Knickerbocker: The Myth Behind New York

From Strand Bookstore

In a city where fact and fiction are often on a level playing field, nothing is impossible to believe for New Yorkers. Though, one piece of fiction that is often overlooked is the myth and legend of one Diedrich Knickerbocker, the sterling snob and champion of the people who traced the history of New York to New Amsterdam. Yet, while Knickerbocker was born in 1809, it was not a normal birth as he was created by the pen of Washington Irving. In 'Knickerbocker: The Myth Behind New York' readers are led on a fascinating chronicle of the legend and lore of the Kickerbocker phenomenon, as well as a revealing look at how his name and legacy have carried on for two-hundred years of New York history.

More about the book

Elizabeth Bradley celebrated the bicentennial of a satirical "history," A HISTORY OF NEW-YORK FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD TO THE END OF THE DUTCH DYNASTY, BY DIEDRICH KNICKERBOCKER, not only by editing a new edition, but chronicling the back-story of Washington Irving's literary hoax and its fictive principal in KNICKERBOCKER: THE MAN BEHIND THE MYTH. To promote his book, Irving placed notices seeking information on Knickerbocker, an elderly "Dutch historian" who had disappeared from his hotel, leaving behind a manuscript and unpaid bills, generating word-of-mouth that fueled his book's success. Bradley's investigation of how "Knickerbocker" took its place in the language reminds readers that stealth promotion is not a modern invention.