[Literature] Moore, Clement Clarke. (1779 - 1863)
Poems [including "A Visit from St. Nicholas"] - PRESENTATION COPY
New York: Bartlett & Welford. 1844. First edition. A signed copy of the first appearance of "T'was the Night Before Christmas."First edition, collected and published at the request of Moore’s children. Contains the first appearance of his famous poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" ("Twas the Night Before Christmas") in a collection of his own verse. 12mo (7 1/4 x 4 3/4 inches; 184 x 121 mm). xi, [1, blank], [13]-216 pp. With a historically important presentation inscription by the author at the top of the half-title: “To His Excellency Baron Gerolt, Minister from Prussia to the United States, Washington. / With the respects of the Author. / April, 1846”. Publisher's original brown paper boards, printed paper spine label and upper 1.5 inch of spine cover perished, front hinge split and just barely attached. Interior, including presentation page, complete, tight and clean throughout. Chemised in a quarter leather slip case with raised spine and green leather labels with gilt lettering.
"A Visit from St. Nicholas" appears on pp. 124-127. The poem was first published in The Troy Sentinel (N.Y.), circa 1830 and not seen by BAL. There has been only one copy of The Troy Sentinel in the last 35 years. It sold in New York in 2006 in poor condition for about $65,000. The first appearance of the poem in book form was in an anthology, The New-York Book of Poetry (New-York: 1837). Moore’s Poems is much rarer than The New-York Book of Poetry and is the desired first edition since it contains only Moore's poems. "Moore, a professor of Hebrew, wrote this poem in 1822 as a Christmas gift for his children. A houseguest copied it in the fall of 1823, and later sent her copy to the editor of the Troy Sentinel, where it was first published, anonymously, December 23, 1823. It first appeared between covers in the New Brunswick, (N.J.) Almanack, for 1825.Calculated by Joshua Sharp, Philadelphia and New Brunswick, [1824]. It was quickly picked up by Readers and Anthologies, some of the more notable appearances being in The New York Book of Poetry, 1837, and in Bryant’s Selections from the American Poets, New York, 1840. The authorship was first disclosed in the Troy Budget, December 25, 1838" (Grolier, 100 American). BAL 14348. Grolier, 100 American, 52. HBS 65100.
Friedrich Karl Joseph Freiherr von Gerolt (1797 - 1879) was Prussian Privy Councillor, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in the United States for many years and a fixture in the Washington social scene from 1847 through 1872. He is still regarded as the longest serving ambassador of Germany in the U.S. (7764)
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