1 00:00:15,356 --> 00:00:15,796 Speaker 1: Pushkin. 2 00:00:22,836 --> 00:00:26,396 Speaker 2: There are some sure signs that the holidays have arrived. 3 00:00:26,516 --> 00:00:28,636 Speaker 2: The lights go up on main street of the town 4 00:00:28,636 --> 00:00:31,916 Speaker 2: where I live. People pull their coats a little tighter 5 00:00:31,956 --> 00:00:34,956 Speaker 2: around them as they go from shop to shop, and 6 00:00:35,036 --> 00:00:38,956 Speaker 2: my colleague, then the daf Haffrey, shows up to tell 7 00:00:38,996 --> 00:00:43,116 Speaker 2: me some absolutely crazy story about Christmas. 8 00:00:45,076 --> 00:00:47,836 Speaker 3: Twas the Night before Christmas. He and God and all 9 00:00:47,876 --> 00:00:51,676 Speaker 3: through the house not a creature was stirring, not even 10 00:00:51,676 --> 00:00:52,636 Speaker 3: a mouse. That's right. 11 00:00:53,396 --> 00:00:56,356 Speaker 2: This, of course, is a visit from Saint Nicholas, more 12 00:00:56,356 --> 00:00:59,996 Speaker 2: commonly known as Twas the Night before Christmas, a poem 13 00:00:59,996 --> 00:01:02,996 Speaker 2: that Ben has let's just say, learned a little too 14 00:01:03,116 --> 00:01:05,116 Speaker 2: much about over the past few months. 15 00:01:05,636 --> 00:01:07,716 Speaker 3: Have you read the Stuart Little version of this, where, 16 00:01:08,276 --> 00:01:11,916 Speaker 3: to save Stuart's feelings, the Littles rewrite it as not 17 00:01:11,956 --> 00:01:14,916 Speaker 3: even a Laus, because I don't want it. This too 18 00:01:14,956 --> 00:01:19,236 Speaker 3: demeaning to my His poem's everywhere. It's in Stuart Little. 19 00:01:19,516 --> 00:01:23,436 Speaker 3: It's die hard presidents read this poem. The stockings were 20 00:01:23,476 --> 00:01:26,716 Speaker 3: hung by the chimney with care, in hopes the Saint 21 00:01:26,796 --> 00:01:30,396 Speaker 3: Nicholas soon would be there. The children were nestled all 22 00:01:30,436 --> 00:01:32,676 Speaker 3: snug in their beds, while visions of sugar. 23 00:01:32,516 --> 00:01:34,516 Speaker 1: Sugar pumps danced in their heads. 24 00:01:34,716 --> 00:01:36,836 Speaker 3: I'm on her kerchief and I in my cap had 25 00:01:36,876 --> 00:01:39,516 Speaker 3: just settled our brains. Very weird choice of words there 26 00:01:40,076 --> 00:01:41,076 Speaker 3: for a long winters. 27 00:01:41,156 --> 00:01:43,196 Speaker 2: Now this went on for. 28 00:01:43,236 --> 00:01:46,756 Speaker 3: What quick I knew in a moment it must be nick. 29 00:01:48,876 --> 00:01:52,596 Speaker 3: So this is this is the poem that creates, it 30 00:01:52,636 --> 00:01:56,396 Speaker 3: fully launches the modern Santa Claus. It's his, it's the 31 00:01:56,396 --> 00:01:58,636 Speaker 3: first time the reindeers are named. It's the first time 32 00:01:58,636 --> 00:02:01,996 Speaker 3: he gets eight and not one. And it's it. It 33 00:02:02,156 --> 00:02:06,836 Speaker 3: is the blueprint for American Christmas. Very everyone thinks Christmas 34 00:02:06,876 --> 00:02:09,996 Speaker 3: is this ancient thing. There's no ever since that Jesus 35 00:02:10,076 --> 00:02:12,836 Speaker 3: Christ was born on December twenty fifth. The whole thing 36 00:02:12,876 --> 00:02:17,676 Speaker 3: is this invented tradition, and it is this poem that 37 00:02:17,836 --> 00:02:21,276 Speaker 3: gives us the modern American Christmas. Written by Clement Clark 38 00:02:21,316 --> 00:02:24,436 Speaker 3: Moore in eighteen twenty two, published in Upstate New York 39 00:02:24,476 --> 00:02:26,396 Speaker 3: and The Troy Sentinel in eighteen twenty three. 40 00:02:26,996 --> 00:02:29,956 Speaker 2: Until you mentioned this to me, hadn't fully understood how 41 00:02:31,236 --> 00:02:35,196 Speaker 2: extraordinary this accomplishment of this poem is. I don't even 42 00:02:35,236 --> 00:02:36,636 Speaker 2: like Christmas, I could guests. 43 00:02:36,636 --> 00:02:40,236 Speaker 3: So we've established this in prior versions of our Christmas. 44 00:02:39,836 --> 00:02:42,436 Speaker 2: Episode, I can get halfway through that from memory. I 45 00:02:42,436 --> 00:02:46,756 Speaker 2: suspect that an insanely high percentage of Americans can get 46 00:02:47,276 --> 00:02:49,876 Speaker 2: a significant way into this poem from memory. 47 00:02:49,916 --> 00:02:52,756 Speaker 3: I would stake my life on the fact that more 48 00:02:52,796 --> 00:02:56,436 Speaker 3: people this is the only poem that most people know totally. 49 00:02:56,196 --> 00:03:00,316 Speaker 2: Agree total, And I was going to say that an 50 00:03:00,356 --> 00:03:02,876 Speaker 2: incredibly higher percentage of people of Americas not only know 51 00:03:03,556 --> 00:03:07,516 Speaker 2: this poem from memory, but no other poems at this 52 00:03:07,636 --> 00:03:09,436 Speaker 2: length from memory absolutely yeah. 53 00:03:09,516 --> 00:03:12,156 Speaker 3: Yeah, so, but the first thing people would have read 54 00:03:12,316 --> 00:03:14,356 Speaker 3: of the Night Before Christmas is not even the poem. 55 00:03:14,516 --> 00:03:17,316 Speaker 3: In fact, it begins it is introduced by an editor's 56 00:03:17,356 --> 00:03:20,596 Speaker 3: note that starts with the line we know not to 57 00:03:20,676 --> 00:03:23,116 Speaker 3: whom we are indebted for the following description of that 58 00:03:23,236 --> 00:03:27,556 Speaker 3: unwearied patron of children dot dot Santa Claus. Yeah, it 59 00:03:27,596 --> 00:03:30,156 Speaker 3: starts by acknowledging that they don't know who wrote it. 60 00:03:30,516 --> 00:03:30,716 Speaker 1: Yeah. 61 00:03:31,076 --> 00:03:34,916 Speaker 2: So it begins with an authorship mystery, and the authorship 62 00:03:34,956 --> 00:03:36,596 Speaker 2: mystery persists. 63 00:03:36,876 --> 00:03:39,756 Speaker 3: Yes, so I propose to end it here today. 64 00:03:39,876 --> 00:03:45,316 Speaker 2: Yeah, you're listening to Revisionist History, my podcast about things 65 00:03:45,356 --> 00:03:53,316 Speaker 2: overlooked and misunderstood. I'm Malcolm Gladwell. Today we bring you 66 00:03:53,356 --> 00:03:57,196 Speaker 2: our annual holiday spectacular, which this year is not about 67 00:03:57,196 --> 00:04:02,516 Speaker 2: sugar plums, but about a historic theft, a literary crime 68 00:04:02,956 --> 00:04:07,996 Speaker 2: that begins with a bold accusation. For nearly two hundred years, 69 00:04:08,396 --> 00:04:12,236 Speaker 2: have we your TRIPU did this immensely famous poem to 70 00:04:12,316 --> 00:04:22,436 Speaker 2: the wrong person? My colleague bend Adaf Haffrey has a story. Oh, 71 00:04:22,476 --> 00:04:25,196 Speaker 2: one last thing. If you're listening with young children familiar 72 00:04:25,196 --> 00:04:29,636 Speaker 2: with Santa Claus, this episode might challenge their sense of reality, 73 00:04:30,596 --> 00:04:32,476 Speaker 2: Proceed with caution. 74 00:04:34,276 --> 00:04:37,476 Speaker 3: Sometime in the late nineteen nineties, a woman named Mary 75 00:04:37,556 --> 00:04:40,516 Speaker 3: van Dusen logged onto the Internet. She was looking up 76 00:04:40,556 --> 00:04:45,756 Speaker 3: her great great great great great grandfather, Major Henry Livingston junior. 