Washington Irving completes work on his first…
December 1809 CE
Washington Irving completes work on his first major book, A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, by Diedrich Knickerbocker (1809), a satire on self-important local history and contemporary politics, while mourning the death of his seventeen year old fiancée Matilda Hoffman in late 1809.
Prior to its publication, Irving starts a hoax akin to today's viral marketing campaigns; he places a series of missing person adverts in New York newspapers seeking information on Diedrich Knickerbocker, a crusty Dutch historian who had allegedly gone missing from his hotel in New York City.
As part of the ruse, Irving places a notice—allegedly from the hotel's proprietor—informing readers that if Mr. Knickerbocker fails to return to the hotel to pay his bill, he will publish a manuscript Knickerbocker has left behind.
Unsuspecting readers follow the story of Knickerbocker and his manuscript with interest, and some New York city officials are concerned enough about the missing historian that they consider offering a reward for his safe return.
Riding the wave of public interest he has created with his hoax, Irving—adopting the pseudonym of his Dutch historian—publishes A History of New York on December 6, 1809, to immediate critical and popular success.
"It took with the public", Irving remarked, "and gave me celebrity, as an original work was something remarkable and uncommon in America". (Washington Irving to Mrs. Amelia Foster, [April–May, 1823]; Irving, Washington. The Complete Works of Washington Irving. (Rust, et al., editors). 30 vols. (University of Wisconsin/Twayne, 1969–1986))
The surname of Diedrich Knickerbocker, the fictional narrator of this and other Irving works, will become a nickname for Manhattan residents in general.
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