Beschreibung:

"Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas" [Twas the night before Christmas …] as published on p.40 of The United States National Almanac.
Philadelphia: R[obert] Desilver, [1824]. Tall 8vo (9 1/8 x 5 3/4 inches; 230 x 145 mm). Stitched as issued within plain wrappers, modern folding cloth case. Condition : lacking a folding table mentioned on the title-page, lightly soiled; split to upper joint, four small sections chipped, old tape repairs. first book appearance of one of the most famous children’s poems ever written, a work which redefined our views of christmas and revealed to a wide audience the existence of santa and his team of reindeer. This delightful work was first printed nine months earlier as an anonymous contribution to the Tuesday, 23 December, 1823, issue of The Troy Sentinel , an upstate New York newspaper. At that time the editor prefaced it with an explanation disclaiming any knowledge of the poet's identity, but justifying its publication on the grounds that "there is a spirit of goodness in it, a playfulness of fancy, and a benevolent alacrity to enter into the feelings and [to] promote the simple pleasures of children, which are altogether charming." Less than one year later the poem together with its preface were reprinted on p. 40 in this almanac. An acknowledgement to the Troy Sentinel is included, and a textual error corrected: the newspaper misspelled the name of the 8th reindeer as "Blixem", but here it has been corrected to "Blixen". The correction and the acknowledgment both suggest that this reprint was sanctioned by Clement Moore, and the copyright date of registration (for the whole almanac) is 27th August 1824. There are only two recorded copies of the original Troy Sentinel printing, located at the American Antiquarian Society (Worcester MA) and Yale (Shirley Collection).There are ten other copies of this almanac: all now in institutions (there are two variant issues) and including a copy from the Stralem sale, sold by Sotheby's NY (1 June 1995, lot 84, sold for $29,900, rebound without wrappers). BAL 14342 details three other 1825 almanacs which include the poem, each issued later than the present work, all edited by Joshua Sharp. M Drake Almanacs 11474; Marshall 6; Shoemaker Checklist of American Imprints 19111.