Holiday 2020 Catalogue

L i t e r a t u r e 24 Presentation Copy, Inscribed By Clement Moore, Of The Rare First Collected Edition Of His Poems, Featuring The First Appearance In A Book By Him Of “A Visit From St. Nicholas” 21. MOORE, Clement C. Poems. New York, 1844. Small octavo, contemporary three-quarter brown morocco gilt. $15,000. Rare first edition, presentation copy, of the volume containing the first appearance in a book by Moore of his immortal poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” [“Twas the Night Before Christmas...”] (pages 124-27), inscribed by Moore: “Mr. Miller, from the author. Dec. 1849.” “Not until St. Nicholas passed through the crucible of Doctor Clement Clarke Moore’s mind and imagination did the patron saint of childhood ever ride in a sleigh, or have eight tiny reindeer with bells joyfully to convey him... nor did he ever get into the homes of good little boys and girls by going down chimneys’“ ( Grolier American 100 52). Numerous newspaper printings followed the poem’s initial appearance in the December 1923 Troy Sentinel . The earliest known separate printing was an illustrated broadsheet published circa 1830 (BAL 14346). Its earliest located formal book publication (and its first appearance under Moore’s name) was in The New-York Book of Poetry (BAL 14347), edited by Charles Fenno Hoffman, which contained verse by Moore and many others. The present volume contains the first appearance of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” in a collection of Moore’s own work. Occasional marginal soiling, light foxing to endpapers and flyleaves, mild rubbing to contemporary binding. An extremely good inscribed copy. “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.”