The A Visit From St. Nicholas reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

A Visit From St. Nicholas

The poem A Visit from St. Nicholas ("Twas the night before Christmas ...") was first published anonymously in the Troy, New York Sentinel on December 23, 1823, and was reprinted frequently thereafter with no name attached. Authorship was later attributed to Clement Moore and included in an anthology of his works, but his connection with the poem has been questioned. Henry Livingston, a New Yorker with Dutch roots, is the chief candidate for true author of the poem.

An American Anthology, 1787–1900, Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed., reprints the Moore version of the poem, including the German spelling of "Donder and Blitzen" he adopted, rather than the earlier Dutch version from 1823, "Dunder and Blixem". (Both phrases translate as "Thunder and Lightning" in English.)

This poem is responsible for our current jolly-old-fat-man depiction of Santa Claus. Previously, Santa Claus was often depicted as thinner and decidedly less jolly. He often disciplined children.

External Links

• Snopes article refuting Moore's authorship
• Foster, Donald. Author Unknown: On the Trail of Anonymous. New York: Henry Holt, 2000. ISBN 0-8050-6357-9 (pp. 221-275).
• Text attributed to Livingston, at University of Toronto's Representative Poetry Online.
• Moore version online at Bartleby

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