77 00:04:45,916 --> 00:04:49,876 Speaker 3: That's right, seven generations back, and while browsing the World 78 00:04:49,876 --> 00:04:53,356 Speaker 3: Wide Web, she came across a piece of information that 79 00:04:53,516 --> 00:04:54,756 Speaker 3: changed the course of her life. 80 00:04:55,476 --> 00:04:58,156 Speaker 4: One of the pages that came up was just a 81 00:04:58,356 --> 00:05:02,276 Speaker 4: very short little page, but it said two things. It 82 00:05:02,436 --> 00:05:07,796 Speaker 4: said that Henry Livingston was a possible author of Night 83 00:05:07,836 --> 00:05:11,596 Speaker 4: before Christmas, and it said that he had named his 84 00:05:11,796 --> 00:05:16,476 Speaker 4: reindeer for the horses in his stable. Who would believe it? 85 00:05:17,356 --> 00:05:20,556 Speaker 3: Henry Livingston Junior was a gentleman farmer and poet from 86 00:05:20,556 --> 00:05:23,556 Speaker 3: a prominent early American family. He was reputed to be 87 00:05:23,596 --> 00:05:27,036 Speaker 3: a great lover of Christmas, and, crucially for our purposes today, 88 00:05:27,236 --> 00:05:30,996 Speaker 3: not Clement Clark Moore, the person who had claimed authorship 89 00:05:31,036 --> 00:05:33,876 Speaker 3: of the poem not long after its publication, and who 90 00:05:33,916 --> 00:05:37,156 Speaker 3: for almost two centuries the general public has believed wrote it. 91 00:05:37,956 --> 00:05:40,676 Speaker 3: So to Marry and others in her family, it seemed 92 00:05:40,676 --> 00:05:44,356 Speaker 3: he was also the victim of a historic injustice. Just 93 00:05:44,396 --> 00:05:46,996 Speaker 3: a couple decades after a visit from Saint Nicholas, the 94 00:05:47,036 --> 00:05:50,676 Speaker 3: poem was published, his granddaughter came across a best selling 95 00:05:50,716 --> 00:05:55,116 Speaker 3: holiday edition and saw the author's name clearly printed, Clement 96 00:05:55,356 --> 00:05:58,396 Speaker 3: Clark Moore, at which point she brought it in a 97 00:05:58,476 --> 00:06:01,196 Speaker 3: hurry to her mother, Henry's daughter in law, who said, 98 00:06:01,556 --> 00:06:04,316 Speaker 3: someone has made a mistake. Clement Moore did not write 99 00:06:04,356 --> 00:06:08,276 Speaker 3: the night before Christmas. Your grandfather, Henry Livingston wrote it. 100 00:06:08,356 --> 00:06:10,716 Speaker 4: They saw a wrong that needed to be writed. 101 00:06:11,516 --> 00:06:16,116 Speaker 3: So then you start looking at this right now. Henry 102 00:06:16,156 --> 00:06:19,396 Speaker 3: had never claimed authorship himself, but he died in eighteen 103 00:06:19,436 --> 00:06:21,556 Speaker 3: twenty eight, so no one could ask him about it. 104 00:06:22,236 --> 00:06:25,316 Speaker 3: But the family remembered it as Henry's poem, and they 105 00:06:25,356 --> 00:06:27,916 Speaker 3: took it upon themselves to do the research to prove 106 00:06:27,956 --> 00:06:32,036 Speaker 3: it to the world, and so began the Great Livingston Quest. 107 00:06:32,676 --> 00:06:36,796 Speaker 3: This is Montague's and Cabulot's Hatfield and McCoy's Christmas Edition. 108 00:06:42,076 --> 00:06:47,356 Speaker 4: The first person took it up were the children of Catherine, 109 00:06:48,236 --> 00:06:51,676 Speaker 4: my fourth grade grandmother, so I was always pleased about that. 110 00:06:52,396 --> 00:06:56,716 Speaker 3: At the beginning, all the family had was recollection relatives 111 00:06:56,716 --> 00:06:59,596 Speaker 3: who said that Henry Livingston Junior had read the poem 112 00:06:59,636 --> 00:07:02,356 Speaker 3: aloud to them when they were kids, but they needed 113 00:07:02,356 --> 00:07:05,756 Speaker 3: to establish a record. The gold standard would be a 114 00:07:05,796 --> 00:07:09,476 Speaker 3: copy of the poem written in Henry's hand. 115 00:07:09,156 --> 00:07:12,196 Speaker 4: Decided they would collect as many pieces of paper as 116 00:07:12,236 --> 00:07:16,676 Speaker 4: they could, and this is really a godsend because they 117 00:07:16,716 --> 00:07:20,716 Speaker 4: were able to contact two of Henry's children before they died. 118 00:07:21,156 --> 00:07:23,156 Speaker 3: They heard that someone had gotten a copy of the 119 00:07:23,196 --> 00:07:26,076 Speaker 3: poem that had Henry's handwriting on it, and do we 120 00:07:26,156 --> 00:07:28,316 Speaker 3: have it today or no. 121 00:07:28,276 --> 00:07:32,476 Speaker 4: We don't because they're living on the frontier and the 122 00:07:32,476 --> 00:07:35,116 Speaker 4: original burned in one of the house fires. 123 00:07:35,676 --> 00:07:39,676 Speaker 3: But the livingstones didn't quit. When we talked, Mary walked 124 00:07:39,676 --> 00:07:42,516 Speaker 3: me through the generations of people who've taken up the quest. 125 00:07:42,316 --> 00:07:49,996 Speaker 4: Since The next search for proof of Henry's authorship is 126 00:07:50,116 --> 00:07:54,596 Speaker 4: from Henry Livingstone, a babylon Long Island. 127 00:07:55,036 --> 00:07:57,596 Speaker 3: I began to understand that this search was a kind 128 00:07:57,596 --> 00:08:01,836 Speaker 3: of Livingstonian rite of passage, something handed from generation to 129 00:08:01,916 --> 00:08:05,436 Speaker 3: generation like a precious gemstone, or like a feudal title, 130 00:08:06,476 --> 00:08:07,836 Speaker 3: a matter of destiny. 131 00:08:08,596 --> 00:08:12,116 Speaker 4: Having your name in your birth announcement as having to 132 00:08:12,236 --> 00:08:16,356 Speaker 4: research night before Christmas puts burden on your shoulders that 133 00:08:16,516 --> 00:08:18,476 Speaker 4: is very heavy. 134 00:08:18,516 --> 00:08:22,316 Speaker 3: After all, this is an eminent family. The genealogical tree 135 00:08:22,356 --> 00:08:25,956 Speaker 3: Mary has put together includes George H. W. Bush W 136 00:08:26,356 --> 00:08:29,036 Speaker 3: and Jeb as well as a congressman and a mayor 137 00:08:29,076 --> 00:08:32,236 Speaker 3: of New York. Eleanor Roosevelt was also in the mix somehow. 138 00:08:32,756 --> 00:08:36,956 Speaker 3: But alongside the campaigns and inaugurations, there is a single 139 00:08:36,996 --> 00:08:41,036 Speaker 3: golden thread, the authorship question. And I think part of 140 00:08:41,036 --> 00:08:44,076 Speaker 3: that fixation must have had to do with what poetry 141 00:08:44,156 --> 00:08:47,196 Speaker 3: meant at the time. Malcolm and I talked about that 142 00:08:47,756 --> 00:08:50,476 Speaker 3: over a glass of agnog at the annual Revision's History 143 00:08:50,516 --> 00:08:51,236 Speaker 3: Holiday party. 144 00:08:51,676 --> 00:08:53,556 Speaker 2: One of the things that interests me it is a 145 00:08:53,596 --> 00:08:56,516 Speaker 2: poem created in a very specific moment in time, the 146 00:08:56,636 --> 00:09:02,156 Speaker 2: early nineteenth century, and because poetry plays a role in 147 00:09:02,396 --> 00:09:04,516 Speaker 2: public life in back then in a way that it 148 00:09:04,556 --> 00:09:04,996 Speaker 2: doesn't know. 149 00:09:05,116 --> 00:09:09,276 Speaker 3: Right, Well, some newspapers are the mass the mass medium, right, 150 00:09:09,356 --> 00:09:15,036 Speaker 3: there's not television, radio, recorded sound doesn't exist. So you 151 00:09:15,196 --> 00:09:19,316 Speaker 3: have poems all over the place in newspapers and they 152 00:09:19,316 --> 00:09:19,836 Speaker 3: are there. 153 00:09:19,996 --> 00:09:20,756 Speaker 1: They are off, they. 154 00:09:20,636 --> 00:09:24,076 Speaker 3: Can be satirical, they can be funny. They're these very concise, 155 00:09:24,196 --> 00:09:29,156 Speaker 3: pithy ways of expressing popular sentiments. And the ones that 156 00:09:29,196 --> 00:09:31,476 Speaker 3: are really gonna give you a good example, yeah, please. 157 00:09:31,956 --> 00:09:35,356 Speaker 2: My mom grew up in Jamaica during the Second World War, 158 00:09:35,996 --> 00:09:39,556 Speaker 2: has all these hilarious poems written about the Second World 159 00:09:39,556 --> 00:09:42,156 Speaker 2: War from a Jamaican perspective. My favorite this one might 160 00:09:42,196 --> 00:09:45,156 Speaker 2: be an it might be an English one. You know, 161 00:09:45,196 --> 00:09:47,396 Speaker 2: there are all these Americans come over in our station 162 00:09:47,476 --> 00:09:51,196 Speaker 2: in England before the D Day. So she would as 163 00:09:51,196 --> 00:09:53,756 Speaker 2: a kid, my mom would recite this one, the gum 164 00:09:53,836 --> 00:09:57,116 Speaker 2: chewing ink and the cut chewing cow, very alike. The 165 00:09:57,196 --> 00:10:01,196 Speaker 2: difference somehow, what is the difference? I've got it now, 166 00:10:01,516 --> 00:10:05,276 Speaker 2: the intelligent look on the face of the cow. But 167 00:10:05,556 --> 00:10:08,116 Speaker 2: it's to the point, right right that a lot of 168 00:10:08,156 --> 00:10:11,396 Speaker 2: these what but the users trying to navigate is the 169 00:10:11,636 --> 00:10:16,596 Speaker 2: indignity of this huge country of what people they consider 170 00:10:16,636 --> 00:10:23,476 Speaker 2: to be their inferiors, uncultured coming and saving their bacon. Right, 171 00:10:23,716 --> 00:10:27,556 Speaker 2: it's humiliating, and how do they make sense of that humiliation? 