Livingston wrote "A Visit," I'd be happy to lay out the evidence--and I may be in a unique position, given my reputation as an attributional expert, to make my verdict stick."

Bent on portraying Moore as the cartoonish incarnation of Grinch and Scrooge combined, Foster fudged the facts whenever necessary to get his pre-determined result. Years ago, Seth Kaller convincingly exposed the most outrageous errors in Author Unknown, but Foster's highly entertaining morality play continues to beguile scholars who ought to know better.

Foster's authorship agenda, recently taken up again by MacDonald P. Jackson, required sinister interpretations of normal and understandable behavior by Moore, and also required overlooking counter-examples of commendable words and actions. Case in point. Jackson buys all of Foster's ultra-sinister reading of the February 26, 1844 letter to Moore from Troy Sentinel publisher Norman Tuttle. In this letter, Tuttle was replying to Moore's prior request (unlocated, but dated February 23, 1844 according to Tuttle) for information about the original, unauthorized publication of "A Visit from St. Nicholas." Full of unjustified suspicion, Foster memorably characterized Tuttle's reply to Moore as encouraging news that the "coast was clear." A-ha! Moore in Foster's warped view must have been afraid of being exposed as a fraud by the true author if he published "Visit" as his own work.

Happily, fresh evidence of the published exchange between editors of the Washington National Intelligencer and the New York American corrects the prejudiced readings by Foster and now Jackson. As revealed in the 1844 newspaper exchange, Clement C. Moore had only just learned of a bogus, published claim that somebody named Joseph Wood wrote "A Visit from St. Nicholas." The timing indeed seems more than coincidental. Most likely, unexpected news of the published claim for Joseph Wood that Moore stated (in the published letter dated February 27, 1844) he had received only "a few days ago" prompted Moore's letter of February 23rd to Norman Tuttle. Considering that Moore was soon to publish the volume of his collected poems including "Visit," he had good and new reasons for concern that another man, namely the deceased JOSEPH WOOD, might somewhere have been credited, wrongly, with the writing of "A Visit from St. Nicholas." Yes, Moore needed to learn about the publication history of his own poem, but not because he did not write it. As plainly stated in Moore's newly-discovered letter to Charles King, Moore himself had personally supplied all the poems that were published under his name in the 1837 New-York Book of Poetry.

New York American - March 1, 1844

Moore's published letter to Charles King amounts to a pretty thorough cleaning-up of the manufactured controversy over the authorship of "A Visit from St. Nicholas," efficiently sweeping away at least three canards with one documentary broom:

1. Moore never overtly claimed authorship of  "A Visit from St Nicholas"? Wrong.
   

   "... 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." --Clement C. Moore

2.  Moore passively "allowed" Charles Fenno Hoffman to give him credit? Wrong.
   

   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."  --Clement C. Moore

3. Moore's 1844 letter to Norman Tuttle must have been motivated by fear of evidence for Henry Livingston's authorship of "Visit" turning up in Troy or elsewhere? Wrong. Henry Livingston, Jr. now has to line up behind at least one prior claimant. Timing indicates Moore's letter to Tuttle was prompted by news of a different false claim, the published (and speedily retracted) attribution of "Visit" to Joseph Wood in the Washington National Intelligencer:

"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." --Clement C. Moore

 Related posts

• Review of Tom Jerman's book The Fight for "The Night"
   https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2023/12/champ-prevails-experts-foiled-truth.html 

• Posthumous attributions of A Visit from St. Nicholas
  to the Rev. John W. Curtis and Joseph Wood
  https://melvilliana.substack.com/p/attributions-of-a-visit-from-st-nicholas

• Clement C. Moore's published letter
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2017/01/clement-c-moores-published-letter-on.html 

• National Intelligencer requested to correct mistaken attribution
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2016/10/national-intelligencer-requested-to.html 

• First printing of A Visit from St Nicholas
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2019/04/first-printing-of-visit-from-st-nicholas.html

• Pre-1844 attributions to Clement C. Moore
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2018/08/pre-1844-attributions-of-visit-from-st.html

• Dunder-Donder, Blixem-Blixen, Dunder Mifflin
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2017/03/dunder-donder-blixem-blixen-dunder.html 

• How we know Clement C. Moore wrote The Night Before Christmas
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2017/05/how-we-know-that-clement-c-moore-wrote.html

