BiblioVault - Books about Irving, Washington

Journal of Washington Irving, 1823-1824

Washington Irving

Harvard University Press

An exact reproduction of a manuscript Journal kept by Washington Irving during about thirteen months of his life in Germany, Holland, France, and England. Forty and forty-one years old, Irving is seen through his own detailed record in the society of Paris, with English men of letters such as Samuel Rogers and Thomas Moore. He describes his literary projects in the period just following the successes of The Sketch Book and Bracebridge Hally and reveals his sources methods in writing his next book, Tales of a Traveller. The Journal is of peculiar value to the student of American literature in that it gives a minute account of Irving’s life during this important period.

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Knickerbocker

The Myth behind New York

Bradley, Elizabeth L

Rutgers University Press, 2009

Deep within New York's compelling, sprawling history lives an odd, ornery Manhattan native named Diedrich Knickerbocker. The name may be familiar today: his story gave rise to generations of popular tributes—from a beer brand to a basketball team and more—but Knickerbocker himself has been forgotten. In fact, he was New York's first truly homegrown chronicler, and as a descendant of the Dutch settlers, he singlehandedly tried to reclaim the city for the Dutch. Almost singlehandedly, that is. Diedrich Knickerbocker was created in 1809 by a young Washington Irving, who used the character to narrate his classic satire, A History of New York. According to Irving's partisan narrator, everything good and distinctive, proud and powerful, about New York City—from the doughnuts to the twisting streets of lower Manhattan—could be traced back to New Amsterdam. Terrific general interest, cultural history of a city with a rich and lively literary past. First-ever book on the eponymous myth that has informed New York City culture since the early 1800s. Coincides with the two-hundredth anniversary of Washington Irving's publication of A History of New York. Perfect gift book or addition to library collection of New York Cityùthemed books.

Includes a gallery of images that brings Diedrich Knickerbocker, his myth, time, and place to life Knickerbocker engagingly traces the creation, evolution, and prevalence of Irving's imaginary historian in New York literature and history, art and advertising, from the early nineteenth century to the present day. Who would imagine this satiric character, at once a snob and a champion of the people, would endure for two hundred years? In Elizabeth L. Bradley's words, "Whether you call it 'blood,' style, attitude, or moxie, the little Dutchman could deliver." And, from this engaging work, it is clear that he does.

Bradley's stunning volume offers a surprising and delightful glimpse behind the scenes of New York history, and invites readers into the world of Knickerbocker, the antihero who surprised everyone by becoming the standard-bearer for the city's exceptional sense of self, or what we now call a New York "attitude."

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Washington Irving and the Storrows

Letters from England and the Continent, 1821-1828

Washington Irving

Harvard University Press

In the decade prior to Washington Irving’s return to America in 1832 to receive his public welcome as his country’s first man of letters, he travelled widely in England, France, Germany, Austria, and Spain. During these wanderings he regarded the Paris fireside of the Storrow family, next to his sister’s house in Birmingham, as his European home. To the Storrow children he wrote of the legends of Germany; to Mrs Storrow, of his travels; to Thomas Wentworth Storrow, his capable and cultivated friend, of his disappointments and of his literary projects, notably The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. This group of personal letters, no one of which has previously been published, gives a singularly illuminating record of Irving's discouragements as he attempted to sustain his fame as the author of The Sketch Book.

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