The Night Before Christmas (1916)

Lovely Early 20th-Century Illustrated Edition of "The Night Before Christmas"

Moore, Clement C. The Night Before Christmas. Chicago: M.A. Donohue, 1916.

Small quarto. Softcover.

Early 20th-century edition of this depiction of Clement C. Moore's classic Christmas poem, wonderfully color-illustrated. American author Clement C. Moore created important parts of our modern Christmas with his poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas," now routinely known as "The Night Before Christmas" due to its first line. Based partially on Washington Irving's version of St. Nicholas, Moore's version introduced key elements such as the names of Santa's reindeer. Interestingly, Moore's poem was largely meant to draw attention away from Christmas Day and re-center Christmas Eve due to Catholic-Protestant religious conflict at the time. Today, "The Night Before Christmas" is loved by all Christian denominations and is a part of family traditions in millions of households. Color illustrations bright and beautiful, minor wear to extremities, cloth spine neatly added at an early date due to failed original staples, center signatures detached but well-housed due to page texture. A lovely copy of a fragile and rare work.