172 00:10:28,076 --> 00:10:28,956 Speaker 1: To these poems? 173 00:10:28,996 --> 00:10:29,996 Speaker 2: Poems are doing all this. 174 00:10:30,076 --> 00:10:32,396 Speaker 3: Work very much like I'm almost like a meme today 175 00:10:32,476 --> 00:10:34,116 Speaker 3: where it's like you see a thing and you're like, 176 00:10:34,156 --> 00:10:37,716 Speaker 3: that gets it, that somehow ineffably puts its finger right 177 00:10:37,756 --> 00:10:42,836 Speaker 3: on the pulse. Yeah, And the pulse this poem had 178 00:10:42,876 --> 00:10:45,836 Speaker 3: its finger on was that there was a crisis of Christmas. 179 00:10:46,116 --> 00:10:47,956 Speaker 3: At the very moment of its publication. 180 00:10:48,596 --> 00:10:54,356 Speaker 5: Before the visit trend from Saint Nick, Christmas was celebrated 181 00:10:54,396 --> 00:10:55,796 Speaker 5: in a very different way. 182 00:10:56,596 --> 00:11:00,996 Speaker 3: Stephen Nissenbaum, author of the Pulitzer Prize, shortlisted the Battle 183 00:11:00,996 --> 00:11:04,316 Speaker 3: for Christmas in his book. He argues that Christmas was 184 00:11:04,356 --> 00:11:08,156 Speaker 3: always about these social inversions. So lower class people would 185 00:11:08,196 --> 00:11:11,956 Speaker 3: live like kings for the best food, the best ale presents, 186 00:11:12,276 --> 00:11:16,196 Speaker 3: provided they were peasants from then on. But those traditions 187 00:11:16,236 --> 00:11:19,156 Speaker 3: were better suited to grand old country estates where everyone 188 00:11:19,196 --> 00:11:21,556 Speaker 3: knew each other and kind of accepted where they fit 189 00:11:21,596 --> 00:11:25,236 Speaker 3: in the pecking order. That was not the case in 190 00:11:25,356 --> 00:11:27,276 Speaker 3: modern American democratic cities. 191 00:11:28,076 --> 00:11:33,516 Speaker 5: It was commonly celebrated as what I would call something 192 00:11:33,556 --> 00:11:38,116 Speaker 5: of a cross between Halloween and New Year's Eve because 193 00:11:38,156 --> 00:11:42,116 Speaker 5: of what amount to trick or treat. Bands of young men, 194 00:11:42,196 --> 00:11:46,796 Speaker 5: most of them pour from the working classes, went roving 195 00:11:46,876 --> 00:11:51,316 Speaker 5: around town. They'd stop at the more prosperous homes where 196 00:11:51,356 --> 00:11:54,796 Speaker 5: they'd ask for food and alcohol. But if they didn't 197 00:11:54,876 --> 00:12:01,956 Speaker 5: get what they wanted, they would ostentatiously withhold that goodwill, 198 00:12:02,116 --> 00:12:05,876 Speaker 5: or they might even threaten to do some small damage. 199 00:12:06,116 --> 00:12:09,556 Speaker 3: Christmas was getting out of control, and so a group 200 00:12:09,596 --> 00:12:12,476 Speaker 3: of elite New Yorkers took the matter in hand. 201 00:12:12,796 --> 00:12:15,716 Speaker 5: We're talking about a small group of people who call 202 00:12:15,796 --> 00:12:20,756 Speaker 5: themselves Knickerbackers, after the Dutch origins of the city. But 203 00:12:20,916 --> 00:12:23,796 Speaker 5: this was a kind of identity that they tried on 204 00:12:24,396 --> 00:12:27,916 Speaker 5: to create again a sense of the good old days 205 00:12:27,916 --> 00:12:32,116 Speaker 5: of New York when the classes did get along and 206 00:12:32,476 --> 00:12:34,276 Speaker 5: the meshing worked very well. 207 00:12:34,556 --> 00:12:38,396 Speaker 3: The Knickerbockers were a conservative organization trying to invent new 208 00:12:38,436 --> 00:12:42,356 Speaker 3: American traditions and also great names for basketball teams go NIXX, 209 00:12:42,836 --> 00:12:44,876 Speaker 3: and they found a figurehead for their new version of 210 00:12:44,956 --> 00:12:49,716 Speaker 3: Christmas in Saint Nicholas of Myra, patron Saint of merchants, bakers, brides, 211 00:12:49,756 --> 00:12:51,236 Speaker 3: the falsely accused. 212 00:12:51,316 --> 00:12:51,916 Speaker 1: And children. 213 00:12:52,636 --> 00:12:55,756 Speaker 3: In the eighteen twenties, the lines between Saint Nicholas and 214 00:12:55,796 --> 00:12:58,716 Speaker 3: the sort of scary figure of Santa Claus, a mythological 215 00:12:58,716 --> 00:13:02,796 Speaker 3: gift giver, began to blur. But how were the Knickerbockers 216 00:13:02,796 --> 00:13:05,876 Speaker 3: going to unleash this new invention upon the huddled masses. 217 00:13:06,676 --> 00:13:09,676 Speaker 3: The answer came in eighteen twenty three with the poem 218 00:13:09,716 --> 00:13:12,876 Speaker 3: we've been talking about in this episode, five hundred and 219 00:13:12,876 --> 00:13:16,116 Speaker 3: forty two words about a guy named Saint Nicholas terrifying 220 00:13:16,156 --> 00:13:17,876 Speaker 3: a well to do father by showing up in the 221 00:13:17,876 --> 00:13:19,916 Speaker 3: middle of the night and instead of demanding the best 222 00:13:19,956 --> 00:13:23,316 Speaker 3: grog in the house, leaving a bunch of presents, exactly 223 00:13:23,356 --> 00:13:26,156 Speaker 3: the kind of poem Clement Clark Moore, an eminent New 224 00:13:26,236 --> 00:13:29,876 Speaker 3: Yorker and friend of the Knickerbockers, would write at precisely 225 00:13:29,916 --> 00:13:33,036 Speaker 3: that moment. Moore was a Bible scholar. He lived on 226 00:13:33,076 --> 00:13:36,076 Speaker 3: an estate in Manhattan called Chelsea, which later did in 227 00:13:36,076 --> 00:13:37,956 Speaker 3: fact become the neighborhood of Chelsea. 228 00:13:39,116 --> 00:13:44,676 Speaker 5: The New Christmas that Clement Clark Moore was promulgating continued, 229 00:13:44,756 --> 00:13:48,956 Speaker 5: in a very innocent way, the old social inversion, but 230 00:13:49,076 --> 00:13:53,636 Speaker 5: in this case it wasn't the rich changing places with 231 00:13:53,676 --> 00:13:57,996 Speaker 5: the poor. It was the grown ups changing places with 232 00:13:58,076 --> 00:14:03,116 Speaker 5: the kids. So the children have really replaced the working 233 00:14:03,196 --> 00:14:05,916 Speaker 5: class in the new Christmas. 234 00:14:06,356 --> 00:14:09,356 Speaker 3: This was a version of Christmas that worked, and it 235 00:14:09,436 --> 00:14:13,276 Speaker 3: just got bigger. Clement Moore's estate shrank, but his legend 236 00:14:13,516 --> 00:14:17,236 Speaker 3: and the legend of his poem grew until the Livingstons 237 00:14:17,236 --> 00:14:21,276 Speaker 3: caught wind of it. The problem was that, despite all 238 00:14:21,356 --> 00:14:24,316 Speaker 3: their efforts, no Livingstone had been able to turn up 239 00:14:24,356 --> 00:14:28,836 Speaker 3: any conclusive, historical or documentary evidence proving beyond a reasonable 240 00:14:28,876 --> 00:14:32,476 Speaker 3: doubt that Henry Livingston Junior had written the poem. But 241 00:14:32,556 --> 00:14:36,596 Speaker 3: what if there was another approach? An ancestor of Mary 242 00:14:36,676 --> 00:14:39,836 Speaker 3: van Dusen's hit upon this idea in a letter from 243 00:14:39,836 --> 00:14:43,116 Speaker 3: the nineteen twenties. She had been interviewed for an article 244 00:14:43,156 --> 00:14:46,516 Speaker 3: in the Christian Science Monitor on the authorship question, one 245 00:14:46,516 --> 00:14:49,436 Speaker 3: of the first times this claim that Henry Livingston Junior 246 00:14:49,476 --> 00:14:53,396 Speaker 3: had written the poem went national. This, it turned out, 247 00:14:53,516 --> 00:14:55,916 Speaker 3: was kind of a jarring experience for her, so she 248 00:14:55,996 --> 00:14:58,636 Speaker 3: wrote to her cousin William, who'd set the whole thing up. 249 00:14:59,276 --> 00:14:59,636 Speaker 5: Quote. 