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About Eugene register-guard. (Eugene, Or.) 1930-1983 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 22, 1962)
Paje 6B EUGENE REGISTER-GUARD, Thurs.. Nov. 22. 1962 The Story Behind the Poem Professor Surprised His Children Had a language professor not been sent to the butcher shop on Christmas Eve, 1882, chances are we might not have our best known and best-loved Christmas poem. Clement Clarke Moore wrote "A Visit from St. Nicholas" while picking up the traditional turkey. The sometime poet had been trying to think of a sur prise for his six children. A poem was the logical solution On the way back from the shop, his mumbling may haie been something like this: "On Christmas Eve and everywhere humm On the night before Christmas ah Twas the night before Christmas and ... all through the house!" Moore was a well-to-do Ian guage professor living in the Chelsea section oi New xorit City early In the 19th Century. He was also, apparently, a speedy writer. By the time he reached his estate In what is now a crowded part of the great city he had composed the en tire poem. His children, ranging from 8 months to 7 years, were properly surprised and de lighted. Respectable scholars and translators such as Moore did not publish .such flippery in those days. It took much pass ing around of copies among rel atives before the poem reached the desk of tho Scntinal, a Troy. N.Y., newspaper. Just in time for tho following Christmas. I The Sentinal published the poem with a preface claiming it had no idea who had written it. This was to protect the pro fessor's reputation. Later, other newspapers picked it up, and Moore's Christmas Eve present was secure in American folk lore. Moore did not Invent Santa Claus. Nor did ho introduce the jolly figure to this country. Santa Claus had been central in ecclesiastical controversy since Pilgrim days. Tho Puritans flat ly outlawed any celebration of Christmas, solcm or otherwise. Other groups thought otherwise. Tho Dutch, particularly, would not give up their St. Nicholas, or Sinterklaas, who came origi nally not on Christmas Eve but on December 5. By Moore's lime, Santa Claus had been evolved to something not unlike the jolly old elf in the poem. The St. Nick of "A Visit" had a human model "a portly, rubi cund Dutchman living in the neighborhood of Chelsea," as Moore wrote a friend. It was typical of Moore to gather all tho lore already existing, then add touches of his own. such as the Dutchman, and a sleigh and eight tiny reindeer. "A Visit from St Nicholas" has been translated into nearly every language. There are more than 40 editions of the poem in the Library of Congress. To All - A Happy Thanksgiving FROM ALL OF US TO ALL OF OUR MANY FRIENDS Our sheerest gratilude for your failhful patron age, which we count together with our other blessings. Let us all this special day, each in his own way, offer our most heartfelt thanks to Almighty God . 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