Diedrich Knickerbocker
One day in the year 1809, a missing person advertisement appeared in
several New York newspapers seeking information of a historian named
Diedrich Knickerbocker. A hotel placed an advertisement that if Mr
Knickerbocker did not turn up to settle his bill, the hotel owner would
be compelled to publish a manuscript left behind by this person.
On December 6, 1809, the manuscript was published subsequently as “'A
history of New York’ by Diedrich Knickerbocker”, which became an
immediate success, riding on the public interest created by the missing
person advertisement.
It was probably one of the earliest hoax started by an author to draw
attention to his books. And it was done by the person later acclaimed as
“the father of American Literature”, Washington Irving.
Commercialism and effects
From then on Knickerbocker became a nickname for Manhattan residents,
and the term knickerbockers for the baggy knee-length pantaloons worn by
Diedrich.
A term used more often, also introduced by Irving was “The almighty
dollar” in ‘Rip Van Winkle’ to illustrate commercialism and its effects.
He wrote, “...In a word, the almighty dollar, that great object of
universal devotion throughout our land...”
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Washington
Irving |
In 1838 then President of the United States, Martin Van Buren, had
offered Washington Irving the position as Secretary of the Navy in his
cabinet. Irving wrote back, declining the offer, where he had stated,
...ÓI shrink from the harsh cares and turmoil of public and political
life.....feel I am too sensitive to endure the bitter personal
hostility, and the slanders and misrepresentations of the press...”. He
had also declined to run for Congress and for Mayor of New York.
Austin McC. Fox, in the introduction to ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
and other selections from Washington Irving’ (1962), says, “It is as
hard to assess Irving the writer as it is to assess Irving the man, for
there seems to be about six faces to Irving the writer”.
First is the “Informal Essayist”, the observer of things and places
in his travels, and his talents as an artist is reflected in his prose
descriptions, and even one of his books was titled ‘The Sketch Book’.
Then he was a “Political and Social Satirist”, as we find in ‘The
History of New York'.
Next he is also “The Chronicler of the West”, which shows the pride
he had in his country, seen in his ‘A tour of the Prairies’, ‘Adventures
of Captain Bounneville’ and ‘Astoria, Anecdotes of an enterprise Beyond
the Rocky Mountains’.
Irving was also a “Biographer and Historian”, who wrote ‘Life of
Washington’, ‘Conquest of Granada’ and ‘Life and voyages of Columbus’.
Humorous usage
“The Gothic Writer” in Irving is seen in his “humorous,
tongue-in-cheek, eye-winking way” in ‘The Spectre Bridegroom’ and ‘The
Adventure of the German Student'.
‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’, ‘Rip Van Winkle’ and the ‘Guest from
Gibbet Island’ are some of his writings where “the Folklorist” comes
out.
Most of them are based on legends he had heard. About Spanish legends
he had written, “They have so much that is high minded, and chivalrous,
and quaint, and picturesque, and at times, half comic about them”
Washington Irving was engaged to marry Matilda Hoffmann, who died on
April 26, 1809 at the age of 17. Irving never became engaged, or married
anyone, and remained true to her memory, after that tragic love.
In response to an inquiry about why he had never married, Irving
wrote to Mrs. Forster, saying: “For years I could not talk on the
subject of this hopeless regret; I could not even mention her name; but
her image was continually before me, and I dreamt of her incessantly.”
Washington Irving died on 28 November 1859.
He seemed to foretell his death, as he said before going to bed:
“Well, I must arrange my pillows for another weary night! If this could
only end!”. Now he rests in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, a place he
immortalized in his book along with the Dutch church in Tarrytown.
He had written, “age is a matter of feeling, not of years”.
It can be said about Washington Irving himself and about his
writings.
Playing politics
In 2007, the Great Writer was rediscovered, by Andrew Burstein the
historian, in his book, ‘The Original Knickerbocker: The life of
Washington Irving’, to capture the role he played in politics and
culture through a 21st century perspective.
Irving was also a lawyer who travelled the world and knew eight
presidents during his lifetime, between the revolutionary war and the
Civil war, as mentioned by Abbey Gruen in the New York Times (April 15,
2007).
Most of his books are available for free reading online, including in
Kindle and e-pub formats, and give us too an opportunity to re-discover,
and for our younger generation to discover, this great writer and
through him to learn about life in the New World more than a century
ago, and about mankind in general who appear not to have changed much
over the past one million years. As illustrated by these words from
‘Astoria’.
“The tables in the great banqueting room groaned under the weight of
game of all kinds; of venison from the woods, and fish from the lakes,
with hunters’ delicacies, such as buffalos’ tongues, and beaver tails,
and various luxuries from Montreal...”
Astoria says it all, how the wonderful natural resources of Canada
and the life and culture of the inhabitants, were destroyed in the name
of civilization and progress, to satisfy the inherent greed of mankind.
And Man continues to be the destroyer of all he beholds.
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