Just a followup on this morning”s post about the best Christmas read aloud poetry.. Associated Press announced yesterday that the “CEO of a media company” paid $280,000 for a hand-written copy of Clement Clarke Moore”s 1822 poem, “Twas the Night Before Christmas”. The author apparently wrote the poem out and signed it for an acquaintance in 1860. There are only three other known copies of the poem still in existence, all of them in museum collections. The poem wasn”t auctioned; rather, the Dallas based Heritage Auction Galleries brokered the deal with a private collector who has been in possession of the document. Greg Rohan, president of the galleries, delivered the poem personally to the new owner”s Manhattan apartment, where there was a party in progress. The new owner immediately gathered his friends around him and read the poem aloud. “They thought it was the coolest thing ever,” said Rohan.

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