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Henry Livingston, Jr. (October 13, 1748 - February 29, 1828) has been proposed as being the uncredited author of the poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas", more popularly known (after its first line) as "The Night Before Christmas." Credit for the poem was taken in 1837 by Clement Clarke Moore, a Bible scholar in New York City, nine years after Livingston's death. It wasn't until another twenty years that the Livingston family knew of Moore's claim, and it wasn't until 1900 that they went public with their claim. Since then, the question has been repeatedly raised and argued by experts on both sides. In 2000, Professor Don Foster made a strong case for Livingston's authorship, while Professor Stephen Nissenbaum and manuscript dealer Seth Keller, who had owned a Moore manuscript copy of the poem at the time of Foster's book, argued for Moore. Fifteen years later New Zealand scholar and Emeritus Professor of English Literature, MacDonald P. Jackson, invested over a year of research statistically analyzing the poetry of both men. (His conclusion ): "Every test, so far applied, associates "The Night Before Christmas" much more closely with Livingston's verse than with Moore's." ==Biography== He was born on October 13, 1748 in Poughkeepsie, New York, to Henry Livingston, Sr. and Susannah Conklin. In 1774, Livingston married Sarah Welles, the daughter of Reverend Noah Welles, the minister of the Stamford, Connecticut Congregational Church.〔Dr. William S. Thomas, "Henry Livingston", (Dutchess County Historical Society ) 1919 ''Yearbook'', pp. 32-46.〕 Their daughter Catherine was born shortly before Livingston joined the army on a six months' enlistment. In 1776, their son Henry Welles Livingston was born; the child was fatally burned at the age of fourteen months and, when another son was born, he was given the same name, according to the common practice of necronyms. Livingston farmed. Sarah died in 1783, and the children were boarded out. During this period Livingston began writing poetry.〔(Henry Livingston's Poetry )〕 Over the next ten years, Livingston was occupied with poetry and drawings for his friends and family, some of which ended up in the pages of ''New York Magazine'' and the ''Poughkeepsie Journal''. Although he signed his drawings, his poetry was usually anonymous or signed simply, "R". Ten years to the day after Sarah's death, Livingston remarried.〔Marriage Notice, ''Poughkeepsie Journal'', September 11, 1793.〕 Jane Patterson, at 24, was 21 years younger than her husband. Their first baby arrived nine months after the wedding. After that, the couple bore seven more children. It was for this second family that Henry Livingston is believed by some〔Henry Noble MacCracken, (''Blithe Dutchess; the Flowering of an American County from 1812'' ), Hastings House, NY, 1958, pp. 370-390.〕〔Donald W. Foster, ''Author Unknown: On the Trail of Anonymous'', New York: Henry Holt, 2000.〕 to have written the famous poem known as "A Visit from St. Nicholas" or "The Night Before Christmas". This famous Christmas poem first appeared in the (''Troy Sentinel'' ) on December 23, 1823. There seems to be no question that the poem came out of the home of Clement Moore, and the person giving the poem to the newspaper, without Moore's knowledge, certainly believed the poem had been written by Moore. However, several of Livingston's children remembered their father reading that very same poem to them fifteen years earlier. As early as 1837, Charles Fenno Hoffman, a friend of Moore's, put Moore's name on the poem.〔Charles Fenno Hoffman, ed., (''The New-York Book of Poetry'' ) (New York: G. Dearborn, 1837), with preface dated "Dec. 24, 1836."〕 In 1844, Moore published the poem in his own book, ''Poems''.〔Clement C. Moore, "Account of a Visit From St. Nicholas," in ''Poems'', New York: Bartlett & Welford, 1844.〕 At multiple times in his later life, Moore wrote out the now famous poem in longhand for his friends. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Henry Livingston, Jr.」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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