250 00:15:00,396 --> 00:15:02,716 Speaker 3: I am writing from my bed. I could not sleep 251 00:15:02,796 --> 00:15:05,836 Speaker 3: last night, and thinking over our conversation, I got drawn 252 00:15:05,876 --> 00:15:09,596 Speaker 3: into this cross examination, which was quite inquisitorial in its nature. 253 00:15:09,796 --> 00:15:13,836 Speaker 3: For the problematical authorship of that poem. It is a 254 00:15:13,956 --> 00:15:16,036 Speaker 3: very delicate question to handle, and I am not at 255 00:15:16,076 --> 00:15:18,476 Speaker 3: all in favor of a writer for a Christian science 256 00:15:18,516 --> 00:15:22,236 Speaker 3: paper handling it. It ought to be touched on, very delicately, 257 00:15:22,556 --> 00:15:26,356 Speaker 3: and by some man of eminent literary attainments. Wait till 258 00:15:26,396 --> 00:15:29,476 Speaker 3: you find the fit man to do it. We relatives 259 00:15:29,596 --> 00:15:32,436 Speaker 3: would only have dirt thrown at us by press and people, 260 00:15:32,516 --> 00:15:35,756 Speaker 3: for see Moore is a demigod almost in their eyes. 261 00:15:36,396 --> 00:15:39,436 Speaker 3: Almost a century has this fetish been adored. And I 262 00:15:39,476 --> 00:15:42,596 Speaker 3: will not have myself or my family mixed up in it. 263 00:15:42,596 --> 00:15:45,116 Speaker 3: It is too delicate a subject to be dragged and 264 00:15:45,236 --> 00:15:49,516 Speaker 3: raked about except with great tact and reverence. Wait till 265 00:15:49,556 --> 00:15:52,316 Speaker 3: you get someone of high literary merit to write about 266 00:15:52,316 --> 00:15:55,516 Speaker 3: the authorship. Do not make this any but a first 267 00:15:55,516 --> 00:16:01,396 Speaker 3: class writer. End quote. Without documentary proof, the Livingstones needed 268 00:16:01,396 --> 00:16:04,756 Speaker 3: to make a stylistic argument that this poem sounded like 269 00:16:04,836 --> 00:16:09,916 Speaker 3: Livingstin and not like more and only someone of literary 270 00:16:09,956 --> 00:16:14,596 Speaker 3: attainments could really land it. The Living Stones would wait 271 00:16:14,796 --> 00:16:19,836 Speaker 3: nearly eighty years until Mary van Dusen came across that website, 272 00:16:20,276 --> 00:16:23,356 Speaker 3: took up the family quest and found such a scholar. 273 00:16:23,716 --> 00:16:28,196 Speaker 4: At last, I figured I needed a poetry expert, so 274 00:16:28,276 --> 00:16:31,756 Speaker 4: I went to the internet and I looked at a 275 00:16:32,516 --> 00:16:39,556 Speaker 4: archive poetry. I saw Ian Lancashire as the expert of 276 00:16:39,676 --> 00:16:43,556 Speaker 4: the website and sent to email and I said, I 277 00:16:43,636 --> 00:16:44,516 Speaker 4: have this problem. 278 00:16:44,636 --> 00:16:45,356 Speaker 5: What do I do? 279 00:16:45,756 --> 00:16:47,796 Speaker 4: And he said, you find Don. 280 00:16:49,196 --> 00:16:53,156 Speaker 3: When we're back. Don the man ab eminent literary attainments 281 00:16:53,996 --> 00:16:56,556 Speaker 3: and the very best thing the Livingstons could ever hope 282 00:16:56,556 --> 00:17:17,916 Speaker 3: to find in their stockings. It's the week before Thanksgiving, 283 00:17:18,276 --> 00:17:21,676 Speaker 3: the year two thousand. A group of people file into 284 00:17:21,716 --> 00:17:24,756 Speaker 3: a bookstore in Washington, d C. To have their very 285 00:17:24,796 --> 00:17:28,676 Speaker 3: sense of reality challenged. The event aired on c SPAN. 286 00:17:30,116 --> 00:17:31,796 Speaker 1: Thanks is great to be with you this evening. 287 00:17:32,956 --> 00:17:35,636 Speaker 3: This is Don Foster. At the time, he was an 288 00:17:35,636 --> 00:17:38,916 Speaker 3: English professor at Vassar. He's straight out of Central Casting 289 00:17:39,356 --> 00:17:43,196 Speaker 3: Laser khakis, tie handsome in a dead poet's Society kind 290 00:17:43,196 --> 00:17:46,436 Speaker 3: of way. When he makes a particularly devilish point, he 291 00:17:46,556 --> 00:17:50,396 Speaker 3: shrugs his shoulders almost imperceptibly as his eyes wander to 292 00:17:50,476 --> 00:17:53,516 Speaker 3: the corner of his great big glasses, as if to say, 293 00:17:53,916 --> 00:17:56,196 Speaker 3: do I dare to eat a peach. Do I dare 294 00:17:56,316 --> 00:17:57,316 Speaker 3: disturb the universe? 295 00:17:58,196 --> 00:17:58,516 Speaker 5: I do. 296 00:17:59,636 --> 00:18:02,516 Speaker 6: My office is what you would expect in English professor's 297 00:18:03,076 --> 00:18:05,916 Speaker 6: office to be piled high with student papers and with 298 00:18:05,996 --> 00:18:09,396 Speaker 6: writings I have studied by poets and play rights. I'm 299 00:18:09,396 --> 00:18:13,636 Speaker 6: still unknown, but intermixed with the literary text are others 300 00:18:13,676 --> 00:18:17,876 Speaker 6: by Felon Zealotz or Nameless resent Nix, whose identity your 301 00:18:17,916 --> 00:18:21,516 Speaker 6: actions were of sufficient interest for someone to ask who 302 00:18:21,556 --> 00:18:22,396 Speaker 6: wrote this thing? 303 00:18:23,516 --> 00:18:27,356 Speaker 3: Professor Foster made his name arguing that an anonymously published 304 00:18:27,396 --> 00:18:31,956 Speaker 3: poem called a Funeral Elegy was actually written by William Shakespeare. 305 00:18:32,476 --> 00:18:36,476 Speaker 3: He'd used modern computer analysis to argue it so forcefully 306 00:18:36,796 --> 00:18:41,356 Speaker 3: that anthologies were updated and the press took note. Foster's 307 00:18:41,396 --> 00:18:42,396 Speaker 3: phone began to. 308 00:18:42,396 --> 00:18:44,196 Speaker 6: Ring, Professor, do you know that you're going to be 309 00:18:44,276 --> 00:18:45,836 Speaker 6: on the front page of the New York Times tomorrow? 310 00:18:45,836 --> 00:18:48,756 Speaker 6: And I said, well, Professor, a star was born. 311 00:18:49,516 --> 00:18:53,756 Speaker 3: Foster practiced a kind of forensics called literary attribution. The 312 00:18:53,796 --> 00:18:55,996 Speaker 3: premise was that each of us has a style, a 313 00:18:56,076 --> 00:18:58,996 Speaker 3: kind of fingerprint in the way we write that, if revealed, 314 00:18:59,276 --> 00:19:03,436 Speaker 3: would prove conclusively that we wrote something. Dusting for that 315 00:19:03,436 --> 00:19:08,556 Speaker 3: fingerprint relied on two key methodologies. First, computer analysis, where 316 00:19:08,636 --> 00:19:11,996 Speaker 3: statistic patterns could be detected in an author's work, kind 317 00:19:12,036 --> 00:19:16,196 Speaker 3: of like large language models. Now a second, an investigator 318 00:19:16,436 --> 00:19:20,036 Speaker 3: would marshal their own powers of close reading. For instance, 319 00:19:20,316 --> 00:19:23,556 Speaker 3: just weeks after the Shakespeare story blew Up, Foster was 320 00:19:23,556 --> 00:19:26,476 Speaker 3: asked to identify the anonymous author of a dish novel 321 00:19:26,796 --> 00:19:30,676 Speaker 3: called Primary Colors, a thinly veiled account of the Clinton campaign. 322 00:19:31,556 --> 00:19:34,756 Speaker 3: Foster had a list of suspects. He fed samples of 323 00:19:34,796 --> 00:19:37,876 Speaker 3: their writing into his computer and began to look closely 324 00:19:37,916 --> 00:19:41,476 Speaker 3: at how the book was written. The anonymous writer showed 325 00:19:41,476 --> 00:19:45,356 Speaker 3: a preference for adverbs with l y endings like vaguely. 326 00:19:46,116 --> 00:19:49,516 Speaker 3: He used dashes to make compound words like triple back 327 00:19:49,556 --> 00:19:51,276 Speaker 3: over somersault and pander pirouette. 328 00:19:51,956 --> 00:19:53,436 Speaker 1: He liked zany adjectives. 