TRIAL BEFORE CHRISTMAS:
On December 7th, 2014, a mock trial was put together by Duncan Crary and Jack Casey in Troy NY, the city where 'Night Before Christmas' was first published in the Troy Sentinel.

Jack and Molly Casey prosecuted Henry Livingston's case against Clement Moore for claiming authorship of a poem written by Henry, with me, Mary Van Deusen, plaintiff for 5th great grandfather, Henry.

Moore was defended by E. Stewart Jones, Jr., with Chris Post defendant for his ancestor, Clement Clarke Moore. The presiding judge was Retired New York State Supreme Court Justice Edward O. Spain. 6 spectators were randomly chosen for the jury.

The ghost of Henry Livingston was brilliantly played by Byron Nilsson.

The verdict was unanimous!  Henry Livingston, Jr. was the author of "A Visit from St. Nicholas."

NEW RESEARCH DATA AREA:
For seven months in 2012 I worked with a researcher on the author attribution question. Long and wonderful days and nights of total obsession, and we restart in January. Learned so very much and loved every minute. He wants me to put up a data area to support his research and, until he publishes, I'm going to start with one of the data bases that really didn't win us anything. But, still, it's fun to look at fundamental data. And, yes, I do remember reading phone books as a kid.

BOOK ATTRIBUTING POEM TO HENRY:
2011: The Boston Globe has done an article on an illustrated book of "An Account of a Visit From St. Nicholas" from St. Nicholas Press that attributes the poem to Henry.

THE ARGUMENTS FOR HENRY:
The arguments for Henry as the author of A Visit From St. Nicholas are persuasive. They range from witnesses telling their children and grandchildre that they heard the poem read by Henry, to considerations of style. Don Foster's approach to the authorship issue was to compare the work of three people: Henry Livingston, Clement Moore, and the unknown author of the Christmas poem. His conclusion: the literary influences on Henry and the unknown author were almost identical; the influences on Moore completely different.

REINDEER NAMES:
Follow the meandering reindeer name trail from Dunder and Blixem to Donder and Blitzen.

THE QUEST TO PROVE HENRY'S AUTHORSHIP:
From 1879 on, the Livingston family tried to bring Henry's claim to the public, but their efforts were unsuccessful. In 1920, William Sturges Thomas took up the quest from his older relatives with far more success. But though he was able to make his case public, the public wasn't ready to believe the son of an Episcopalian archbishop had plagarized a piece of writing. W. Stephen Thomas took up the quest for his generation, and did convince Vassar President MacCracken, but that still didn't carry weight with the general public. In 1999, another descendant, Mary Van Deusen, brought the problem to Don Foster, an expert in attribution of anonymous works. With Don supplying the direction and the analysis, Don and Mary the low-level research, and Stephen Livingston Thomas making available the collected materials he had inherited, Don put a major stake into the ground for Henry's claim.

SCHOLARS FOR HENRY:
Jill Farringdon, a British researcher into authorship attribution by a different method than Don Foster's, subjected the writing of Henry Livingston and Clement Moore to her Cusum analysis. Her conclusions were that:
  1. the anonymous poem had been written by a single author
  2. The poem was clearly distinguishable from the utterance of Moore
  3. The poem was INDISTINGUISHABLE from the utterance of Major Livingston

WITNESS LETTERS:
While the world was falling in love with the Christmas poem, Henry's children were teaching their children that their grandfather had written it. By the time the Livingston family finally learned that Moore had taken credit for the poem in 1844, it was already 1860, Henry was long dead, and the original was ashes in a Wisconsin fire. From then on, descendants pooled their memories in the hope that someday someone could prove the case they didn't know how to prove.

EARLY TEXT VARIATIONS:
As part of his investigation, Don Foster examined text variations in early publications to see if Moore's 1844 version owed anything to an earlier editor. And, indeed, it did. The major change in the poem, the reindeer name rhythm, was actually made by Norman Tuttle, the owner of the Troy Sentinel.

SOURCE MATERIALS:
Wherever practically possible, full texts of source materials are available. You'll find everything from a Clement Moore apologist's brushing off of Henry, to the defense of Henry's authorship by Dr. Henry Noble MacCracken, president of Vassar College.

ANTIQUE POSTCARDS OF SANTA CLAUS:
Antique Christmas postcards are a favorite collectible. They are inexpensive, easy to store, and provide access to a wide range of artists from many countries. This collection includes photographic cards, Santas with non-red clothing, and some pretty crotchety Santas thrown in for good measure.

ANTIQUE EDITIONS OF 'NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS':
While Christmas has always been a favorite subject of artists, A Visit From St. Nicholas has been absolutely inspirational. Early magazines published the poem with an engraving by Nash. Later Nash art appeared in publications devoted to only that Christmas poem.

PUBLICITY:
Don Foster's book, Author Unknown, hit the world with the force of a bomb. The New York Times published a story on the front page of an inside section, and took up a second page, as well. Two page spreads were the order of the day, from People Magazine to the Washington Post.

FICTION:
A fictional account of Henry's writing of the Christmas poem.

A UNIQUE MUSIC VIDEO:
Making this video was a dream of mine for many years. The Trail Band recites the poem and what you see are the illustrations from my collection of vintage editions of the poem. I've been making music videos for 30 years and I am exceptionally proud of this one.

My videos have to be downloaded and unzipped. Many computers come with software to play the video. If yours doesn't, VLC has a free program that plays the large and clear mp2 versions, and the smaller mp4 ones.

"THE LIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS":
A charming stop motion animation film from WriteExpress. that attributes the poem to Henry.