MacDonald P. Jackson

Though the subject of this book interests me a great deal, specifically this writer and Christmas literature in general, Mr. Jackson's efforts were as dry as a popcorn fart.

My main criticism of the book is that it is slow and laboring and dense with numbers and alleged statistical proofs that Moore did not write the poem in question. Chapter after chapter of painstaking detail about the mean and standard deviation of how many times the author used the word "the" in his corpus of work were enough to wear me down. Mr. Jackson's primary tool to convince us of his thesis is to bury us with mathematical data.

Secondarily, I was put off Mr. Jackson's early supposition that Moore did not write this poem. From the very first chapter of the book, I sensed a bias against Moore being the author. Jackson's handling of the evidence was not even-handed. Facts he dismissed in favor of Livingston, were used with full vigor against Moore. He did not give the reader an opportunity to form their own opinion about the authorship.

This exciting debate could have been handled with more enthusiasm and less bias. I was completely disappointed in this book.… (mehr)

This in-depth work on the famous poem is described by the highly qualified author as a 'short monograph' whose aim is to 'establish the truth of the matter, or, at the very least, to determine where the probabilities lie,' in relation to the work's question. This is an apt quick description, as the poem is dissected over its content, such as reindeer's names, rhyme patterns, meter, word use and repetition. To clarify the possible authorship, Em.Prof. Jackson further delves into the minutae of language complexity with phoneme structure and pairing, use and frequency of definite or indefinite articles, adjectival preferences, and 'quirks of style,' that may be identified in other securely attributed works of Clement Clarke Moore and Henry Livingston. This discussion leaves the usual paradigm of English literary prose and is illustrated by numerous tables and graphs that itemise, sometimes painfully, the statistical (percentile) comparisons of word use frequency by the possible two authors in their other works, and compares this with the percentiles that certain words, names, and other features appeared in the actual poem in question.

The work is of very high scholarly quality, in that it is meticulously referenced using a combined in-text and footnote system, and covers every conceivable angle of argument that might be presented either for or against both possible poets. For the reader's further analysis he includes several useful appendices with selected poems and prose of both poets that are of key importance to the body of his text, as well as lists of known poetic works of the two. These additions make up almost a quarter of the whole book. Jackson is very certain in the end about the authorship of the poem itself as belonging to Livingston, but does the argumentative process justice with due weighing of all possibilities along the way; he only gives his definitive position in the last sentence of the conclusion.

In sum, it is a work of complex research and is delivered as such; this makes it both a valuable source for the intensive literary analyst, but a difficult read for the layman, at times. Some chapters are much more easy-going in the nature of the discussion, but it is more of a challenge when mathematical analyses of word use are spelled out in prose; nonetheless such instances were clearly necessary elements to the study. It is highly recommended to those with a scholarly research mindset (especially of English literature), in that it provides a good example of critical analysis, treating the subject in a fine forensic manner, weighing suitable evidence to pronounce judgement.… (mehr)

Who wrote The Night before Christmas? The Night before Christmas is one of the most popular poems in English that for many, exemplifies Christmas. The poem first appeared in the Troy Sentinel on 23 December 1823, without author attribution. This book analyzes the Clement Clarke Moore vs. Henry Livingston questionabout its authorship. In 1844, Clement Clarke Moore was an esteemed scholar of Greek and Oriental Literature and author of political tracts and poetry. In a publication of collected poems by Moore in 1844, The Night before Christmas was included. In 1828, Henry Livingston, a landholder, farmer and writer who contributed to magazines and newspapers, died. Livingston’s relatives claimed that Henry wrote The Night before Christmas and that he read the poem in 1808 to his children. Who then really wrote The Night Before Christmas?
MacDonald P. Jackson, an emeritus professor of English at the University of Auckland, tackles this literary feud and does a thorough analysis of the poem by gathering and comparing data and the patterns in the works of Clement Clarke Moore and Henry Livingston. His approach takes two paths. First he tracks all the writings of Moore and Livingston, including letters of their relatives, and comments on the poem and all the places where the publication of the poem appeared in the first half of the 19th century. Moore and Livingston’s respective careers and lives were examined, as well as all of their works made recently available through online sources. While this path favored one author, much of the evidence was anecdotal and reflected a subjective reading of the author’s oeuvre.
The second path is a statistical study of word usage. Working with all the poetic words of Moore and Livingston, through ten groupings of words and the statistical probability that these words were used in specific and representative order that could be attributed to either Moore or Livingston, Jackson then determined which man was more likely to be the author of The Night before Christmas. Attributive adverbs, rhyme links, three categories of phonemes (a defined unit of significant sound in a specific language), definite and indefinite articles, high-frequency words, favorite expressions and quirks of style, common words that discriminate and words used with medium or high frequency, are grouped and compared across the authors’ oeuvres and then compared with The Night Before Christmas. Jackson’s analysis allowed him to discriminate the unique differences in the poetry of Moore and Livingston.
Spoiler Alert! Jackson study of the history and statistical analysis of The Night before Christmas concluded that only Henry Livingston could have written the popular Christmas poem. Regardless of authorship, The Night before Christmas figures large in the celebration of Christmas, with its stockings, a sleigh full or toys with eight reindeer and Happy Christmas. Who Wrote the Night before Christmas?: Analyzing the Clement Clarke Moore vs. Henry Livingston Question is not an easy read. In the chapter “Statistical Interlude,” Jackson warns us that if you are not conversant with statistical methodology it would be better to skip the chapter. I would add, while in general comprehensible, the following twelve chapters, three quarters of the book, are a series of word lists, tables, statistical attributions and not for the faint of heart. This is an academic work, well researched and conceived. Room on the shelf for the study of the history of Christmas should be made—but it will not cause “visions of sugar plums to dance in your head”!… (mehr)

Most people, including myself, have always attributed the poem The Night Before Christmas to Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863). The poem was first published in the Troy Sentinel, a newspaper in upstate New York on December 23, 1823. But Moore never publicly acknowledged being its author until his book Poems was published in 1844. It wasn't until around 1860, that the attribution of the poem was questioned by relatives of Henry Livingston (1748-1828), who reportedly composed the poem and read it to his children as early as 1808. The authorship of The Night Before Christmas is still in question to this day.

However, Macdonald P. Jackson, an emeritus professor of English at the University of Auckland and a fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand put the writing of the poem to a series of computerized word tests. Jackson compared the writings of Moore and Livingston to the poem and calculated the usage percentage of phonemes (units of sound), phoneme pairs, definite and indefinite articles and much more. And based on the results of all his sound and word tests, Macdonald P. Jackson wrote, "the reasonable conclusion is that The Night Before Christmas was composed by Henry Livingston." As for me, I still believe Clement Moore to be the author of The Night Before Christmas/… (mehr)