329 00:19:54,116 --> 00:19:58,396 Speaker 3: His pros thought Foster revealed certain racial ideas, and all 330 00:19:58,436 --> 00:20:02,716 Speaker 3: those signs pointed clearly to the journalist Joe Klein. Foster 331 00:20:02,796 --> 00:20:06,716 Speaker 3: nailed it. Klin eventually fessed up, and this was when 332 00:20:06,756 --> 00:20:09,076 Speaker 3: things started to get weird for the professor. 333 00:20:09,516 --> 00:20:14,116 Speaker 6: And at that point prosecutors and defenders and police and 334 00:20:14,236 --> 00:20:18,156 Speaker 6: other investigators saw in my work application that I had 335 00:20:18,196 --> 00:20:22,516 Speaker 6: not really thought of myself questioned. Documents in criminal cases 336 00:20:22,556 --> 00:20:28,836 Speaker 6: and other kinds of anonymous libels Harris mensa were suddenly 337 00:20:29,116 --> 00:20:30,716 Speaker 6: being sent to me and saying, can you figure out 338 00:20:30,836 --> 00:20:31,516 Speaker 6: who wrote this? 339 00:20:32,316 --> 00:20:35,596 Speaker 3: Soon Foster was teaching my day and by night working 340 00:20:35,676 --> 00:20:39,876 Speaker 3: the Unibomber case, the John Benet Ramsay case, the Anthrax case, 341 00:20:40,356 --> 00:20:43,036 Speaker 3: and few major news items of the late nineteen nineties 342 00:20:43,396 --> 00:20:45,036 Speaker 3: were beyond the literary forensics. 343 00:20:45,236 --> 00:20:48,276 Speaker 6: Single was Don Foster a report at Monica Lewinsky wrote 344 00:20:48,316 --> 00:20:49,436 Speaker 6: the three page document. 345 00:20:49,596 --> 00:20:52,596 Speaker 1: So I now go back and ask the question, did 346 00:20:52,676 --> 00:20:53,236 Speaker 1: she really? 347 00:20:53,716 --> 00:20:56,756 Speaker 3: The crowd in the bookstore is wrapped around his finger, 348 00:20:57,636 --> 00:21:00,756 Speaker 3: and that's when he starts talking about Mary van Dusen, 349 00:21:01,436 --> 00:21:05,236 Speaker 3: the great great great great great granddaughter of Major Henry 350 00:21:05,236 --> 00:21:06,036 Speaker 3: Livingston junior. 351 00:21:06,396 --> 00:21:08,996 Speaker 6: I got a phone call in August of nineteen I 352 00:21:09,116 --> 00:21:11,876 Speaker 6: twenty nine from a woman who said that she thought 353 00:21:11,956 --> 00:21:15,276 Speaker 6: that her ancestor wrote The Night before Christmas, not Clement 354 00:21:15,316 --> 00:21:15,836 Speaker 6: Clark Moore. 355 00:21:16,236 --> 00:21:19,636 Speaker 3: Mary and Don teamed up. She traveled the country searching 356 00:21:19,676 --> 00:21:22,636 Speaker 3: for proof every version of the Night before Christmas that 357 00:21:22,756 --> 00:21:25,636 Speaker 3: was ever written. She made a corpus of Henry's work. 358 00:21:25,956 --> 00:21:28,956 Speaker 3: She got a microfilm machine for her house for her 359 00:21:29,036 --> 00:21:32,396 Speaker 3: house and read every single newspaper she could find from 360 00:21:32,436 --> 00:21:36,076 Speaker 3: seventeen seventy five to eighteen thirty. In order to establish 361 00:21:36,116 --> 00:21:39,196 Speaker 3: a documentary record, she put it all on a website, 362 00:21:39,236 --> 00:21:43,476 Speaker 3: which ran ultimately to over fifteen thousand pages by her account, 363 00:21:43,876 --> 00:21:46,716 Speaker 3: in hopes that Don could do his detective work and 364 00:21:46,756 --> 00:21:50,516 Speaker 3: find an answer, and he did. He began to look 365 00:21:50,556 --> 00:21:53,836 Speaker 3: into questions of style, just like he did with primary colors. 366 00:21:54,116 --> 00:21:57,076 Speaker 3: What sort of adjectives were used, what kind of adverbs, 367 00:21:57,436 --> 00:22:01,236 Speaker 3: what sort of attitudes were expressed? He compared a visit 368 00:22:01,236 --> 00:22:04,636 Speaker 3: from Saint Nicholas to other poems by Moore and Livingstone. 369 00:22:05,156 --> 00:22:08,036 Speaker 3: Hundreds of thousands of words had been written on this subject, 370 00:22:08,396 --> 00:22:10,276 Speaker 3: and we all have all lace to get to. So 371 00:22:10,316 --> 00:22:12,476 Speaker 3: I'm going to be selective about what we talk about here. 372 00:22:13,076 --> 00:22:15,596 Speaker 3: But a good example of the case he made is 373 00:22:15,636 --> 00:22:21,996 Speaker 3: the question of anapestic to trameter, an extremely tedious matter that, 374 00:22:22,116 --> 00:22:24,716 Speaker 3: of course, is the only thing Malcolm wanted to talk 375 00:22:24,756 --> 00:22:27,396 Speaker 3: about when I saw him. 376 00:22:27,476 --> 00:22:29,316 Speaker 2: I want to be in the graduate seminar with you 377 00:22:29,356 --> 00:22:31,276 Speaker 2: where this poem is taking seriously. 378 00:22:31,316 --> 00:22:34,396 Speaker 3: Okay, let's let's let's uh, let's break down the formal 379 00:22:34,476 --> 00:22:37,156 Speaker 3: qualities of this poem. First, there's the meter, which is 380 00:22:37,356 --> 00:22:39,756 Speaker 3: sort of the crucial thing here. This poem is in 381 00:22:40,116 --> 00:22:44,316 Speaker 3: a extremely popular meter used for light versus satire called 382 00:22:44,356 --> 00:22:45,436 Speaker 3: anipestic to trameter. 383 00:22:45,996 --> 00:22:49,196 Speaker 2: So give it rhythmically, give me lines at show. 384 00:22:49,236 --> 00:22:51,556 Speaker 3: Twas the night before Christmas went all through the house, 385 00:22:51,596 --> 00:22:53,836 Speaker 3: not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Da 386 00:22:53,876 --> 00:22:55,116 Speaker 3: da dum da da dumba so. 387 00:22:55,116 --> 00:22:56,156 Speaker 2: Dumbda d d. 388 00:22:57,636 --> 00:22:57,836 Speaker 1: Dump. 389 00:22:57,916 --> 00:23:00,116 Speaker 3: And you, as a parent might be familiar with this 390 00:23:00,196 --> 00:23:02,596 Speaker 3: from like all of Doctor SEUs, So like Horton, here's 391 00:23:02,636 --> 00:23:04,996 Speaker 3: a who on the fifteenth of May and the jungle 392 00:23:05,036 --> 00:23:06,476 Speaker 3: of newle and the heat of the day and the 393 00:23:06,476 --> 00:23:08,356 Speaker 3: cool of the pool he was splashing, and you know 394 00:23:08,436 --> 00:23:10,676 Speaker 3: this kind of like it trips off the tongue. An 395 00:23:10,716 --> 00:23:15,276 Speaker 3: anipest is aligne. It's two unstressed syllables and a stressed one. 396 00:23:15,316 --> 00:23:18,236 Speaker 3: So it's dadda dumb, dadda dumb. That's like a dadda dumb. 397 00:23:18,396 --> 00:23:21,676 Speaker 3: That's an anipest to trameter tetra from the Latin for four. 398 00:23:22,196 --> 00:23:24,156 Speaker 3: It means there's four of those per line of an 399 00:23:24,156 --> 00:23:28,596 Speaker 3: anipestic to trameter. It's such an infectious meter. It's easier 400 00:23:28,636 --> 00:23:31,236 Speaker 3: to memorize and so it can transmit through word of 401 00:23:31,236 --> 00:23:33,716 Speaker 3: mouth much more easily, which is what happens with this 402 00:23:33,716 --> 00:23:36,596 Speaker 3: this poem as well. In fact, it is it's it's 403 00:23:36,636 --> 00:23:39,516 Speaker 3: so good for the spoken word that the way many 404 00:23:39,556 --> 00:23:42,636 Speaker 3: people probably know it today other than to was the 405 00:23:42,756 --> 00:23:54,316 Speaker 3: night before Christmas is the way I am by eminem 406 00:23:55,196 --> 00:23:57,556 Speaker 3: was the night before Christmas, and all through the house 407 00:23:59,076 --> 00:24:03,236 Speaker 3: it's like it's it just like it hooks you in. 408 00:24:03,956 --> 00:24:07,436 Speaker 3: So Foster alleged that More was way too serious to 409 00:24:07,436 --> 00:24:10,716 Speaker 3: be a big anipestic to Trameter. He says that Moore 410 00:24:10,876 --> 00:24:14,276 Speaker 3: condemned the quote depraved taste in poetry of those who 411 00:24:14,356 --> 00:24:19,156 Speaker 3: read anipestic satire end quote. In essence, Livingstone was way 412 00:24:19,196 --> 00:24:21,876 Speaker 3: more likely to write an anipest than More, not least 413 00:24:21,876 --> 00:24:24,036 Speaker 3: of all because he was just a really fun guy. 414 00:24:24,556 --> 00:24:28,076 Speaker 6: Here's a little sample of Henry Livingston's verse. This is 415 00:24:28,116 --> 00:24:30,396 Speaker 6: why he closes one of his many Christmas and New 416 00:24:30,476 --> 00:24:33,556 Speaker 6: Year's poems, but his time that I bid you goodbye 417 00:24:33,596 --> 00:24:36,556 Speaker 6: till next year by wishing you happiness, peace and good cheer. 