Clement C. Moore (1779–1863)
Author of The Night Before Christmas [Jan Brett]
About the Author
Poet and Educator Clement Moore was born on July 15, 1770 in New York City, and was later educated at Columbia College. Moore was a biblical scholar and professor at the Episcopal General Theological Seminary. Moore is best known for his poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas", better known in more modern show more times as "Twas the Night Before Christmas". In 2013 this same title became a New York Times High Profile Title. Clement Moore died in Newport, Rhode Island on July 10, 1863. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Clement C. Moore
'Twas the Night Before Christmas: Or Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas (Matt Tavares) (2002) 227 copies, 3 reviews
Twas The Night Before Christmas: Edited by Santa Claus for the Benefit of Children of the 21st Century (2012) 177 copies, 4 reviews
The Night Before Christmas: A Magical Cut-Paper Edition (Niroot Puttapipat) (2007) 110 copies, 2 reviews
The Night Before Christmas or A Visit from St. Nicholas: A Reproduction of an Antique Christmas Classic (1888) 69 copies, 2 reviews
The Night Before Christmas: The Classic Account of the Visit from St. Nicholas (2014) 39 copies, 3 reviews
The Night Before Christmas (A Whitman Giant Tell-A-Tale Book: Catherine Barnes) (1960) 28 copies, 1 review
The Night Before Christmas - Come-to-Life Augmented Reality Board Book - Little Hippo Books (2016) 28 copies
The Night Before Christmas in Crochet: The Complete Poem with Easy-to-Make Amigurumi Characters (2013) 16 copies
'Twas the Night Before Christmas: A Highlights Hidden Pictures® Storybook (Highlights Hidden Pictures Storybooks) (2019) 14 copies
A Visit from St. Nicholas: Illuminated by Mary C. Ogden, Daughter of Clement C. Moore (1995) 12 copies
The Night Before Christmas Pop-up 11 copies
The Night Before Christmas (Disney Storyteller Read Along Book & Tape) — Original story — 9 copies
'Twas the Night Before Christmas: A Highlights Hidden Pictures® Storybook (Highlights Hidden Pictures Storybooks) (2019) 8 copies, 1 review
The night before Christmas: A pop-up book, treasury collection (Favorite Christmas classics) (1989) 6 copies
The Night Before Christmas Book 5 copies
The Night Before Christmas 5 copies
The Night Before Christmas 5 copies
The Night Before Christmas Press & Play Storybook: The Classic Edition Hardcover Book Narrated by Jeff Bridges (2020) 5 copies
Night before Christmas /, The 4 copies
The Night Before Christmas: A Book and Paper Doll Fold-out Play Set (Activity Book, Christmas) (Activity Book Series) (2008) 4 copies
The night before Christmas 4 copies
The Night Before Christmas Cookie Cutter Kit: Based on the Story by Clement C. Moore (Mini Kits) (2004) 3 copies
The Night Before Christmas 3 copies
The Night Before Christmas (A Whitman Giant Tell-A Tale Book) by Clement C. Moore Hardback 1960 2 copies
The Night Before Christmas (Illustrated): A Polar Bear Family Edition; A Rhyming Picture Book About Love and Family 2 copies, 1 review
Twas The Night Before Christmas: The Bicentennial Keepsake Edition of the Treasured Holiday Poem (2023) 2 copies
Santa Claus In-A-Box Kit: Everything You Need To Dress Like Santa &Make Your Holidays Complete (2009) 2 copies
The night before Christmas 2 copies
The Night Before Christmas 1 copy
The Night Before Christmas 1 copy
De Nacht Voor Kerstmis 1 copy
Vizita lui Moş Crăciun 1 copy
The Night before Christmas. Beata illa nox: Lateinisch, englisch und deutsch (English, German and Latin Edition) (2005) 1 copy
Night Bfore Christmas 1 copy
THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS [ STORY HOUR SERIES ©1960 by Whitman Publishing Company - Book Size: 8 1/8 x 7 1/2 inches ] (1960) 1 copy
A Véspera de Natal 1 copy
The Night Before Christmas By Clement C. Moore (Little Golden Book) 1977 Hardcover (Series #20) 1 copy
The Night Before Christmas (Illustrated): A Polar Bear Family Edition; A Rhyming Picture Book About Love and Family (2024) 1 copy
By Clement C. Moore The Night Before Christmas: Told in Signed English (1st First Edition) [Hardcover] (1994) 1 copy
Night Before Christmas, The 1 copy
The Night Before Christmas: A Christmas Treasury Pop-Up Book (Christmas Treasury Pop-Up Books) (2001) 1 copy
Associated Works
The Illustrated Treasury of Children's Literature, Volumes 1-2 (1955) — Contributor — 523 copies, 4 reviews
The Children's Treasury: Best Loved Stories and Poems from Around the World (1987) — Contributor — 164 copies, 2 reviews
A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Tales (Barnes & Noble Leatherbound Classic Collection) (2021) — Contributor — 91 copies
A Season of Joy: Favorite Stories and Poems for Christmas (1987) — Contributor — 56 copies, 1 review
Kingfisher Christmas Book: A Collection of Stories, Poems and Carols for the Twelve Days of Christmas (1985) — Contributor — 29 copies
'Twas the Day Before Christmas: The Story of Clement Clarke Moore's Beloved Poem (2008) — Contributor — 26 copies, 2 reviews
