1773

Henry wishes his fiance a Happy Christmas, a phrase whose first publication occurs in 1823 in the Troy Sentinel A Visit from St. Nicholas

1787

Henry publishes his first New Year's poem in newspaper

But now the end of all this clatter
Is but a small and trifling matter;
A puny six pence or a shilling
From willing souls to souls as willing

1803

Henry publishes another of his many New Year's poems in newspaper

But now comes blithe Christmas, while just in his rear,
Advances our faint, jolly, laughing, New-Year,

1803

Washington Irving notes in his diary that he goes to visit Platt in Whitesboro. Platt is Judge Jonas Platt, Henry's brother-in-law, as well as the mentor for Henry's son-in-law, Arthur Breese, who lives a few doors down from the Platts.

1807-1809

Henry reads the poem to sons Charles and Sidney, and little neighbor Eliza, who grows up to marry Charles.

1809

Washington Irving writes of Santa Claus

Before 1822

A governess visiting the Livingstons takes a copy of the poem with her when she goes to work for a Moore family "down south." On the way, she stops off in NYC, and leaves a copy of the poem with Clement Moore. (Henry's first cousin lives close to Henry. She's married to John Moore, the brother of Clement Moore's uncle.)

1819

Henry's New Year's Address is remarkably like the Christmas poem.

But hark what a clatter! the Jolly bells ringing,
The lads and lasses so jovially singing,
Tis New-Years they shout and then haul me along
In the midst of their merry-make Juvenile throng;
But I burst from their grasp: unforgetful of duty
To first pay obseisence to wisdom and Beauty,
My conscience and int'rest unite to command it,
And you, my kind PATRONS, deserve & demand it.
On your patience to trespass no longer I dare,
So bowing, I wish you a HAPPY NEW YEAR.

1822

Christmas - Moore, who writes moralistic Christmas poems of his own, reads this poem to his children as his own, but tells them not to let it out of the house. They do. (Moore later explains that no original version of the poem existed with crossouts because he composed the whole 56 line poem in his head and then wrote it down perfectly.)

1823

Couple weeks later. Someone who got poem from child gives poem to Troy Sentinel as anonymous.

1825

Poem goes into almanacs, so spreads like crazy. (It was McClure who changed Blixem's name to Blixen!)

1828

Henry dies

After 1828

Son Charles finds a published version of poem among his father's papers. (May be one not found. May be Pough Journal publication of early 1828.) Son Sidney finds the original manuscript of the poem with corrections and crossouts.

1830

Troy Sentinel publisher edits the poem massively and republishes it as broadsheet. BIG CHANGES: fixes awkward rhythm of reindeer names, but leaves original Dunder and Blixem. (This is source of current reindeer name rhythm.)

1835

Charles and Eliza reads the poem to their daughter as written by Henry

1837

Friend of Moore puts Moore's name on the poem. The friend changes Dunder to Donder, but keeps original awkward rhythm of reindeer names. (This is source of change of Dunder to Donder, latter to become Donner.)

1842

Son Sidney reads the poem to his son as written by Henry

1844

Moore asks Troy Sentinel publisher if he knew who wrote the poem when he published it. Norm Tuttle says he didn't. Includes a copy of his much changed 1830 broadsheet. Moore uses that copy as his base, and makes a few changes in it, including picking up his friend's Donder, and changing Blixen (who had had his name changed from Blixem, then Nixen) to Blitzen. Publishes it in his book POEMS. So the creation of the name Blitzen is Moore's only important change to the poem. (This is source of change of Blixem to Blitzen.)

1856

Sidney dies and leaves original manuscript of poem to brother Edwin, who moves to Wisconsin.

1859

Sarah Elizabeth Griswold's mother discovers a copy of the poem attributed to Moore. Son Edwin loses the poem manuscript in a Wisconsin house fire.

1860

Sidney's family discovers poem with Moore's name on it.

After 1860

Family doesn't publicly proclaim Henry's authorship against Moore because Moore is high in the seminary of the Episcopalian Church, of which his father was a Bishop, and many of Henry's family are now ministers in the church, or married to ministers.

1863

Moore dies.

1889

Several lines of Henry's children begin to correspond and ask whether they can prove Henry's claim (including Catharine's descendants Anne Livingston Griswold and Cornelia Griswold Goodrich, as well as Catharine's half sisters Eliza and Helen). Decide they can't.

1899

Son Sidney's son, Henry Livingston of Babylon LI, publishes Henry's claim in his own newspaper. No impact.

1920

Daughter Jane's grandson William Sturgis Thomas becomes interested in search, gathers materials, convinces some people to publish in NYC papers. Seems to fall dud with no impact. But Moore descendant gets cousin to write deposition telling story of Moore's saying that when he, Moore, came to publish the poem in 1844 it only needed 2 small changes from the original way he wrote it.

1970

William's son W. Stephen Thomas brings Vassar President MacCracken in as apologist for Henry. First Day Cover calls Henry the author. Then it's all forgotten.

2000

Summer. Mary Van Deusen asks Don Foster to investigate authorship. He agrees on the condition she do underlying research work. She agrees.

2000

Autumn. Stephen Livingston Thomas, the son of W. Stephen Thomas, arrives with his Thomas Collection of Henry Livingston material. Don comes to the conclusion that Henry is the probable author, based on comparing three people for style and literary influences - Henry Livingston, Clement Moore, and the author of the Christmas poem. Don also discovers a letter showing that before Moore publishes the poem, he asks the publisher of the Troy Sentinel if he knew the author of the poem before he published it. The publisher says no. Moore then publishes the poem among his other poems. Don calls the letter "the coast is clear letter."

2000

October. Don puts his conclusions into a chapter of Author Unknown, and his book comes out to tremendous publicity (New York Times, People Magazine, the Today Show, etc).

2001

Mary Van Deusen hears the story that the names of the reindeer were the names of the horses in Henry's stable. She also finds an entry in the diary of Washington Irving, credited with the "invention" of Santa Claus, showing that he knew Henry's brother-in-law, Jonas Platt (who lived next to Henry's daughter and son-in-law), around the time of Henry writing the poem and before the publication of "Knickerbocker's History of New York." Mary is contacted by a Moore/Livingston descendant and they together find that Henry's neighbor and first cousin is married to the brother of the man who married Clement Moore's aunt.

2002

Mary Van Deusen discovers Moore's cousin's deposition saying that when he went to publish the poem in 1844, it only took 2 small changes from what he originally wrote. But with that deposition was also the original letter from the Troy Sentinel publisher and a copy of the publisher's 1830 version of the poem he first published in 1823. And on that copy are handwritten a few small changes! Because Mary collected early versions, on Don's request to look for influences on Moore's 1844 version, she knows that there weren't 2 small changes. There were 21! Tuttle massively edited the 1823 version in the 1830 version. The publisher neglected to mention that fact to Moore, who thought he had been given the original 1823 version.

Moore didn't know the difference between the 1823 and 1844 versions of "his poem" because he didn't write it!