418 00:24:36,836 --> 00:24:38,916 Speaker 6: And he has the kind of poem after poem after 419 00:24:39,076 --> 00:24:41,436 Speaker 6: poem in this vein many of them Christmas or New 420 00:24:41,516 --> 00:24:42,156 Speaker 6: Year's poems. 421 00:24:42,316 --> 00:24:44,716 Speaker 3: Then he turns his attention to Clement Clark Moore. 422 00:24:45,396 --> 00:24:48,276 Speaker 6: Clement Clark Moore I thought was pretty Santa Claus kind 423 00:24:48,316 --> 00:24:50,076 Speaker 6: of guy too, But as it turns out, this is 424 00:24:50,196 --> 00:24:52,396 Speaker 6: part of the lore that's arisen after his name was 425 00:24:52,436 --> 00:24:53,516 Speaker 6: associated with the poem. 426 00:24:54,076 --> 00:24:55,236 Speaker 1: It was quite the curmudgeon. 427 00:24:55,356 --> 00:24:58,676 Speaker 6: One might even say scrooge, I might even say grinch. 428 00:24:59,636 --> 00:25:03,276 Speaker 6: He writes things like humble the praise and trifling the regard, 429 00:25:03,316 --> 00:25:06,516 Speaker 6: whichever way upon the moral barred. And then he goes 430 00:25:06,556 --> 00:25:10,356 Speaker 6: on to scold women for wearing cosmetics or to unchastised 431 00:25:10,436 --> 00:25:11,756 Speaker 6: children for being too noisy. 432 00:25:12,356 --> 00:25:13,356 Speaker 1: Quite a severe man. 433 00:25:13,436 --> 00:25:15,916 Speaker 3: So, according to Foster, on the one hand, we have 434 00:25:16,076 --> 00:25:18,756 Speaker 3: a good cheer to the ladies kind of guy, and 435 00:25:18,796 --> 00:25:22,876 Speaker 3: then there's the grinch scrooge. You could say maybe Moore 436 00:25:22,996 --> 00:25:26,156 Speaker 3: didn't stand a chance just based on this character assassination. 437 00:25:26,876 --> 00:25:30,116 Speaker 3: But there was more. In his book, Foster compared the 438 00:25:30,156 --> 00:25:34,276 Speaker 3: two men further. Henry Livingston Junior fought for independence, Clement 439 00:25:34,356 --> 00:25:37,796 Speaker 3: Moore was allegedly a slave owner. Livingston was a quote 440 00:25:37,836 --> 00:25:41,116 Speaker 3: friend of the Indians. Moore descended from the guy who 441 00:25:41,156 --> 00:25:44,796 Speaker 3: talked the Mohawks into selling Long Island and stylistically even 442 00:25:44,836 --> 00:25:47,716 Speaker 3: setting aside the slam dunk of the anapestic tetramoner, the 443 00:25:47,716 --> 00:25:50,716 Speaker 3: poem is Livingston all over the use of the adverbial 444 00:25:50,796 --> 00:25:53,796 Speaker 3: all as in the children were nestled, all snug in 445 00:25:53,836 --> 00:25:57,356 Speaker 3: their beds, and then some funny business with the reindeer names. 446 00:25:57,956 --> 00:26:04,156 Speaker 3: It all looked very, very suspicious. Don Foster, the man 447 00:26:04,196 --> 00:26:08,756 Speaker 3: of eminent literary attainments, had apparently solved the mystery. At 448 00:26:08,836 --> 00:26:12,636 Speaker 3: law last, the press went wild. 449 00:26:13,516 --> 00:26:16,676 Speaker 7: Finally tonight, the mystery of a visit from Saint Nicholas. 450 00:26:17,036 --> 00:26:19,716 Speaker 7: It has been a holiday tradition since eighteen twenty two. 451 00:26:19,836 --> 00:26:22,116 Speaker 7: But who really wrote the famous poem? 452 00:26:22,436 --> 00:26:25,196 Speaker 3: He was in the New York Times twice. He was 453 00:26:25,236 --> 00:26:26,636 Speaker 3: on network television. 454 00:26:27,116 --> 00:26:30,356 Speaker 7: Don Foster is sort of a literary sleuth. He was 455 00:26:30,396 --> 00:26:33,836 Speaker 7: the one who discovered journalist Joe Klein was the anonymous 456 00:26:33,876 --> 00:26:38,596 Speaker 7: author of the bestseller Primary Colors. He studies the author's 457 00:26:38,676 --> 00:26:42,036 Speaker 7: words and styles, and in this case he says, Henry 458 00:26:42,076 --> 00:26:47,316 Speaker 7: Livingston's literary fingerprints are all over. The night before Christmas. 459 00:26:47,036 --> 00:26:51,036 Speaker 3: Don Foster's argument spread The city of Troy, whose newspaper 460 00:26:51,116 --> 00:26:54,076 Speaker 3: famously first published the poem, hosted as a kind of 461 00:26:54,116 --> 00:26:57,516 Speaker 3: Christmas media event, a mock trial in a real courtroom, 462 00:26:57,596 --> 00:27:00,516 Speaker 3: presided over by a former New York Supreme Court judge 463 00:27:00,516 --> 00:27:03,316 Speaker 3: and argued by actual lawyers on the question of who 464 00:27:03,316 --> 00:27:06,316 Speaker 3: wrote the poem. As the Jerry reached a verdict, Jerry 465 00:27:06,316 --> 00:27:10,516 Speaker 3: and Edgeley decided that the author was Ane for Christmas Is. 466 00:27:21,756 --> 00:27:24,596 Speaker 3: This prompted the Mayor of Troy to issue a proclamation 467 00:27:24,836 --> 00:27:28,636 Speaker 3: quote that December twenty third, twenty fourteen is Henry Livingston 468 00:27:28,716 --> 00:27:32,396 Speaker 3: Junior Day and Troy, New York. Famous musicians have reportedly 469 00:27:32,476 --> 00:27:35,556 Speaker 3: announced on stage that Henry Livingston Junior is the real 470 00:27:35,596 --> 00:27:39,356 Speaker 3: author of the poem. The Freaking Poetry Foundation website has 471 00:27:39,396 --> 00:27:42,356 Speaker 3: a page for Henry Livingston Junior, crediting him as the 472 00:27:42,396 --> 00:27:47,516 Speaker 3: author of the poem. Unambiguously. This is not ubiquitous, but 473 00:27:47,636 --> 00:27:51,156 Speaker 3: through Don Foster, Mary van Duzen, and the Livingstons had 474 00:27:51,156 --> 00:27:54,596 Speaker 3: achieved something her ancestors could only ever have dreamed of. 475 00:27:55,276 --> 00:27:59,596 Speaker 3: And even if people stopped short of denying Moore's authorship everywhere, 476 00:27:59,756 --> 00:28:04,636 Speaker 3: people began to question it. After nearly two centuries of injustice, 477 00:28:05,316 --> 00:28:08,076 Speaker 3: the Livingston family quest was paying. 478 00:28:07,796 --> 00:28:12,956 Speaker 6: Off to myself come around to the view and that 479 00:28:13,116 --> 00:28:17,716 Speaker 6: this whole family legend was right in fact has I 480 00:28:17,756 --> 00:28:22,356 Speaker 6: think finally been vindicated, and Bible professors claimed to this poem, 481 00:28:22,436 --> 00:28:25,956 Speaker 6: I think is not just highly suspect, but waiting to 482 00:28:25,956 --> 00:28:27,676 Speaker 6: see what the opposition might have to say. 483 00:28:29,276 --> 00:28:33,316 Speaker 3: Oh but the opposition was watching, and they didn't like 484 00:28:33,596 --> 00:28:48,276 Speaker 3: what they saw. A couple of months ago, I visited 485 00:28:48,316 --> 00:28:52,516 Speaker 3: Seth Kaller, a famed dealer of historic documents in White Plains, 486 00:28:52,596 --> 00:28:56,116 Speaker 3: New York. Statues of Abraham Lincoln were strewn about the office. 487 00:28:56,476 --> 00:28:59,636 Speaker 3: Advanced copies of Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech. 488 00:28:59,796 --> 00:29:02,916 Speaker 3: An original Prince of the Constitution hung on the wall 489 00:29:03,676 --> 00:29:08,316 Speaker 3: the Constitution I Have a Dream twas the night before Christmas. 490 00:29:09,236 --> 00:29:13,756 Speaker 8: At the time the controversy erupted because of Don Foster's book, 491 00:29:13,876 --> 00:29:16,956 Speaker 8: I owned what was thought to be the only copy 492 00:29:16,996 --> 00:29:20,356 Speaker 8: in private hands, written by Clemency Moore. 493 00:29:21,036 --> 00:29:23,996 Speaker 3: Caller became embroiled in the authorship. 