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.)
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