Twas the Night Before Christmas - photo 1

Twas the Night Before Christmas

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$ 3 276
Auction dateClassic
06.10.2022 12:00UTC -04:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
USA, New York
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ID 813623
Lot 211 | Twas the Night Before Christmas
Twas the Night Before Christmas

Clement C. Moore, 1844

MOORE, Clement C. Poems. New York: Bartlett & Welford, 1844.



The first edition of Moore’s poetry to include his celebrated “Twas the Night Before Christmas.” According to family lore, on Christmas Eve 1822 Clement Moore's wife was roasting turkeys for the poor of the local parish when late in the afternoon she discovered she was short one turkey. She asked Moore to venture into the snowy streets to obtain another. "He called for his sleigh and coachman [and] drove 'downtown' to what is now the Bowery section of New York City, to Jefferson Market to buy a turkey. Several sources relate he composed many of the lines in their present meter while riding in his sleigh; his ears full of the jingle-jingle of sleigh bells..." (Anne Lyon Haight, foreword to "The Night Before Christmas," Exhibition Catalogue, Pittsburgh, 1964, p.xv). When he returned, he brought the needed turkey, plus a Christmas poem composed during his errand. It did not appear in book form using his own name until 1837. BAL 14348; Grolier American 52.



Octavo (177 x 110mm). Half-title. Untrimmed. Original plain paper-covered boards, printed spine label (few tiny nicks to edges and joints, a little cracking between gatherings).

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