I brought the issue to Vassar Professor Don Foster in 1999 and he agreed to research the attribution if I would work as his virtual grad student. So, for a year, I criss-crossed the country to research institutions, and lived in a small cubby reading the newspapers of the time until I felt as though I lived in that time when George Washington was spoken of in the present tense.
Don's book came out in 2000 and there were articles in People Magazine and the New York Times. Very exciting.
But we hit at the same time a gentleman had bought a Moore handwritten copy of the poem and was trying to sell it for a great deal more. His market apparently collapsed when Don's book came out. So he hired a gentleman known for writing about the occult who produced a magazine article tearing apart Don's research. Don was sloppy in some places, but his basic work was good. Unfortunately, the few mistakes were enough to let the other gentleman dominate the discussion, even though most of his objections were just wrong.
Then in 2011 the New Zealand emeritus professor, MacDonald Jackson, who had once corrected an attribution of Don for a sonnet he'd misattributed to Shakespeare, contacted me and asked if I could help him approach the problem with statistics. I did. My background was computer language design and my husband is a down and deep computer researcher. My friend was president of computational linguistics back when I chaired the computer languages community, and I sucked her in.
We'd gone to a Dunkin' Donuts and I'd read the poetry of Moore and Livingston to her and explained I was having trouble saying Moore's lines, while Livingston's flowed. She said it was probably due to the phonemes - the sounds of the words - moving the tongue in the mouth and, when this was presented to Mac, he agreed that it might be a fundamental way to examine the bodies of work. It turned out to be a statistically significant way to separate them and when compared against the phonemes in "Night Before Christmas" proved conclusively that the author had to be Livingston and not Moore. EUREKA!
We did this work over several intense, long years. Mac's book came out last year, but it was written in academic peer talk, and is pretty hard to read unless you're a statistician. Mac, by the way, is revered in the community for the quality of his work, mostly focused on Shakespeare.
So I decided to come out with a book that described the research but was written in people talk. Thus, this book.
I don't know what time on the 26th (Tuesday) that Amazon will turn the book free, but I only get 5 days that I can make it free, so I'm using one of them to give it to you. If this works - and my fingers are crossed - then I'd deeply appreciate anyone who would be willing to review the book. My thanks to anyone reading it.
thank you
You should write a book on Hillary’s virtues. It would be cheap to print at one blank page or you could do the eco friendly version which is an empty envelope.
Fantastic. Thanks! The creativity on FR never ceases to amaze me.
btt
Added to my Kindle wish list, I’ll wait ‘til tomorrow to order it...
That’s terrific. Thank you.
Is it available on B&N’s Nook?
This is not Dr. Livingstone, I presume?
"Ceterum censeo Islam esse delendam."
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
I should have included Mac’s comments on my book. Mac is really such a sweetheart.
***
This book celebrates the life and times of Poughkeepsie army major and land-holder Henry Livingston, Jr. (1748–1828), the true author of that classic of popular culture, “The Night Before Christmas.” Mary Van Deusen’s lively writing is enhanced by a wealth of evocative illustrations. Her research has been exceptionally thorough, and many primary documents are reproduced. Livingston’s ancestors, relatives, and descendants belong in the story, so that biography is extended into fascinating family and social history. Included are many examples of Livingston’s verse and prose. The quest to prove that he composed “The Night Before Christmas” is related in detail, and there is a clear description of the research that established the truth.
Livingston’s engaging personality shines through this account, which vividly conjures up a bygone age.
Thank you. Sounds interesting.
In the last week of July of that year, Fred Waring and his crew were frantically working to finish the recording before the instrumentalists in the musicians' union went out on strike against the record companies on August 1. They barely managed to get it "in the can" before the walkout, which would last more than a year. The tune would go on to become a seasonal bestseller for decades afterwards.
Thank you. Seems I previously purchased it, but only started reading it.
JoMa