• Livingston Cousin TWC Moore
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2018/12/livingston-cousin-t-w-c-moore.html 

• Key witness letter
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2018/02/key-witness-letter-by-livingston-cousin.html 

• Samuel H. Turner's 1850 dedication 

•  Eheu! professor

Genius of Liberty, 1826 reprinting of A Visit from St Nicholas from the Charleston Mercury

In brackets, The Genius of Liberty (Leesburg, Virginia) acknowledges "the Charleston Mercury" as its source for the holiday piece titled, as in the Charleston, South Carolina Mercury of December 25, 1825, "Account of a visit from St. Nicholas, or Sante Claus." The Genius of Liberty was then owned by Brook Watson Sower (1784-1864). The borrowed holiday verses appear below an original paragraph of introduction (by Sower?) explaining the Christmas Eve custom of hanging up stockings for Santa or "Sante Claus" to fill overnight "with nuts, raisins, apples, cakes, toys, &c. &c."

The text of "A Visit from St.Nicholas" is transcribed below from the Leesburg VA Genius of Liberty, December 26, 1826. Also reprinted there on December 26, 1835, with minor changes in punctuation. Like the Charleston Mercury, both versions print "nested" for "nestled" in the fifth line. However, where the earliest Charleston Mercury versions in 1824 and 1825 read "Dunder and Blixem," following the first printing of the Christmas poem in the Troy Sentinel, Sower's Genius of Liberty has "Dunder and Blixen." Images of both the 1826 and 1835 printings of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" in the Genius of Liberty are accessible online via Virginia Chronicle: Digital Newspaper Archive.

Genius of Liberty (Leesburg, VA) December 26, 1826
via Virginia Chronicle

THE RECESS.

As these are holiday times, the following piece is quite appropriate to the season. But as many readers may not be acquainted with the attributes and province of ST NICHOLAS, or SANTE CLAUS, it may not be amiss to remark, that in some families, in different parts of the country, it is customary on the eve before Christmas, for the children, on retiring to bed, to hang up their stockings round and about the chimney, and it is the province of SANTE CLAUS, on such occasions, to fill them before morning, with nuts, raisins, apples, cakes, toys, &c. &c. We know not whence the custom is derived, farther than that the saint, or patron deity, is of German extraction, and generally, we believe, dispenses his favours accordingly -- In the morning of life, when the gilded visions of childhood enchained the affections, we remember to have hailed the approach of this festive season, as well in anticipation of the munificence of SANTE CLAUS, as of other festivities. That period, though long since past, is still grateful to the recollection; and, if ever deception deserved the appellation of pious fraud, it would seem to be when ministering to the sum of infantine happiness.-- [Gen. Lib. 

 [From the Charleston Mercury]

Account of a visit from St. Nicholas, or Sante Claus.

’TWAS the night before Christmas, when all thro’ the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hope that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
The children were nested all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar plums danced in their heads,
And Mamma in her ’kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap —
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter,
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters, and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow,
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below;
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny rein-deer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and call’d them by name;
“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer! and Vixen.
“On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Dunder and Blixen;
“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,
When they meet with an obstacle mount to the sky;
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys—and St. Nicholas too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof,
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof;
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys was flung on his back,
And he look’d like a pedlar just opening his pack;
His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples, how merry,
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry;
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face, and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye, and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And fill’d all the stockings; then turned, with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle:
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight—
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night."

Related posts:

•  Now, Dasher! in 1826
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2019/12/now-dasher-in-1826.html

• Charleston Mercury, early printings of A Visit from St Nicholas
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2019/12/charleston-mercury-early-printings-of.html

• First printing of A Visit from St Nicholas
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2019/04/first-printing-of-visit-from-st-nicholas.html

National Intelligencer requested to correct mistaken attribution and confirm Clement C. Moore's authorship of "the admired lines of his, describing the visit of St. Nicholas"

So far I only have one side of this apparently friendly exchange between two leading Whig newspapers regarding authorship of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" aka "The Night Before Christmas." Both papers seem glad to acknowledge Clement C. Moore as the author.

It started with a mistaken attribution in the Washington [D. C.] Daily National Intelligencer, which prompted the New York American eventually to ask for a published correction. On December 25, 1843 the National Intelligencer published "A Visit from St. Nicholas" with the following letter, dated December 22, 1843:

GENTLEMEN: 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 now has few sources of pleasure left. Perhaps you may comply with this request, if it be only for "auld lange syne."

