On December 23, 1823, “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” perhaps
the most famous and influential Christmas poem ever was
published in the Troy Sentinel newspaper in New York by
an anonymous author.

It wasn’t until nearly 20 years later, in 1844, that American
writer Clement Clarke Moore claimed authorship after
seeing the poem misattributed in the Washington
National Intelligencer.

Moore took credit for the poem, claiming to have authored 
“some lines, describing a visit from St. Nicholas, which I
wrote many years ago, not for publication, but to amuse
my children.”

On December 19, 1843, Charles Dickens’ classic story “A
Christmas Carol” was published.

Dickens was born in 1812 and father, a clerk in the navy
pay office, was thrown into debtors’ prison in 1824, and
12-year-old Charles was sent to work in a factory.

The miserable treatment of children and the institution of
the debtors’ jail became topics of several of Dickens’
novels.

Charles John Huffam Dickens 
(7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870)

Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891)

On November 14, 1851, Moby-Dick was published. Now
considered a great classic of American literature—with
one of the most famous opening lines in fiction: “Call
me Ishmael”—the book about Captain Ahab and his
quest to catch a giant white whale was originally a big
flop.

Its author, Herman Melville was born in New York City
in 1819. As a young man, he spent time in the merchant
marines, the U.S. Navy and on a whaling ship in the South
Seas.

First U.S. edition.

                    
CAMILLE BOHANNON

Cyrus Ingerson Scofield (August 19, 1843 – July 24, 1921)

Scofield was an American theologian, minister, and writer whose
best-selling annotated Bible popularized dispensationalism and
futurism among fundamentalist Christians.

1917 edition of the Scofield Bible.