Clement Clarke Moore (1779–1863) was an American scholar of Hebrew and classical literature, professor at the General Theological Seminary in New York. He is best known as the author of A Visit from St. Nicholas, the Christmas poem that fixed the image of Santa Claus.
Works
A Visit from St. Nicholas
A scholar
Clement Clarke Moore was born in New York on 15 July 1779, the son of Benjamin Moore, Episcopal Bishop of New York and president of Columbia College. He graduated from Columbia in 1798.
He compiled a Compendious Lexicon of the Hebrew Language (1809), and taught Oriental and Greek literature at the General Theological Seminary from 1821 to 1850.
Chelsea
Moore inherited his family's estate, Chelsea, on the west side of Manhattan. He gave land for the seminary, which still stands there, and later divided the estate into lots, shaping the neighbourhood that keeps its name.
He married Catharine Elizabeth Taylor in 1813; they had nine children, and she died in 1830.
The poem
A Visit from St. Nicholas was published anonymously in the Troy Sentinel, a New York newspaper, on 23 December 1823, sent in by a family friend. Moore acknowledged it in his Poems (1844).
In the twentieth century, descendants of the poet Henry Livingston Jr. argued that he was the real author. Most scholars still attribute it to Moore, though the question has been debated.
Anecdotes
Written for his children
According to family tradition, Moore wrote the poem for his children in December 1822 and read it to them on Christmas Eve, inspired by a plump Dutch handyman.
Reading in the church
Every Christmas season the poem is read at the Church of the Intercession in upper Manhattan, near Moore's grave.
Frequently asked questions
Did Moore write A Visit from St. Nicholas?
He claimed it in 1844 and is generally credited, though some have argued for Henry Livingston Jr.
Where did Moore live?
On his family estate, Chelsea, in Manhattan, where he gave land for the General Theological Seminary.
What was Moore's profession?
He was a professor of Oriental and Greek literature and a scholar of Hebrew.