High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Clement Clarke Moore (July 15, 1779 – July 10, 1863) was an American professor of Oriental and Greek literature at Columbia College, now Columbia University. He donated land from his family estate for the foundation of the General Theological Seminary, where he was a professor of Biblical learning and compiled a two-volume Hebrew dictionary. He is generally considered to be the author of the yuletide poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas", which later became famous as "T`was the Night Before Christmas".