My Little Library of Christmas Classics: The Night Before Christmas; The Nutcracker; Christmas Carols; The Fir Tree (1983) 18 copies
Christmas Classics: Stories for the Whole Family (2006) — Contributor; Contributor — 13 copies, 1 review
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Clement C. Moore
- Legal name
- Moore, Clement Clarke
- Birthdate
- 1779-07-15
- Date of death
- 1863-07-10
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Columbia College (BA|MA|1798) (Honorary LLD|1829)
- Occupations
- Professor of Oriental and Greek literature
scholar
poet
academic
real estate developer - Organizations
- Columbia College (now Columbia University)
General Theological Seminary (Protestant Episcopal Church)
New York Society Library
New York Institution for the Blind - Relationships
- Moore, Benjamin (father)
- Short biography
- Clement Clarke Moore grew up in Elmhurst, Queens, and graduated from Columbia College. He became a professor of Oriental and Greek Literature, as well as Divinity and Biblical Learning, at the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He is best remembered today as the author of the 1823 poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" -- usually called "The Night Before Christmas" -- although it was published anonymously. A park and playground located at 10th Avenue and 22nd Street are named after him.
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- New York City, Province of New York, British America
- Places of residence
- Elmhurst, Queens, New York, USA
- Place of death
- Newport, Rhode Island, USA
- Burial location
- Trinity Churchyard Cemetery, New York, New York, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
he classic Christmas poem gets citified.
Everyone knows Moore’s yuletide mainstay: “ʼTwas the night before Christmas, / when all through the house,” and so on. In the typical picture-book treatment, the home at the poem’s center is a single-family dwelling, its closest neighbor too far away to hit with a snowball. In Semmer’s rendering, the words “So up to the housetop the coursers they flew” are accompanied by an image of Santa’s reindeer on the roof of an apartment building show more that’s part of a city block. This time around, “the moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow” is paired with an illustration of, not a pristine lawn, but a snow-dusted cityscape, and the spread announcing “I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick” finds a brown-skinned guy, not a white dude, wearing the red suit. The book’s narrator is a Black child who lives in a beautifully appointed apartment with a cat and two siblings, two parents, and a grandparent. Semmer’s blocky, digitally tweaked pencil art, which suggests cut-paper tableaux, is micro-detailed and thoroughgoing—there is no unused space—and the traditional Christmas colors are represented by variants like tomato red, mint green, and mustard gold. Absolutely everything is alluring, especially the Christmas cookies, which sit on a dining table that faces not a Currier and Ives print, but a picture window overlooking a suspension bridge.
Good tidings indeed. (Picture book. 4-8)
-Kirkus Review show less
Everyone knows Moore’s yuletide mainstay: “ʼTwas the night before Christmas, / when all through the house,” and so on. In the typical picture-book treatment, the home at the poem’s center is a single-family dwelling, its closest neighbor too far away to hit with a snowball. In Semmer’s rendering, the words “So up to the housetop the coursers they flew” are accompanied by an image of Santa’s reindeer on the roof of an apartment building show more that’s part of a city block. This time around, “the moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow” is paired with an illustration of, not a pristine lawn, but a snow-dusted cityscape, and the spread announcing “I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick” finds a brown-skinned guy, not a white dude, wearing the red suit. The book’s narrator is a Black child who lives in a beautifully appointed apartment with a cat and two siblings, two parents, and a grandparent. Semmer’s blocky, digitally tweaked pencil art, which suggests cut-paper tableaux, is micro-detailed and thoroughgoing—there is no unused space—and the traditional Christmas colors are represented by variants like tomato red, mint green, and mustard gold. Absolutely everything is alluring, especially the Christmas cookies, which sit on a dining table that faces not a Currier and Ives print, but a picture window overlooking a suspension bridge.
Good tidings indeed. (Picture book. 4-8)
-Kirkus Review show less
I try to read this every year as it never fails to return me to my 5-year-old self, filled with excitement over the great and powerful Santa's impending visit. The catchy rhythm and rhyme of this delightful poem is contagious. I used to repeat it often as a child until the first lines were branded into my brain:
It always leaves me with a warm and satisfied glow as I read the last show more words:
''Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.'
