Moore, Clement (Clarke) (1779–1863)

US educator, Hebraist, and poet. He is generally known for a poem written for his children, ‘A Visit From St Nicholas’ (1822), later known as ‘The Night Before Christmas.’ The work was copied down by a guest at his home and given, without his knowledge or permission, to a newspaper in Troy, New York, for publication in 1823, and was copied by other newspapers throughout the country; it was only in 1844 that Moore was acknowledged as the author. He also discovered, in 1807, Lorenzo Da Ponte, the librettist of three of Mozart's greatest operas, in a New York City bookstore, and was instrumental in Da Ponte's new career as a teacher of Italian language and literature.

Born in New York, New York, he graduated from Columbia College (1798), became a Hebrew scholar, wrote A Compendious Lexicon of the Hebrew Language (1809), and was a founder of and professor at the General Theological Seminary, New York, New York (1823–50).