The Night Before Christmas

Clement Clarke Moore taught Greek and Oriental literature at the General Theological Seminary in New York City. The story goes that after he wrote the poem for his children—he eventually had nine—a relative copied it down and gave it to a friend in Troy, New York, who then sent it to the Troy Sentinel. It was published without Moore being credited as the author. Moore’s name didn’t appear as the poem’s author until 1837, when the work was printed along with some of his other pieces in a book titled The New York Book of Poetry. He died on July 10, 1863. Every December, a wreath is laid on his grave at Trinity Church Cemetery in New York City to commemorate his famous poem.

Gennady Spirin grew up in a small town near Moscow and attended the Moscow Art School at the Academy of Art and at the Moscow Stroganov Institute. He has received five gold medals from the Society of Illustrators in New York City, the Golden Apple from the Bratislava International Biennial, and first prize at both the Bologna and Barcelona international book fairs. His work has appeared four times on the annual New York Times Ten Best Illustrated Books of the Year list. Mr. Spirin has illustrated many classic poems, songs, Bible stories, and tales, including The Night Before Christmas, The Twelve Days of Christmas, Jesus, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and Little Red Riding Hood. Now a U.S. citizen, he lives with his wife and three sons in Princeton, New Jersey.