494 00:29:23,596 --> 00:29:26,996 Speaker 8: Question, and so a New York Times reporter called me 495 00:29:27,036 --> 00:29:30,876 Speaker 8: and asked me about it, And you know, I said, 496 00:29:30,916 --> 00:29:33,356 Speaker 8: I didn't know, let me look into it. And I 497 00:29:33,436 --> 00:29:36,116 Speaker 8: was totally open minded. I mean, if I had been convinced, 498 00:29:36,956 --> 00:29:39,916 Speaker 8: I would have changed my description of it and or 499 00:29:40,316 --> 00:29:42,916 Speaker 8: mentioned the controversy. But the more I got into it, 500 00:29:43,476 --> 00:29:47,716 Speaker 8: you know, the more upset I got by the dishonesty 501 00:29:48,076 --> 00:29:52,436 Speaker 8: of the arguments made against Clement Moore. So I kept 502 00:29:52,476 --> 00:29:56,756 Speaker 8: going even after I thought this is sufficient to you know, 503 00:29:56,796 --> 00:29:57,436 Speaker 8: make the case. 504 00:29:57,516 --> 00:30:00,436 Speaker 3: You did send me quite a long document in preparation 505 00:30:00,556 --> 00:30:01,356 Speaker 3: for this conversation. 506 00:30:01,476 --> 00:30:03,116 Speaker 1: Yeah, and I could have sent you a lot more. 507 00:30:03,436 --> 00:30:06,356 Speaker 3: Caller began to go through the claims in Don Foster's book, 508 00:30:06,956 --> 00:30:10,636 Speaker 3: and he soon found that most of them, We're deeply suspicious. 509 00:30:11,156 --> 00:30:14,796 Speaker 3: The comparable phraseology that table confused me. Would you? Would 510 00:30:14,796 --> 00:30:16,356 Speaker 3: you explain the origin of that table? 511 00:30:17,036 --> 00:30:17,796 Speaker 1: Let me find it? 512 00:30:19,516 --> 00:30:22,836 Speaker 3: Caller got out of binder stuffed with papers. Nobody is 513 00:30:22,876 --> 00:30:25,876 Speaker 3: taking this matter lightly. In fact, we spent an entire 514 00:30:25,956 --> 00:30:29,076 Speaker 3: afternoon going through this. Let's stick to the big ticket 515 00:30:29,116 --> 00:30:33,636 Speaker 3: items today first style. More wouldn't write like this, but 516 00:30:33,956 --> 00:30:36,796 Speaker 3: Caller showed me a chart comparing parts of the poem 517 00:30:36,996 --> 00:30:38,716 Speaker 3: with other poems More had written. 518 00:30:39,476 --> 00:30:42,836 Speaker 8: Here's another from another one of his writings, Twas an 519 00:30:42,876 --> 00:30:49,076 Speaker 8: autumnal morn, celestial bright, the all Snug and from something else. 520 00:30:49,236 --> 00:30:52,116 Speaker 8: In The Snug and Tidy Night before Christmas, he talks 521 00:30:52,116 --> 00:30:54,756 Speaker 8: about visions of sugar plums danced in their heads. 522 00:30:54,916 --> 00:30:56,716 Speaker 1: One of the rhymes in Night. 523 00:30:56,556 --> 00:31:00,156 Speaker 8: Before Christmas is a clatter and matter, and in another 524 00:31:00,196 --> 00:31:00,516 Speaker 8: poem is. 525 00:31:02,196 --> 00:31:04,156 Speaker 1: Words, feelings, thought phrases. 526 00:31:04,916 --> 00:31:09,116 Speaker 8: These would all be evidence that More could have written 527 00:31:09,276 --> 00:31:11,676 Speaker 8: the Night Before Christmas, and in fact did write the 528 00:31:11,756 --> 00:31:15,036 Speaker 8: Night Before Christmas, as opposed to you know, just making 529 00:31:15,036 --> 00:31:17,276 Speaker 8: the arguments that he couldn't have because he didn't use 530 00:31:17,356 --> 00:31:18,476 Speaker 8: these for these words. 531 00:31:19,156 --> 00:31:23,396 Speaker 3: So maybe Livingston as author can't be proven stylistically, But 532 00:31:23,476 --> 00:31:26,756 Speaker 3: that's not all he and his colleagues found. The historical 533 00:31:26,876 --> 00:31:29,556 Speaker 3: argument about when Henry would have needed to write the 534 00:31:29,556 --> 00:31:32,076 Speaker 3: poem in order to be the author didn't line. 535 00:31:31,956 --> 00:31:34,356 Speaker 8: Up either, But the fact that all of the stories 536 00:31:34,356 --> 00:31:39,036 Speaker 8: that the Livingston family have told can be actually disproven. 537 00:31:39,956 --> 00:31:42,636 Speaker 8: You know, oh, was taken by a nanny, and then 538 00:31:42,676 --> 00:31:45,116 Speaker 8: you prove that, well, then nanny wasn't there for another 539 00:31:45,156 --> 00:31:45,796 Speaker 8: eight years. 540 00:31:46,436 --> 00:31:50,756 Speaker 3: Also suspect Foster's finding that Moore was a humorless scrooge, 541 00:31:51,196 --> 00:31:53,556 Speaker 3: which was often a clear case of taking something More 542 00:31:53,596 --> 00:31:55,356 Speaker 3: had written out of context. 543 00:31:55,956 --> 00:32:00,876 Speaker 8: What I found wasn't just that it was misinterpreted, but 544 00:32:01,236 --> 00:32:05,076 Speaker 8: that it was elited to the point where if you 545 00:32:05,316 --> 00:32:10,636 Speaker 8: just read the full sentence, it actually proves the opposite 546 00:32:10,796 --> 00:32:12,556 Speaker 8: of what is being used to. 547 00:32:14,076 --> 00:32:15,236 Speaker 1: Argue Now. 548 00:32:15,596 --> 00:32:18,556 Speaker 3: I can't know the mind of Don Foster, but there 549 00:32:18,556 --> 00:32:21,276 Speaker 3: were at least a few examples of his attributions not 550 00:32:21,396 --> 00:32:24,756 Speaker 3: exactly panning out. A couple of years after his book 551 00:32:24,796 --> 00:32:28,156 Speaker 3: Author Unknown came out, he retracted his famous claim that 552 00:32:28,196 --> 00:32:32,716 Speaker 3: Shakespeare had written the Funeralogy, under mounting skepticism, and after 553 00:32:32,796 --> 00:32:35,676 Speaker 3: he wrote an article seeming to suggest an innocent government 554 00:32:35,716 --> 00:32:39,596 Speaker 3: scientist was responsible for sending the anthrax letters after September eleventh, 555 00:32:40,156 --> 00:32:43,596 Speaker 3: he was sued for libel, settled for some undisclosed amount 556 00:32:43,596 --> 00:32:46,476 Speaker 3: of money, and went back to being predominantly a vasser 557 00:32:46,516 --> 00:32:50,036 Speaker 3: English professor. I had hoped to interview him for this story, 558 00:32:50,276 --> 00:32:53,116 Speaker 3: but he declined to speak with me through a colleague. 559 00:32:53,236 --> 00:32:55,716 Speaker 3: He'll keep Christmas in his way, and I'll keep it 560 00:32:55,756 --> 00:32:59,556 Speaker 3: in mind. But in my view, Foster's argument has done 561 00:32:59,596 --> 00:33:02,756 Speaker 3: a grave injustice to Clement Clark Moore that we, the 562 00:33:02,796 --> 00:33:05,996 Speaker 3: staff of Revisionist History and associates in the Rare Documents trade, 563 00:33:06,396 --> 00:33:08,516 Speaker 3: refused to leave unchallenged. 564 00:33:08,556 --> 00:33:12,956 Speaker 8: And his book Arthur Unknown is still referred to and 565 00:33:13,116 --> 00:33:16,036 Speaker 8: still used by, you know, people who are looking into it. 566 00:33:16,396 --> 00:33:20,636 Speaker 8: And then so many other reporters go with it as 567 00:33:21,196 --> 00:33:24,276 Speaker 8: the story if he said she said that. I don't 568 00:33:24,316 --> 00:33:27,596 Speaker 8: blame the family as much as I blame some of 569 00:33:27,636 --> 00:33:29,316 Speaker 8: the scholars who should know better. 570 00:33:29,796 --> 00:33:32,956 Speaker 1: But it does still bother. 