Is My A Visit from St. Nicholas (The Night Before Christmas) a First Edition?

The points of issue

• The 1848 Onderdonk is a humble square chapbook of sixteen pages, cheaply bound in a paper wrapper lettered "Santa Claus," illustrated throughout with wood engravings by Theodore C. Boyd — the first time the poem carried a full suite of illustrations as a book in its own right
• There are no edition statements or printing keys to read; identification rests entirely on the imprint (New York: Henry M. Onderdonk, 1848), the Boyd cuts, and the sixteen-page wrappered format
• A genuine textual test exists: the 1848 chapbook follows the punctuation of the 1836 Rural Repository / 1838 Parley's Magazine line — "Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer! now, Vixen! / On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Dunder and Blixen!" — rather than the 1823 Troy Sentinel's "Now! Dasher, now! Dancer, now! Prancer, and Vixen, / On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Dunder and Blixem;"
• Only a handful of copies survive in institutional collections; no copy appeared in the 2006 Sotheby's sale of the Jock Elliott Christmas collection

How to confirm the first-printing statement

Publishers stated first printings differently by era. The decisive tells are a printed “First Edition/First Printing” statement, a number line whose lowest number is 1 (Random House ends at 2), or a dated first printing with no later printings listed. Paste your copyright page into the number-line decoder.

How to verify your copy, step by step

1. Find the copyright page — the verso (back) of the title page.
2. Check for a number line or dated printing — the lowest number present is the printing; a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the tell.
3. Verify this is the US true first — not a later-market or reprint edition.
4. Rule out a book-club edition — a blind-stamp on the rear board or a jacket with no printed price marks a book-club copy.
5. Photograph four things — the front cover, spine, title page, and copyright page — the standard record for identification.

The dust jacket

For a collectible first edition the dust jacket matters as much as the book. Confirm the jacket is present and unclipped — the printed price should still be at the corner of the flap (a clipped corner or a price-less flap can indicate a book-club issue). First-state jackets can differ from later ones in the cover art, blurbs, or review quotations; where a specific first-state jacket point is known for this title it is noted above.

Binding & format

Where multiple bindings exist, the hardcover trade issue is usually (but not always) the precedence copy — confirm against the points above. Later printings often show cheaper cloth, thinner boards, or simplified spine stamping. A simultaneous signed or limited issue, when one exists, is a distinct state from the trade first.

Is this the true first?

US-only throughout — no UK or foreign-language edition is in play. The poem's true first appearance in print is the Troy Sentinel (Troy, New York), 23 December 1823, p. 3, published anonymously as "Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas"; the 1848 Onderdonk is the first separate/book edition and the first illustrated edition, NOT the poem's first printing. Two intermediate landmarks matter for precedence: Moore was not publicly named as author until The New-York Book of Poetry (New York: George Dearborn, 1837), and the poem first appeared in a book of Moore's own authorship in his Poems (New York, 1844, pp. 124-127). A ca. 1830 Troy Sentinel broadside carrier's address with a Myron King woodcut is the poem's first appearance as a separate sheet and its first illustration.

Telling it from reprints & book-club editions

Reprint and facsimile traps dominate this title. Onderdonk reused the Boyd cuts in The Evergreen (December 1849) and rights passed to Spalding & Shepard for their own 1849 chapbook of the poem (New York, 1849) — same cuts, different imprint. Dover Publications reproduced the 1848 edition in 1971, and a ca. 1919 "reprint of the first [sic] publication" of the Troy Sentinel text (held at the Library of Congress) is routinely mistaken for the 1823 original. Anything not a sixteen-page wrappered chapbook bearing the Henry M. Onderdonk 1848 New York imprint is a later issue or a facsimile.

Frequently asked questions

Is my copy of A Visit from St. Nicholas (The Night Before Christmas) a first edition?

A first edition of A Visit from St. Nicholas (The Night Before Christmas) by Clement C. Moore (Henry M. Onderdonk) is identified by: The 1848 Onderdonk is a humble square chapbook of sixteen pages, cheaply bound in a paper wrapper lettered "Santa Claus," illustrated throughout with wood engravings by Theodore C.

How do I tell the first printing from a later one?

Check the copyright page. A stated first edition, a number line ending in 1, or a dated first printing with no later printings listed is the key. US-only throughout — no UK or foreign-language edition is in play.

Is the book-club edition the same as the first?

Reprint and facsimile traps dominate this title. Onderdonk reused the Boyd cuts in The Evergreen (December 1849) and rights passed to Spalding & Shepard for their own 1849 chapbook of the poem (New York, 1849) — same cuts, different imprint. Dover Publications reproduced the 1848 edition in 1971, and a ca. 1919 "reprint of the first [sic] publication" of the Troy Sentinel text (held at the Library of Congress) is routinely mistaken for the 1823 original. Anything not a sixteen-page wrappered cha

I have a first edition of A Visit from St. Nicholas (The Night Before Christmas) — what should I do?

First, document the copy: photograph the copyright page (the number line and any edition statement) and the dust-jacket flap — an unclipped, priced jacket matters. Confirm the points of issue above against your copy, and use the free First Edition Checker to decode the printing. To sell, the author’s collecting guide covers the market. And if you are clearing books in the Albuquerque area, the New Mexico Literacy Project offers free pickup, any condition, and makes sure collectible copies are identified rather than discarded.

Glossary

First edition

Every copy printed from the first setting of type. Collectors usually want the first edition, first printing (the true first).

First printing / impression

A single press run from that setting. The first printing is the earliest and most desirable; later printings are still the first edition but not the true first.

Number line (printer's key)

A row of numbers on the copyright page (e.g. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The lowest number present is the printing — a line including 1 marks a first printing (Random House deliberately ends at 2).

Points of issue

Specific physical details — a stated edition, a number line, a typo, a jacket state — that identify the true first printing.

Book-club edition (BCE)

A reprint made for a book club. Tells include a blind-stamped dot or square on the rear board and a dust jacket with no printed price. Not the true first.

First thus

The first appearance of a particular version (first paperback, first illustrated, first U.S. printing) — a first of that kind, not the first edition of the work.