It always leaves me with a warm and satisfied glow as I read the last show more words:
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"show less
'Twas the Night Before Christmas, illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith.
Clement C. Moore's delightful Christmas poem, chronicling a visit from jolly old St. Nicholas on Christmas Eve night, is here presented with the artwork of celebrated late 19th/early 20th-century illustrator Jessie Willcox Smith, and the result is charming! The illustrations vary in their kind - sometimes they consist of decorative first letters and small black and white drawings; sometimes they are full-color page show more illustrations, paired with a stanza of text on the facing page; and once, there is a glorious two-page depiction of St. Nicholas landing on the snowy rooftop in his sleigh - but they are all lovely.
This particular presentation of this classic poem, with Smith's illustrations, was apparently first published in 1912 - the poem itself first saw print in 1823 - although this reprint was done recently, in 2014. Long familiar with Smith's illustrations for various classic novels - Heidi, At the Back of the North Wind, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm - I think 'Twas the Night Before Christmas: A Visit from St. Nicholas is my first picture-book from her. Of the five illustrated versions of the poem that I have read in recent years, it ranks up there with the one by Charles Santore (my personal favorite), despite being in an entirely different style. The presentation and artwork here are old-fashioned (the poem itself has the original line about settling "our brains for a long winter's nap") but appealing. Recommended to anyone looking for a traditional presentation of this poem, as well as to fans of Jessie Willcox Smith. show less
Clement C. Moore's delightful Christmas poem, chronicling a visit from jolly old St. Nicholas on Christmas Eve night, is here presented with the artwork of celebrated late 19th/early 20th-century illustrator Jessie Willcox Smith, and the result is charming! The illustrations vary in their kind - sometimes they consist of decorative first letters and small black and white drawings; sometimes they are full-color page show more illustrations, paired with a stanza of text on the facing page; and once, there is a glorious two-page depiction of St. Nicholas landing on the snowy rooftop in his sleigh - but they are all lovely.
This particular presentation of this classic poem, with Smith's illustrations, was apparently first published in 1912 - the poem itself first saw print in 1823 - although this reprint was done recently, in 2014. Long familiar with Smith's illustrations for various classic novels - Heidi, At the Back of the North Wind, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm - I think 'Twas the Night Before Christmas: A Visit from St. Nicholas is my first picture-book from her. Of the five illustrated versions of the poem that I have read in recent years, it ranks up there with the one by Charles Santore (my personal favorite), despite being in an entirely different style. The presentation and artwork here are old-fashioned (the poem itself has the original line about settling "our brains for a long winter's nap") but appealing. Recommended to anyone looking for a traditional presentation of this poem, as well as to fans of Jessie Willcox Smith. show less
The Night Before Christmas, illustrated by Robert Ingpen
Clement C. Moore's immortal Christmas Eve poem, first written for his nine children in 1822, and subsequently published anonymously in the Troy Sentinel in 1823, is presented in this charming miniature picture-book edition, with the artwork of Australian illustrator Robert Ingpen. Each two-page spread contains a verse of two of the poem, paired with lovely artwork in subtle, wintry shades...
I enjoyed this presentation of The Night show more Before Christmas, which is done in a rather different style than the one by Charles Santore, hitherto my favorite version. Ingpen's Saint Nicholas has an immensely droll, winsome quality, and I particularly liked the scene in which he is sucking on his pipe, gazing sideways at the reader with a sharp, mischievous look in his eye. The opening scene, which shows a close-up of a mouse - it's paired with the opening lines, "Twas the night before Christmas, / when all through the house / Not a creature was stirring, / not even a mouse" - was a little startling, if I'm honest, but otherwise this is a sweet little edition. Recommended to Ingpen fans, and to anyone looking for picture-book presentations of this delightful poem. show less
Clement C. Moore's immortal Christmas Eve poem, first written for his nine children in 1822, and subsequently published anonymously in the Troy Sentinel in 1823, is presented in this charming miniature picture-book edition, with the artwork of Australian illustrator Robert Ingpen. Each two-page spread contains a verse of two of the poem, paired with lovely artwork in subtle, wintry shades...
I enjoyed this presentation of The Night show more Before Christmas, which is done in a rather different style than the one by Charles Santore, hitherto my favorite version. Ingpen's Saint Nicholas has an immensely droll, winsome quality, and I particularly liked the scene in which he is sucking on his pipe, gazing sideways at the reader with a sharp, mischievous look in his eye. The opening scene, which shows a close-up of a mouse - it's paired with the opening lines, "Twas the night before Christmas, / when all through the house / Not a creature was stirring, / not even a mouse" - was a little startling, if I'm honest, but otherwise this is a sweet little edition. Recommended to Ingpen fans, and to anyone looking for picture-book presentations of this delightful poem. show less
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