Page 15 - Four Famous American Writers: Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, James Russell Lowell, Bayard Taylor

still cherished among them (the New Yorkers); when I find its very name
become a ’household word,’ and used to give the home stamp to everything

recommended for popular acceptance, such as Knickerbocker societies,
Knickerbocker insurance companies, Knickerbocker steamboats,

Knickerbocker omnibuses, Knickerbocker bread, and Knickerbocker
ice,--and when I find New Yorkers of Dutch descent priding themselves
upon being ’genuine Knickerbockers,’ I please myself with the persuasion

that I have struck the right chord."

CHAPTER VII

A COMIC HISTORY OF NEW YORK

"Knickerbocker’s History of New York" was undertaken by Irving and his

brother Peter as a parody on a book that had lately appeared, entitled "A
Picture of New York." The two young men, one of whom had already

proved himself something of an author, were so full of humor and the spirit
of mischief that they must amuse themselves and their friends, and they
thought this a good way of doing it. There was to be an introduction giving

the history of New York from the foundation of the world, and the main
body of the book was to consist of "notices of the customs, manners, and

institutions of the city; written in a serio-comic vein, and treating local
errors, follies, and abuses with good-humored satire."

The introduction was not more than fairly begun when Peter Irving started
for Europe, leaving the completion of the work to the younger brother.

Washington decided to change the plan, and merely give a humorous
history of the Dutch settlement of New York.

Let us take a peep into this amusing history. First, here is the portrait of
"that worthy and irrecoverable discoverer (as he has justly been called),

Master Henry Hudson," who "set sail from Holland in a stout vessel called
the Half-Moon, being employed by the Dutch East India Company to seek
a northwest passage to China."