<P> Moore is credited by his friend Charles Fenno Hoffman as author in the 25 December 1837 Pennsylvania Inquirer and Daily Courier . Further, the Rev. David Butler, who allegedly showed the poem to Sentinel editor Orville L. Holley, was a relative of Moore's . A letter to Moore from the publisher states, "I understand from Mr. Holley that he received it from Mrs. Sackett, the wife of Mr. Daniel Sackett who was then a merchant in this city". Moore preferred to be known for his more scholarly works, but allowed the poem to be included in his anthology in 1844 at the request of his children . By that time, the original publisher and at least seven others had already acknowledged his authorship . Livingston family lore gives credit to their forebear rather than Moore, but there is no proof that Livingston himself ever claimed authorship, nor has any record ever been found of any printing of the poem with Livingston's name attached to it, despite more than 40 years of searches . </P> <P> Advocates for Livingston's authorship argue that Moore "tried at first to disavow" the poem . They also posit that Moore falsely claimed to have translated a book . Document dealer and historian Seth Kaller has challenged both claims . Kaller examined the book in question, A Complete Treatise on Merinos and Other Sheep, as well as many letters signed by Moore, and found that the "signature" was not penned by Moore, and thus provides no evidence that Moore made any plagiaristic claim . Kaller's findings were confirmed by autograph expert James Lowe, by Dr. Joe Nickell, the author of Pen, Ink & Evidence, and by others . According to Kaller, Moore's name was likely written on the book by a New - York Historical Society cataloger to indicate that it had been a gift from Moore to the Society . </P> <P> The following points have been advanced in order to credit the poem to Major Henry Livingston Jr.: </P> <P> Livingston also wrote poetry primarily using an anapaestic metrical scheme, and it is claimed that some of the phraseology of A Visit is consistent with other poems by Livingston, and that Livingston's poetry is more optimistic than Moore's poetry published in his own name . But Stephen Nissenbaum argues in his Battle for Christmas that the poem could have been a social satire of the Victorianization of Christmas . Furthermore, Kaller claims that Foster cherry - picked only the poems that fit his thesis and that many of Moore's unpublished works have a tenor, phraseology, and meter similar to A Visit . Moore had even written a letter titled "From Saint Nicholas" that may have predated 1823 . </P>

Nothing was stirring not even a mouse poem