This Day in Pop Culture for December 23

1823: ‘A Visit from St. Nicolas’ is Published

The famous poem that many of us know from heart (or at least most of it) A Visit from St. Nicholas (aka ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas) was published for this first time in the Troy, New York Sentinel on this day in 1823. It was originally published anonymously though the author was Clement Clarke Moore who was a professor and didn’t want his reputation to be ruined for writing such an un-scholarly verse. However, in 1844, Moore included the poem in a collection of his works with the persuasion of his children, for whom he wrote the poem for. However, the cat was already out of the bag as many people already knew that Moore had written the piece since 1837.

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