’Twas an O.K. book, but tour brought Moore to life

Volume Number 1 Issue Number 2| October 6 - 12, 2006

Notebook

A portrait late in his life of Clement Clarke Moore

By Lori Haught

He lived from the American Revolution until the Civil War. He saw Manhattan turn from countryside to city. He wrote one of the most beloved Christmas poems of all time, “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” better known as “ ’Twas the Night Before Christmas.”

Clement Clarke Moore bequeathed the name of Chelsea to our neighborhood. It was the name of his estate, which ran from Eighth to 10th Aves., between 19th and 24th Sts.

I recently read a book about Moore, Chelsea and his famous poem. Called “The Story of ‘ ’Twas the Night Before Christmas,’ ” it was a bit choppy, but ultimately full of useful information. I finished it in about an hour or two.

When I moved to Chelsea from Ohio, only a month ago now, although it seems like years, I took a walking tour. That too took a couple of hours, was filled with useful information and was far less dry then said book.

Joe, our tour guide, told us things like the house we were living in during our college internship program was at one point a brothel.

It was Joe who originally introduced Clement Clarke Moore to me.

My mother read “A Visit From St. Nicholas” to me every Christmas, but I didn’t know who wrote it till Joe told me. Actually, I found the other parts of Moore’s life much more fascinating.

Here’s a man that saw the city grow and saw the country struggle. What was it like to be him? To own a palatial country estate where brownstones and businesses now stand and to watch that happen, must have been something.

Here, the book comes in. It has no bibliography so the analytical journalist in me is wondering where the attribution for their sources is, and I end up just barely trusting it. I’ve assumed it came mostly from New York City public records and possibly journals from Moore, his family or his friends. If there are no journals, the authors have made powerful assumptions about Moore’s inner feelings.

Moore was a man of prominence and power and he understood progress. He didn’t try and fight the city’s expansion, although he dreaded it. Instead he developed the land himself, ensuring that the people who moved into Chelsea would be middle to upper class, educated and well-mannered neighbors.

He was wholly devoted to his family and education. He wrote the first Hebrew dictionary by an American and the first to be published in America. He watched the country rise up from under the British as a child of the American Revolution, and he witnessed it almost fall in the Civil War in his final years.

To me, that’s more impressive then a poem, even if it is the most widely known Christmas poem in history.