Among other things, he translated Roman satirist Juvenal’s works into English, compiled the two-volume A Compendious Lexicon of the Hebrew Language, and published books of poetry. Moore was always interested in church matters, and eventually became professor of Oriental and Greek Literature at the Episcopal General Theological Seminary (a school erected on land that Moore himself donated) serving in that capacity from 1821 until 1850. (Benjamin Moore’s other claim to fame was that he administered communion to Alexander Hamilton after he was fatally wounded in his infamous duel with Aaron Burr.)

(Sorry, cheap joke.) No, actually Benjamin Moore was a president of Columbia College (now Columbia University), which makes it less than surprising that Clement Moore was educated at that school, graduating in 1798. Benjamin Moore, who invented house paint. Moore was born July 15, 1779, in New York City. Sir Alec Guinness was an outstanding actor, with many fine roles to his credit on stage and screen–but he his remembered by most people simply as Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars, a role he considered of complete insignificance. He came to loathe his creation, Sherlock Holmes, going so far as to killing him…only to be forced by popular demand to bring him back again. History is full of artists in various disciplines who are most famous for things which they themselves considered of very little importance.

Clement c moore