Three days later the Daily National Intelligencer published this correction:

National Intelligencer - December 28, 1843

Messrs. EDITORS: 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. Very respectfully, &c.
C.

Subsequently the editor of the New York American must have urged the National Intelligencer editor to reprint "a note of Mr. CLEMENT C. MOORE concerning the authorship of the admired lines of his." The Washington, D. C. editor replied in essence that his paper had already made the desired correction, alluding to the letter from "C." that had appeared in the National Intelligencer on December 28, 1843.

Transcribed below, the 1844 response in the Daily National Intelligencer seems to mean that sometime before March 6, 1844, the New York American published a note from Clement C. Moore acknowledging his authorship of "A Visit from St. Nicholas." I have not found that highly desirable item yet, but it sure sounds recoverable. [Update: Found! 01/23/2017 at NYPL, Moore's emphatic and unambiguous published claim to "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."]

(Not online? but maybe on microfilm at the Library of Congress, NYPL or Center for Research Libraries).

Washington Daily National Intelligencer - March 6, 1844

We have observed the request addressed to us by the New York American to copy a note of Mr. CLEMENT C. MOORE concerning the authorship of the admired lines of his, describing the visit of St. Nicholas. We should have pleasure in complying with the request, had not the purpose of it been anticipated by a publication made in this paper of the 28th December last. As to the "mistake, if such it be, or fraud attempted in respect of such well-known lines," which the American asks us to elucidate, we can only say, that we have no idea that any fraud was intended by the unknown correspondent who attributed them to the late JOSEPH WOOD. Our conjecture in the matter is, that some friend of the late Mr. WOOD (who had many friends) finding among his papers, after his death, a copy of these lines in his hand-writing, took it for granted, in the absence of other information, that the authorship was also his, and liked the lines all the better for it.

--Washington Daily National Intelligencer, March 6, 1844; found in the online Newspaper Archives at Genealogy Bank

The editor of the New York American then (1823-1845) was Charles King, who in 1849 would succeed Clement C. Moore's cousin Nathaniel Fish Moore as president of Columbia University.

Related posts:

• Clement C. Moore's published letter on his authorship of A Visit from St Nicholas
  http://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2017/01/clement-c-moores-published-letter-on.html

• First printing of A Visit from St Nicholas https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2019/04/first-printing-of-visit-from-st-nicholas.html

• Cleaning up after Don Foster
  http://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2017/02/cleaning-up-after-don-foster.html

• Computer Error Please Try Again http://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2016/11/computer-error-please-try-again.html

• How we know Clement C. Moore wrote The Night Before Christmas http://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2017/05/how-we-know-that-clement-c-moore-wrote.html

• Livingston cousin T. W. C. Moore
  http://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2018/12/livingston-cousin-t-w-c-moore.html

• Pre-1844 attributions to Clement C. Moore
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2018/08/pre-1844-attributions-of-visit-from-st.html

• Evert Duyckinck on Clement C. Moore http://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2017/02/evert-duyckinck-on-clement-c-moore-one.html

• New York Herald obituary
  http://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2017/10/new-york-herald-obit-of-clement-c-moore.html

First printing of A Visit from St Nicholas

Now accessible online courtesy of Troy Public Library and New York State Historic Newspapers, the first printing of "A Visit from St. Nicholas," anonymously published in the Troy Sentinel on December 23, 1823:

• https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=tts18231223-01.1.3&e=23-12-1823

Troy Sentinel - December 23, 1823
Troy Public Library via NYS Historic Newspapers

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; that they may long retain their beautiful relish for those unbought, homebred joys, which derive their flavor from filial piety and fraternal love, and which they may be assured are the least alloyed that time can furnish them; 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. 

For the Sentinel.

ACCOUNT OF A VISIT FROM ST. NICHOLAS.

’Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro’ the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar plums danc’d in their heads,
And Mama in her ’kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap—
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprung from the bed to see what was the matter,
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters, and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow,
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below;
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny rein-deer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and 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,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys—and St. Nicholas too:
And then in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound:
He was dress’d all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnish’d with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys was flung on his back,
And he look’d like a peddler just opening his pack:
His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples how merry,
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry;
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face, and a little round belly
That shook when he laugh’d, like a bowl full of jelly:
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laugh’d when I saw him in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And fill’d all the stockings; then turn’d with a jirk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.
He sprung to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle:
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight—
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

When the Sentinel reprinted the Christmas piece in 1829, editor Orville L. Holley knew who wrote it. Holley described its previously unidentified author as a modest "scholar" and "writer" who was a native and resident of New York City. Holley's 1829 remarks, also accessible now via NYS Historic Newspapers, allude to the poet and seminary professor Clement C. Moore. Playfully emphasizing the word more, Holley puns on the surname of the unnamed but not unknown author:

Troy Sentinel - January 20, 1829
Troy Public Library via NYS Historic Newspapers

Santa Claus.--A few days since, the Editors of the N. Y. 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 copy 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.

In the Troy Library copy, the printed text of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" on page 2 is gone; somebody carefully clipped the poem from this issue (January 20, 1829) of the Troy Sentinel.

As Holley later revealed in print, he actually learned who wrote "The Night Before Christmas" only a few months (not years) after its first publication in the Troy Sentinel. Holley's 1836 comments are transcribed below from the Ontario Repository and Freeman which he then edited in Canandaigua, New York:

SANTA CLAUS, WITH HIS CHRISTMAS GIFTS.

The following lines appeared in print for the first time—though very often copied since—in the Troy Sentinel of December 23, 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 of the charming simplicity and cordiality of the lines, as well as of our unchanged feelings toward the little people to whom they are addressed, 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 estimable man, a professor in one of our colleges.... 

--found at NYS Historic Newspapers. This item was reprinted the following week in the Auburn Journal and Advertiser on Wednesday, January 4, 1837.

In 1837, Moore submitted four poems for publication in The New-York Book of Poetry, including "A Visit from St. Nicholas." Two 1840 anthologies of American poetry also credit Moore as the author of "A Visit from St. Nicholas":

• The Poets of America, edited by John Keese, credits "C. C. Moore" with authorship of "A Visit form St. Nicholas."

•  Selections from the American Poets, edited by William Cullen Bryant, reprints "A Visit from St Nicholas" under the name of "Clement C. Moore."

After a mistaken attribution to Joseph Wood was printed in the Washington National Intelligencer, Moore contacted Norman Tuttle, former publisher of the defunct Troy Sentinel. Only Tuttle's reply is extant (because Moore and his family saved it). As Seth Kaller notes,

Tuttle's letter is written on the reverse of a broadside version of the poem containing Moore’s autograph corrections. --The Authorship of The Night Before Christmas

Moore, evidently prompted by the false attribution recently published in the influential National Intelligencer, must have asked Tuttle about the circumstances of the poem's first publication in Troy. Presumably Moore wondered if Wood or anyone else had ever claimed authorship. Norman Tuttle's reply to Clement Clarke Moore is dated February 26, 1844 (Museum of the City of New York. 54.331.17b). Tuttle states he eventually learned of Moore's authorship and does not mention any other claim. Possibly without waiting to hear back from Tuttle, Moore then directly and unambiguously asserted his claim to authorship in a published letter to the editor of The New York American. Re-asserted, rather, considering Moore's prior submission of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" aka The Night Before Christmas with three other poems for publication in the 1837 New-York Book of Poetry. Dated February 27, 1844, Moore's letter to Charles King appeared in the American on March 1, 1844.

Clement C. Moore on the authorship of "A Visit from St. Nicholas"
New York American, March 1, 1844

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. 

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.

"Washington, Dec. 22d, 1843.

Gentlemen--
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. Perhaps you may comply with this request, if it be only for 'auld lang syne.'" 

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 [1837]. 

Yours, truly and respectfully,   

CLEMENT C. MOORE

Chas. King, Esq.

