A Visit from St. Nicholas, aka The Night Before Christmas
A large collection of antique “Twas The Night Before Christmas” (”A Visit From St. Nicholas”) books and publications is reprinted below. “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (also known as “A Visit of St. Nicholas”, “The Night Before Christmas” or “Twas The Night Before Christmas”) was first published anonymously in the Troy Sentinel (New York) on December 23, 1823 and was reprinted for a number of years without attribution. In 1844 Clement Clarke Moore claimed authorship (see below for a scan of Poems which was the first publication of Moore’s own claim to authorship) himself in one of his books of poems. The first currently known credit to Moore was the December 25, 1837 edition of the Pennsylvania Inquirer and Daily Courier which credited “Professor Moore” as the author.
We reprint hundreds of scans from Christian Riley’s SantaClaus.com collection of A Visit from St. Nicholas for the enjoyment of people around the world (if you wish to link to material from SantaClaus.com, VisitFromStNicholas.com or TheNightBeforeChristmas.com we kindly ask that you note it). Both SantaClaus.com and TheNightBeforeChristmas.com reprint selected versions of the poem as the shear number of editions reprinted here may be considered overwhelming by some. However, as we fully scan in the entire collection, we believe that as people’s tastes in food varies, so may their tastes in favorite adaptions of the poem. Likewise, as the three sites contain the largest collection of “The Night Before Christmas” scans on the internet, it may be useful for those interested in the history of the poem to have a complete collection available.
If you would like to discuss The Night Before Christmas, the SantaClaus.com Christmas forums are the perfect place.
Would you like to include a scan that you don’t see here? If it is pre-1923, then we would love a full scan of the book. If it is pre-1964, it may be out of copyright so if you have a scan we can probably check. If it is post 1963, then it is not out of copyright, but a scan of the cover would be useful, discuss The Night Before Christmas with us here.
The names represent the following:
1837-3-14-New-York Mirror-Dec-23
1837 – the year, followed by a number indicating the # published, 3 being the 3rd item for that year
14-The number from Nancy Marshall’s bibliography (if it is followed by an “s” it is similar but not identical)
New York Mirror – Publication, followed by date if available.
We are adopting a “year-number” format in order to facilitate referencing the books while allowing for additions that are as yet unknown. The numbers from Nancy H. Marshall’s bibliography are included for reference.
Copies may be available at Biblio, AbeBooks – Rare Books, or Alibris if you are interested.
Without further ado, here are the scans, clicking on a thumbnail will bring up a full sized image:
I have a copy of The Night Before Christmas and other Popular Stories for Children, 1903 by Homewood Publishing Co. in Chicago A.E. Wilcox not seen here, though the cover and color print match the 1905-Wilcox from above. My book also has: The Night After Christmas, The Three Legged Lamb, My Dear Dolly, Christmas Day, The Dolls Christmas Party, Grandma’s Christmas Gifts, Mama’s Happy Christmas, The Christmas Carol of the Birds, A Turkey For One, Little Christmas Carollers, Preparing For Christmas, A Present From Santa Claus and Jennie, The Bread Dough Queen, Christmas in the Country, A Christmas Stocking in march, Christmas Through The Centuries, A Very Merry Christmas, Pug and the naughty Monkey, What Happened Christmas Eve, and Annie and Willie’s Prayer.
Comment by Eileen — December 5, 2009 @ 7:13 am
Hi,
I recently obtained a copy of Mary Ogdens little caligraphied version of the poem published in 1855. Can someone tell me what is the value of this book, or rather pamphlet?
Seems very unlikely that something this frail would survive this long in this kind of shape.
Can you tell me how many were printed and how many are known to exist?
thanks,
Patrick
Comment by Patrick McAndrews — July 23, 2010 @ 9:05 pm
we have holographic copy similar to the one shown 1863-1-53 and we are interested in the value. can you help us out?
thank you
brian
Comment by brian winslow — July 29, 2010 @ 8:07 pm
Hi,
There was only one original, but then there were reprints later. As far as I know there are no accurate figures as to the number that were printer or known to exist. I’m guessing the value is in the $100-$300 range, but it is really hard to tell which is why the range is so large. I don’t think it is super-rare (e.g. there are some where only 2-3 copies are known, some with only 1 copy).
Chris
Comment by admin — July 29, 2010 @ 8:44 pm
Hi,
The holographic copy shown is a copy of a holographic copy. There are only 4 (if memory serves) known original holographic copies, one of which hasn’t been seen since the 1870s I think. (Those are off the top of my head, but reasonably accurate). If it were a true holographic copy it would be extremely valuable, but the odds are against it. In all likelihood it is a reprint of one of the 3 surviving ones and so the value would really depend on the age. E.g. a copy printed in 1890 would be a more valuable than one printed in 1990. If you want to send along an image, I’ll take a look. You can also see for yourself if it is an identical match to one of them. Then the question would become when it was printed.
Chris
Comment by admin — July 29, 2010 @ 8:48 pm