Clement Clarke Moore was born on June 15, 1779 in New York City. Moore was the only son of Benjamin Moore, president of Columbia College and bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in New York. He graduated first in his class from Columbia College in 1798 and got a Masters Degree from there in 1801.

Moore married Catherine Elizabeth Taylor in 1813, and they settled at Chelsea, in what was then a country estate outside New York City. Clement Moore is considered the savior of New York's Greenwich Village. He wrote a 60-page pamphlet anonymously that argued against extending the orthogonal grid of streets into the village. His arguments were persuasive and the grid stopped at 6th Avenue and at 14th Street. He was a professor of classics at the General Theological Seminary in New York and wrote a most famous scholarly work one the lexicon of the Hebrew language.

"A Visit From Saint Nicholas" (1822) was written as a Christmas gift for his children.

From 1840 to 1850, he was a member of our school's board of managers. The school was then known as The New York Institution for the Blind. The school was located on 34th Street and 9th Avenue during that era. The school moved to Pelham Parkway in the Bronx in 1922 and it is known as The New York Institute for Special Education.

He is buried at at the Trinity Church Cemetery and Mausoleum in Upper Manhattan between Broadway and Riverside Drive, at the Chapel of the Intercession (now The Church of the Intercession). The Trinity Cemetery uptown is a beautiful cemetery.  Charles Dickens' son, Alfred Tennyson Dickens, is interred here, as are John James Audubon and John Jacob Astor.

Follow the links below to 'Twas the Night Before Christmas followed by a reading comprehension based on this Christmas classic.

• 'Twas the Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore
  
  
• Reading Comprehension based on the poem
  
  
• Image of Moore's handwritten poem

LINKS

• The Project Gutenberg EBook of
  A Visit From Saint Nicholas (beautifully illustrated)
  
  
• Trinity Cemetery & Mausoleum
  
  
• The Church of the Intercession
  
  
• Selected Poetry of Clement Clarke Moore
  
  
• Clement Clarke Moore Candlelight Commemoration
  
  
• Copy of Poem Sold; 'Twas Worth $280K

Even Moore Links

• Biography at About.com
• MOORE, Clement Clarke, Professor [1779-1863]
  -- American biblical scholar & author
• Classic Christmas Carols and Songs for the ESL Classroom
• Did he or didn't he actually write it?
• The Donder Home Page
• The Church of the Intercession