"A Visit from St. Nicholas" appears on pages 124-127 in Clement C. Moore's 1844 volume, Poems. Digitized versions of these books are accessible online courtesy of HathiTrust Digital Library:

• https://hdl.handle.net/2027/loc.ark:/13960/t51g17050?urlappend=%3Bseq=6
• https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc2.ark:/13960/t5t727z07?urlappend=%3Bseq=140

and the Internet Archive:

•  https://archive.org/details/poems00moor/page/124
•  https://archive.org/details/poemsmoor00moorrich/page/124

Moore graciously made handwritten copies of the poem for admirers. Four "unquestionably authentic" copies of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" in Moore's distinctive hand are known to exist still, according to Seth Kaller. One surviving manuscript copy at The New-York Historical Society is accompanied by a key witness letter (from a cousin of Henry Livingston, Jr.) dated March 15, 1862, strongly affirming Clement C. Moore's authorship, and providing a brief explanation of how his poem got to Troy in the first place. Addressed to the Librarian of the Historical Society, the letter from T. W. C. Moore was first published in The New York Historical Society Quarterly Bulletin 2.4 (January 1919) pages 111-115. Digitized volumes, accessible online:

• https://books.google.com/books?id=pWtIAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA111&lpg#v=onepage&q&f=false
• https://archive.org/details/newyorkhistorica00newy/page/n239
• https://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101076450293?urlappend=%3Bseq=120
• https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015039786853?urlappend=%3Bseq=216

Related posts:

• More testimony from Orville Holley
  http://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2016/02/more-testimony-from-orville-l-holley.html 

• National Intelligencer requested to correct mistaken attribution http://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2016/10/national-intelligencer-requested-to.html

• Clement C. Moore's published letter http://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2017/01/clement-c-moores-published-letter-on.html

• Lines written after a snow-storm, 1824 and 1844 versions https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2019/04/lines-written-after-snow-storm-by.html

• How we know Clement C. Moore wrote The Night Before Christmas http://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2017/05/how-we-know-that-clement-c-moore-wrote.html

• Champ prevails! review of The Fight for "The Night"
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2023/12/champ-prevails-experts-foiled-truth.html 

• Livingston cousin T. W. C. Moore
  http://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2018/12/livingston-cousin-t-w-c-moore.html

• Pre-1844 attributions to Clement C. Moore
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2018/08/pre-1844-attributions-of-visit-from-st.html

• Dunder-Donder, Blixem-Blixen, Dunder Mifflin, Donder and Blitzen
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2017/03/dunder-donder-blixem-blixen-dunder.html

• Eight great favorite expressions
  http://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2017/04/eight-great-favorite-expressions-of.html

• Samuel Turner's 1850 dedication
  http://melvilliana.blogspot.com/search?q=moore+dedication+samuel

• Evert Duyckinck on Clement C. Moore http://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2017/02/evert-duyckinck-on-clement-c-moore-one.html

• New York Herald obituary
  http://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2017/10/new-york-herald-obit-of-clement-c-moore.html

Augusta GA Chronicle, 1828 reprint of A Visit from St Nicholas with "Clement Moore" in the margin

Augusta Chronicle and Georgia Advertiser - December 30, 1828

Found on Georgia Historic Newspapers:

https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn82014184/1828-12-30/ed-1/seq-2/print/image_548x817_from_0,1047_to_4057,7090/

Credited to the Charleston Courier, this 1828 version in the Augusta Chronicle exhibits some of the typical Charleston Mercury variants like "nested" for "nestled"; singular "hope" instead of plural hopes; and "Blixen" where the Troy Sentinel on December 23, 1823 had printed "Blixem." However, Santa in the Courier and the Chronicle wishes all a "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Christmas."

This 1828 version is headed "Account of a visit from St. Nicholas to Sante Claus." The word to here is an error reproduced from the Charleston Courier ; the heading in reprints from the Charleston Mercury read "St. Nicholas or Sante Claus" as in the Washington National Intelligencer on January 2, 1826.

Published anonymously in the Augusta GA newspaper--but in the wide left margin some unknown person, who knows when, has written the name of the author: "Clem-ent Moore."

Augusta GA Chronicle and Advertiser - December 30, 1828
via Georgia Historic Newspapers

As indicated, the 1828 text in the Augusta, Georgia Chronicle and Advertiser was reprinted from the Charleston Courier of December 25, 1828.

Related posts:

• Now, Dasher! in 1826
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2019/12/now-dasher-in-1826.html

• Charleston Mercury, early printings of A Visit from St Nicholas
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2019/12/charleston-mercury-early-printings-of.html

• Genius of Liberty, 1826 reprinting of A Visit from St Nicholas
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2019/12/genius-of-liberty-1826-reprinting-of.html

• First printing of A Visit from St Nicholas
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2019/04/first-printing-of-visit-from-st-nicholas.html

• 1824 reprinting in the Geneva NY Palladium
  https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2016/10/clement-c-moores-visit-from-st-nicholas.html