IRVING, Washington.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

A History of New York, First edition of Irving's first independent book. "A monument of mock-erudition, it is perhaps his greatest book. As history, it is mostly exaggeration and invention, spurious by design. As humorous fiction, it is an odd coupling of sense and nonsense" (ANB).A sly satire on self-important local history and a Federalist critique of Jeffersonian democracy, the work is narrated by the imaginary "Dietrich Knickerbocker", an eccentric Dutch-American scholar. This "sprawling burlesque... may be reasonably called the first great book of comic literature written by an American" (DAB).This was the copy of the American bibliographer Jacob Chester Chamberlain (1860-1905), with his bookplate. Chamberlain's First Editions of Ten American Authors (1909) described this copy (no. 364), noting its rarity, original sheep binding, and the "fine impression" of the folding plate. The book was issued in sheep, as here, and in boards.

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