# Did Clement Moore Write 'A Visit From St. Nicholas'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [December 5, 2000, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-clement-moore-write-a-visit-from-st-nicholas/44155 "2000-12-05T16:37:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Humble\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/47e85d/32.png) [@Humble\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humble_Servant)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2000, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-clement-moore-write-a-visit-from-st-nicholas/44155/1 "2000-12-05T16:37:19Z")
The [Santa Claus](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/msantaclaus.html) column discusses “A Visit From Saint Nicholas,” long attributed to Clement Moore. The New York Times recently published an article by David Kirkpatrick entitled, “Whose Jolly Old Elf is that Anyway?,” discussing some new “word analysis/frequency” scholarship suggesting the author is actually another writer. (Here is a [link](http://search.nytimes.com/guests/search/select_search.cgi) to the Times archive search engine where you can find a blurb about the article; unfortunately, the whole article does not seem to be available for free anywhere on the web.) The gist of the article was that Clement Moore was rather a humorless, child-unfriendly kind of guy, while the actual author (can’t recall who it is claimed to be) was a much jollier sort, much more likely to have written this thing. He died shortly after the story was published anonymously, and his descendants pursued the old family story with the literary analyst. Does anyone remember the other details? ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2000, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-clement-moore-write-a-visit-from-st-nicholas/44155/2 "2000-12-05T16:44:35Z")
And here I thought it was written by Marlowe… ---
**Author:** ![Humble\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/47e85d/32.png) [@Humble\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humble_Servant)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2000, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-clement-moore-write-a-visit-from-st-nicholas/44155/3 "2000-12-05T19:24:17Z")
. . . or Bacon. I finally found a free [link](http://www.suntimes.com/output/kisor/kisor12.html) to an article based on the original. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2000, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-clement-moore-write-a-visit-from-st-nicholas/44155/4 "2000-12-05T22:24:46Z")
I always thought it was written by the Earl of Oxford… [just stopping by to shake **Euty’s** hand for having had the good taste, and good sense, to include _The Battle for Christmas_ in his bibliography. I read it a couple years ago and literally couldn’t put it down. WTG!] ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2000, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-clement-moore-write-a-visit-from-st-nicholas/44155/5 "2000-12-06T00:02:07Z")
To return to the original point, it should be observed that the _exact_ image of Santa Claus common in the USA from, say, the 30’s to the 60’s, and still the standard image in realistic artwork, does derive somewhat from the Coca-Cola advertising campaign. It ultimately derives from Nast’s illustration, but the precise use of red, fur trim, belt, etc., and even the general anatomy of the face owe much to Haddom Sundblom’s paintings for Coke.