571 00:33:32,756 --> 00:33:35,276 Speaker 8: Me, Like if I bring up or the last time 572 00:33:35,316 --> 00:33:37,036 Speaker 8: I did was years ago, bring up the idea of 573 00:33:37,076 --> 00:33:42,676 Speaker 8: a museum exhibit and Clement Moore's authorship. Some accept it outright, 574 00:33:42,796 --> 00:33:45,956 Speaker 8: but others have been, well, we have to be careful, 575 00:33:45,996 --> 00:33:48,996 Speaker 8: we have to talk about the controversy. No, you know, 576 00:33:49,276 --> 00:33:52,396 Speaker 8: you have to acknowledge that there was one, but you 577 00:33:52,436 --> 00:33:54,876 Speaker 8: should not pretend that it's actually real. 578 00:33:56,716 --> 00:34:00,476 Speaker 3: Christmas is all about your dreams coming true. Maybe Foster 579 00:34:00,596 --> 00:34:03,756 Speaker 3: tried to do that for Mary, But to my mind, 580 00:34:04,316 --> 00:34:06,476 Speaker 3: in the end, I think what they set in motion 581 00:34:06,996 --> 00:34:10,076 Speaker 3: was a satisfying and to the mystery, it just wasn't 582 00:34:10,076 --> 00:34:11,236 Speaker 3: the conclusion they'd hoped for. 583 00:34:11,716 --> 00:34:14,716 Speaker 4: It's fine with me that you come to a different 584 00:34:14,716 --> 00:34:20,396 Speaker 4: position than I do. I don't ever say flatly that 585 00:34:20,436 --> 00:34:24,876 Speaker 4: Henry wrote the poem. I say, I believe that Henry 586 00:34:24,916 --> 00:34:28,396 Speaker 4: wrote the poem, and here's the data, and make up 587 00:34:28,396 --> 00:34:33,516 Speaker 4: your own mind. So if you use it to come 588 00:34:33,556 --> 00:34:38,276 Speaker 4: to a different conclusion than I do, that's fine. At 589 00:34:38,356 --> 00:34:45,716 Speaker 4: least you examine the issue and you feel peace in 590 00:34:45,756 --> 00:34:47,756 Speaker 4: yourself at the answer you come to. 591 00:34:51,276 --> 00:34:54,276 Speaker 2: Then, was there was there one bit of evidence set 592 00:34:54,876 --> 00:34:57,436 Speaker 2: for you really sealed the case. 593 00:34:58,796 --> 00:35:03,876 Speaker 3: Yeah. This whole argument against Clenen Clark Moore relies on 594 00:35:03,956 --> 00:35:07,196 Speaker 3: the idea that he's a scrooge who would never write 595 00:35:07,196 --> 00:35:10,356 Speaker 3: about Christmas. He would never never write light verse, never 596 00:35:10,396 --> 00:35:13,916 Speaker 3: write about fairies, certainly never write about Santa Claus and Christmas. 597 00:35:13,956 --> 00:35:19,756 Speaker 3: And these researchers found not just one, but two effectively 598 00:35:19,876 --> 00:35:23,836 Speaker 3: Christmas poems by Clement Clark Moore that pre date or 599 00:35:24,076 --> 00:35:29,076 Speaker 3: are in tight sequence with a Visit from Saint Nicholas. 600 00:35:29,116 --> 00:35:31,516 Speaker 3: So the first is a letter called from Saint Nicholas, 601 00:35:31,556 --> 00:35:34,316 Speaker 3: which is literally in the voice of Santa Claus to 602 00:35:34,516 --> 00:35:36,956 Speaker 3: Clemic Clark Moore's kid, which I guess, true to his haters, 603 00:35:36,996 --> 00:35:38,996 Speaker 3: is about why she's not getting any presents that year, 604 00:35:39,076 --> 00:35:42,516 Speaker 3: though it is very sweet and crucially it's an anithestic determiner. 605 00:35:43,156 --> 00:35:47,156 Speaker 3: But this one is the one that I actually really love. 606 00:35:48,476 --> 00:35:54,356 Speaker 3: The Melville scholar Scott Norsworthy thinks that this poem and 607 00:35:54,796 --> 00:35:57,596 Speaker 3: a Visit from Saint Nicholas were written at the same time. 608 00:35:58,276 --> 00:36:01,756 Speaker 3: There was a snowstorm in New York on December twenty first. 609 00:36:01,916 --> 00:36:05,116 Speaker 3: Was a Saturday in eighteen twenty two, Throughoute this poem 610 00:36:05,156 --> 00:36:07,236 Speaker 3: called lines, written after a snowstorm. 611 00:36:09,156 --> 00:36:09,876 Speaker 1: I'll read it to you. 612 00:36:10,756 --> 00:36:14,036 Speaker 3: Come, children, dear, and look around. Behold how soft and 613 00:36:14,116 --> 00:36:17,316 Speaker 3: light the silent snow has clad the ground in robes 614 00:36:17,316 --> 00:36:20,836 Speaker 3: of purest white. The trees seem decked by fairy hand 615 00:36:20,956 --> 00:36:24,196 Speaker 3: nor knead their native green, and every breeze appears to 616 00:36:24,236 --> 00:36:27,636 Speaker 3: stand all hushed to view the seam. You wonder how 617 00:36:27,636 --> 00:36:30,556 Speaker 3: the snows are made that dance upon the air, as 618 00:36:30,596 --> 00:36:34,396 Speaker 3: if from purer worlds they strayed so lightly and so fair. 619 00:36:35,476 --> 00:36:38,196 Speaker 3: Perhaps they are the summer flowers in northern stars, that 620 00:36:38,276 --> 00:36:42,876 Speaker 3: bloom wafted away from icy bowers to cheer our winter's gloom. 621 00:36:43,156 --> 00:36:45,396 Speaker 3: Perhaps they are feathers of a race of birds that 622 00:36:45,436 --> 00:36:49,476 Speaker 3: live away in some cold, dreary, wintry place, far from 623 00:36:49,516 --> 00:36:53,156 Speaker 3: the sun's warm ray and clouds. Perhaps are downy beds 624 00:36:53,436 --> 00:36:56,396 Speaker 3: on which the winds repose, who, when they rouse their 625 00:36:56,436 --> 00:37:01,276 Speaker 3: slumbering heads, shake down the feathery snows. But see, my darlings, 626 00:37:01,316 --> 00:37:04,836 Speaker 3: while we stay and gaze with fond delight the fairy scene. 627 00:37:04,876 --> 00:37:08,676 Speaker 3: Soon fades away and mocks our raptured sight, and let 628 00:37:08,716 --> 00:37:11,236 Speaker 3: this fleet eating vision teach truth. You soon must know 629 00:37:12,116 --> 00:37:14,836 Speaker 3: that all the joys we here can reach are transient 630 00:37:14,876 --> 00:37:15,476 Speaker 3: as the snow. 631 00:37:16,876 --> 00:37:17,636 Speaker 1: They say something. 632 00:37:20,636 --> 00:37:24,276 Speaker 3: Christmas is a made up holiday. The core of it 633 00:37:24,356 --> 00:37:27,476 Speaker 3: is these weird social inversions that last for a day 634 00:37:27,676 --> 00:37:31,436 Speaker 3: and then melt like the new fallen snow. In that sense, 635 00:37:31,676 --> 00:37:33,676 Speaker 3: I think it's easy to see why the story that 636 00:37:33,836 --> 00:37:38,036 Speaker 3: Henry Livingston Junior actually wrote this poem gets retold so often. 637 00:37:38,876 --> 00:37:42,316 Speaker 3: It's another Christmas ee inversion, one about as old as 638 00:37:42,396 --> 00:37:46,716 Speaker 3: modern Christmas itself, just another story about a thing that's 639 00:37:46,716 --> 00:37:50,676 Speaker 3: not as it seems. Fat men in velvet robes sliding 640 00:37:50,716 --> 00:37:54,836 Speaker 3: down thin chimneys, everything you ever wanted under a tree 641 00:37:54,876 --> 00:38:00,236 Speaker 3: that's indoors, and your great great great great great grandfathers 642 00:38:00,316 --> 00:38:06,116 Speaker 3: forgotten roll in inventing Christmas. I don't believe it, but 643 00:38:06,156 --> 00:38:16,196 Speaker 3: then again tis the season. Revisionist History is produced by 644 00:38:16,196 --> 00:38:20,396 Speaker 3: me Bennatt of Haffrey, with Nina Bird Lawrence and Lucy Sullivan. 645 00:38:21,236 --> 00:38:25,356 Speaker 3: Our editor is Karen Schakergie fact checking by Onica Robbins. 646 00:38:25,956 --> 00:38:30,356 Speaker 3: Our executive producer is Jacob Smith. Production support from Luke 647 00:38:30,436 --> 00:38:34,636 Speaker 3: Lehmand engineering by David Herman at Good Studios and Nina 648 00:38:34,636 --> 00:38:39,236 Speaker 3: Bird Lawrence. Original music was composed, arranged, and recorded by 649 00:38:39,276 --> 00:38:44,236 Speaker 3: Luis Gara, mixing and mastering bar Marcelo di Olivera. I 650 00:38:44,276 --> 00:38:47,356 Speaker 3: have stood on the shoulders of giants for this absurd episode. 651 00:38:47,676 --> 00:38:50,636 Speaker 3: All credit to the scholars and writers who made this possible, 652 00:38:50,956 --> 00:38:55,516 Speaker 3: Scott Norsworthy of the Melvileana Blog, Tom Jerman, and Justin Fox. 653 00:38:56,276 --> 00:38:59,796 Speaker 3: To our friends in Troy, the incomparable Duncan Crairie and 654 00:38:59,876 --> 00:39:04,116 Speaker 3: city historian Kathy Shehan. If I've left you unconvinced about 655 00:39:04,196 --> 00:39:06,956 Speaker 3: Moore's authorship, you can read the latest salvo from the 656 00:39:06,956 --> 00:39:10,356 Speaker 3: Livingstonians in the book Who Wrote The Night Before Christmas 657 00:39:10,516 --> 00:39:11,796 Speaker 3: by Professor MacDonald P. 658 00:39:11,956 --> 00:39:12,316 Speaker 1: Jackson. 659 00:39:12,716 --> 00:39:15,236 Speaker 3: Just be sure to read Scott Norseworthy's response to it 660 00:39:15,316 --> 00:39:22,036 Speaker 3: on the Melvilliana Blog right afterwards. From Revisionist History, Happy 661 00:39:22,036 --> 00:39:24,916 Speaker 3: holidays and we'll see you all in the new year.