Illustrated Night Before Christmas by Henry Livingston (Vanity)

Henry Livingston website ^ | December 24, 2015 | Mary Van Deusen

[mairdie]

Seems appropriate on this night before Christmas to mention that the actual author of Night Before Christmas was Henry Livingston, not Clement Moore.

[mairdie]

The results of the last 3 years of statistical research into the disputed authorship of Night Before Christmas is over and MacDonald Jackson's book will be out in the spring. The first major investigation was traditional authorship analysis with Don Foster, and that came out in 2000. This statistical analysis actually takes it down to comparing the phonemes (sounds) in every word of every poem by Clement Moore, Henry Livingston, and the disputed Christmas poem to see where the tongue moves in the mouth while you recite the poems aloud. Mac comes down with Don that the actual author of the poem was Henry Livingston.

I've illustrated the original 1823 version of the poem from my copies of antique books. http://www.henrylivingston.com/writing/poetry/nightbeforechristmas.htm

There's also a downloadable video of illustrations done to a recitation and music of the Trail Band. http://www.iment.com/maida/tv/songvids/xmassong.htm#visit

Please forgive if I'm getting this posting wrong. First time peeking out of lurker mode.

A very Happy Christmas to all on a site I absolutely love!

Mary

[Fiddlstix]

Welcome To FR

[Fiddlstix]

Click The Pics & Text For Christmas Music

MERRY CHRISTMAS

[o_1_2_3__]

Incredible website.

[Company Man]

Well done Mairdie! Posted like a boss! Now you can get down to the serious business of meaningless flame wars, me too’s and virtue signalling (just kiddin’)

[mairdie]

I fear I’m a bit too meek and nerdy for a flame war. I’m the car that pulls over when someone’s on my bumper. Trump’s my guy, so I guess that’s a me, too. But I’ll go for anyone in November with an R after their name. Loved and respected W. Can’t stand Jeb. Raised in a family of Democrats but sat transfixed thru the Eisenhower/Stevenson conventions and have been an R ever since.
http://www.iment.com/maida/politics/index.htm
Haven’t put up a politics page since 2009. Too traumatized.

There seem to be very good people here.
Best, Mary

[mairdie]

My thanks for the kindness of your comment. I can still remember searching for Moore’s poetry for so many weeks and finally finding it in microfilm at Brown U. As it printed out I realized that it wasn’t possible that this man wrote that poem. And Henry’s poetry was exactly in line with it. I’ll fight hard when there’s a wrong that needs righting, and that’s what this is for me. It’s taken me over for most of the last 15 years, and I’ve been the research assistant for both of the academic investigations. My friend Lyn came up with the idea of analyzing the phonemes while I was trying to suck her in at a Dunkin Donuts by reading the poems aloud from each poet. Henry read smooth as silk. Moore I kept tripping over. She explained that it had to do with how much movement my tongue had to make between sounds. So we suggested phonemes to Mac. He couldn’t believe we were willing to do the grunt work to transcribe all the canons into phonemes, but it was worth it! Yeah, Mac!

Hope this is a wonderful Christmas for you and yours, Mary

[o_1_2_3__]

I’ll bet the research on the phonemes (I almost wrote ‘phenomes’) has commercial potential.

[Company Man]

There seem to be very good people here.

The Freeper community is much larger than you would imagine, and includes many well known conservative media folks posting anonymously. There is virtually no subject, no matter how obscure, where you would not be able to receive a well reasoned expert opinion. You'll fit right in here I am sure. Just don't let the trolls and single issue people get you down.

[mairdie]

No financial potential for us. This is purely love and a compulsion to right a wrong. I come out of the military/industrial complex, so we do nitty to the 9th degree. The goal was to collapse massive amounts of data into something that Mac could grock almost instantly. That’s always my goal. My husband programmed the data reduction and, comparing the output with what we see coming out of a different academic research attribution tool, the difference in grocking is simply staggering.

Next Christmas I’ll make all my databases public so that other researchers can come in and try to cream us. I think that’s fair research. The first research, in 2000, wasn’t handled very nicely on the other side. We came out just as someone was trying to resell at vast profit a handwritten Moore copy of the poem. Don’s book did him in. So he hired a paranormal investigator to write a 2 part article attacking us. The weight of Moore is just unbelievable. Authors can’t get publishers to commit to Henry’s authorship because readers will search on Moore. As a result, the new book sales would be reduced if the book doesn’t turn up on search. I’ve created an NBC book from my antique illustration collection that I’ll try to get out next year, with the author being -Henry Livingston, not Clement Moore-. After all, -and- is used all the time! Why not -not-? And I’ll try to price it at cost just to get the word out.

It’s all about passion. I love FR because the people are passionate. I can disagree on points, but really love the passion I read.

Best, Mary

[mairdie]

>>Just don’t let the trolls and single issue people get you down.

That’s what skimming is for. And there’s always sensible people here to read when I need a pick-me-up.

Someday I hope I’ll do something with some of the news tapes I’ve recorded over the years. We’re tossing tapes at a prodigious rate, while digitizing lots of them. But I still haven’t touched the Oliver North hearing tapes, and someday I have to get to them. I couldn’t bring myself to keep the few Clinton impeachment tapes. Those just went down my spine. I did go thru my 9/11 tapes looking for NJ cheerleaders, but didn’t find anything in the tapes I had. I think I saw the troops going into Baghdad tapes.

Best, Mary

[mairdie]

Thanks for your welcome. And for your links. The songs with lyrics were fascinating. I do something different. I cut TV shows on top of songs. Another of my compulsions. There’s 640 of them. 75 of those are Christmas songs.
http://www.iment.com/maida/tv/songvids/xmassong.htm

My Christmas favorites:
Dr Who
http://www.iment.com/maida/tv/songvids/mp4/drwho/DrWho-WhiteWinterNight-PAL-H264MC-16x9-MP4.mp4

http://www.iment.com/maida/tv/songvids/mp4/drwho/DrWho-JingleBells-PAL-V12-16x9-MP4.mp4

Harry Potter
http://www.iment.com/maida/tv/songvids/mp4/xmas/XmasHPOComeEmmanuelSH24WV6MC.mp4

JAG
http://www.iment.com/maida/tv/songvids/mp4/xmas/XmasOneToySoldierSH24WV12MC.mp4

Sherlock Holmes
http://www.iment.com/maida/tv/songvids/mp4/hw/NuttinForChristmas.mp4

Starsky & Hutch
http://www.iment.com/maida/tv/songvids/mp4/xmas/RudolphDrankTheMoonshine.mp4

Star Trek
http://www.iment.com/maida/tv/songvids/mp4/st/STWeThreeKingsSH24WV25MC.mp4

http://www.iment.com/maida/tv/songvids/mp4/st/XMASSTAngelsWeHaveHeard24WV12MC.mp4

Star Wars
http://www.iment.com/maida/tv/songvids/mp4/sw/SWCoventryCarolSH24WV5MC.mp4

[Fiddlstix]

MERRY CHRISTMAS

And..
Thank You For your links