Clement Clarke Moore

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Clement Clarke Moore

Born 15 July 1779
New York City
Died 10 July 1863
Newport, Rhode Island

Clement Clarke Moore (July 15, 1779–July 10, 1863) is the credited author of A Visit from St. Nicholas (more commonly known today as Twas the Night Before Christmas).

Clement Clarke Moore was more famous in his own day as a professor of Oriental and Greek literature at Columbia College (now Columbia University). At General Theological Seminary he compiled a two volume Hebrew dictionary.

He was the only son of Benjamin Moore, a president of Columbia College and bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, and his wife Charity Clarke. Clement Clarke Moore was a graduate of Columbia College (1798), where he earned both his B.A. and his M.A.. He was made professor of Biblical learning in the General Theological Seminary in New York (1821), a post that he held until 1850. The ground on which the seminary now stands was his gift. [1]

From 1840 to 1850, he was a board member of The New York Institution for the Blind at 34th Street and 9th Avenue (now The New York Institute for Special Education). He compiled a Hebrew and English Lexicon (1809), and published a collection of poems (1844). Upon his death in 1863 at his summer residence in Newport, Rhode Island, his funeral was held in Trinity Church, Newport, where he had owned a pew. Then his body was interred in the cemetery at St. Luke's Episcopal Church on Hudson St., in New York City. On November 29, 1899, his body was reinterred in Trinity Churchyard Cemetery in New York.

Contents

[edit] Clement Clarke Moore Park

Clement Clarke Moore Park
Clement Clarke Moore Park

The Moore house, Chelsea, at the time a country estate, gave its name to the surrounding neighborhood of Chelsea, Manhattan, and Moore's land in the area is noted today by Clement Clarke Moore Park, located at 10th Avenue and 22nd Street. The playground there opened November 22, 1968, and it was named in memory of Clement Clarke Moore by local law during the following year. The 1995 renovations to Clement Clarke Moore Park included a new perimeter fence, modular play equipment, safety surfacing, pavements and transplanted trees. This park is a well-liked and in-demand playground area used daily by local residents, who also gather there on the last Sunday of Advent for a reading of Twas the Night Before Christmas. [2]

Much of the neighborhood was once the property of Maj. Thomas Clarke, Clement's maternal grandfather and a retired British veteran of the French and Indian War. Clarke named his house for a hospital in London that served war veterans. "Chelsea" was later inherited by Thomas Clarke's daughter, Charity Clarke Moore, and ultimately by grandson Clement and his family. Clement Clarke Moore's wife, Catharine Elizabeth Taylor, was of English and Dutch descent being a direct descendant of the Van Cortlandt family, once the major landholders in the lower Hudson Valley of New York.

As a girl, Moore's mother, Charity Clarke, wrote letters to her English cousins that are preserved at Columbia University and show her disdain for the policies of the English Monarchy and her growing sense of patriotism in pre-revolutionary days.

The Moore children have several living descendants among them members of the Ogden family. In 1855, one of Clement's daughters, Mary C. Moore Ogden painted "illuminations" to go with her father's celebrated verse. A book with her paintings as illustrations is A Visit from St. Nicholas (Twas the Night Before Christmas). Copyright 1995 by International Resourcing Services, Inc., 60 Revere Drive, Suite 725, Northbrook, Illinois, 60062.

[edit] A Visit from Saint Nicholas

This poem appeared anonymously in the Troy, New York Sentinel on December 23, 1823, and was reprinted frequently thereafter. The original publisher hinted at Moore’s authorship, though without naming him, in 1829, and Moore was first credited as author by Charles Fenno Hoffman (ed. The New-York Book of Poetry. New York: George Dearborn, 1837). Moore took authorship of the poem in 1844, at request of his children.

Though Moore's authorship has been questioned, with the alternative author proposed as Henry Livingston Jr., it should be noted that there is no evidence that Livingston himself ever claimed authorship, and also that the evidence used by Donald Foster and others to dispute Moore’s authorship has itself been disputed. (see Nickell, Joe. “The Case of the Christmas Poem”. Manuscripts, Fall 2002, 54;4:293-308, and Part 2. Manuscripts, Winter 2003, 55;1:5-15. Also see Nissenbaum, Stephen. The Battle for Christmas: A Cultural History of America’s Most Cherished Holiday. New York: Vintage, 1996; and Kaller, Seth T. “The Moore Things Change…,” in the New-York Journal of American History, Fall 2004). There is reputed to be another handwritten copy of the poem by Moore in the archives of the New Brunswick Museum in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.

Later in life, Moore is known to have written out four fair copies of the poem. One copy, dated March 24, 1856, exists in the Huntington Library, in San Marino, California. A facsimile of the Huntington copy is at the Harris Collection, John Hay Library, Brown University. Clement Moore wrote out one fair copy in 1862 for the New-York Historical Society, which published a facsimile. The Strong Museum in Rochester, New York, also has an original written in 1853 in Clement Moore's hand. One penned in 1860 remains in private hands, owned by Kaller’s America Gallery, Inc.

[edit] Slavery

Moore also opposed abolition of slavery, and owned several slaves during his lifetime. See: The Poet of Christmas Eve: A Life of Clement Clarke Moore, 1779-1863, by Samuel W. Patterson (New York: Morehouse-Gorman Co, 1956)

[edit] Children

Timothy Moore, grandson of Clement Moore, Inherited 12.9 million dollars from his grandfather, also Timothy inherited 3.2 million from his other grandfather that created the pulsar prize which started the Pulsar Prize competition with the "Night Before Christmas" - Clement Moore, which made Clement millions for his efforts.

[edit] Publications

  • Stedman, An American Anthology (Boston, 1900)
  • A Visit From Saint Nicholas. Troy: New York Sentinel on December 23, The original publisher hinted at Moore’s authorship, though without naming him, in 1829, and Moore was first credited as author by Charles Fenno Hoffman, ed. The New-York Book of Poetry. New York: George Dearborn, 1837.
  • Nickell, Joe. “The Case of the Christmas Poem.” Manuscripts, Fall 2002, 54;4:293-308, and Part 2.” Manuscripts, Winter 2003, 55;1:5-15.
  • Nissenbaum, Stephen. The Battle for Christmas: A Cultural History of America’s Most Cherished Holiday. New York: Vintage, 1996.
  • Kaller, Seth T. “The Moore Things Change…,” in The New-York Journal of American History, Fall 2004).

[edit] Sources

Rev. John Moore of Newtown, Long Island and some of his Descendants, Compiled by James W. Moore, Lafayette College. Chemical Publishing Company, Easton Pennsylvania. MCMIII. (1903). p. 107. Reprints of this out-of-print book are available via Higginson book company.

  • Foster, Donald (2000). Author Unknown: On the Trail of Anonymous. New York: Henry Holt. ISBN 0-8050-6357-9. 
  • Nissenbaum, Stephen (1997). The Battle for Christmas: A Social and Cultural History of Christmas that Shows How It Was Transformed from an Unruly Carnival Season into the Quintessential American Family Holiday. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-41223-9. 

[edit] References

  1. ^ New International Encyclopedia
  2. ^ New York City Department of Parks & Recreation: Clement Clarke Moore Park

[edit] External links

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re: Charity Clarke in Long Island History: http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-history-hs344a,0,6698945.story

Women's Studies: Archives & Manuscript CollectionsCharity Moore Clarke was the wife of Bishop Benjamin Moore (1748-1816), President of Columbia College from 1801 to 1811. Their son was Clement Clarke Moore ...

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