Clement Clarke Moore

Clement Clarke Moore 1779-1863, American educator and poet, b. New York City, grad. Columbia, 1798. A biblical scholar, he was professor of Asian and Greek literature at the Episcopal General Theological Seminary, erected in New York City on land that he had donated. He is remembered for the well-known poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas," which begins " 'Twas the night before Christmas" ; it was first published anonymously in the Troy Sentinel in 1823. Recent computer-aided scholarship has cast considerable doubt on Moore's authorship of the poem.

Bibliography: See biography by S. W. Patterson (1956); S. Nissenbaum, The Battle for Christmas (1996); D. Foster, Author Unknown (2000).

Moore, Clement Clarke (1779–1863),professor of Biblical learning and author of the poem popularly known as 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, published anonymously in the Troy Sentinel (Dec. 23, 1823), widely copied, and reprinted in the author's Poems (1844). The poem's proper title is A Visit from St. Nicholas.