The Night Before Christmas: A Descriptive Bibliography of Clement Clarke Moore’s Immortal Poem, with Editions from 1823 through 2000

Few reference librarians have escaped the Christmas enquiry about the names of Santa’s reindeers. They are, as many a “fugitive file” will reveal: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen. I must, however, be in a minority by not knowing that they come from Clement Clarke Moore’s “immortal” poem of 1822. Many among my staff could quote: “Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house/Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse”. Further ignorance was revealed when I discovered that the good Rev. Moore, Professor of Oriental and Greek Literature, and also of Divinity and...