Clement Clark Moore-1779-1863
Main article: A Visit from St. Nicholas
This poem, "arguably the best-known verses ever written by an American",[11] was first published anonymously in the Troy (NY) Sentinel on December 23, 1823. It was sent to the paper by a friend of Moore.[12] It was reprinted frequently thereafter and published as a small book in illustrated versions.
It was not until 1837, in The New-York Book of Poetry (edited by Charles Fenno Hoffman), that the poem was first attributed in print to Moore. Moore claimed authorship by including it in his Poems, an 1844 anthology of his works.[13] His children, for whom he had originally written the piece, encouraged this publication. At first Moore had not wished to be connected with the popular verse, given his public reputation as a professor of ancient languages. By then, the original publisher and at least seven others had already acknowledged him as author. Moore was said to have written the poem while visiting his cousin, Mary McVicker, at Constable Hall, in what is now known as Constableville, New York. In 1855, Mary C. Moore Ogden, one of the Moores' married daughters, painted "illuminations" to go with the first color edition of her father's celebrated verse about Christmas.
