A Knickerbocker's History of New York

From the literary satirist and author of Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, an entertaining, fantastical account of the origins of New York.

One of the first important works of American comic literature, this satirical history of New York was initially published to popular acclaim in 1809. Spanning the creation of the world to the end of the “Dutch Dynasty,” this humorous history examines the discovery of New York, the first settlements of the Dutch, the reign of Peter Stuyvesant, and the gallant achievements of Peter the Headstrong, among many other real and imagined moments in the history of this essential American city.

This book—Washington Irving’s first—provides an acute examination of New York’s customs, policies, and politics and is every bit as salient, biting, and laughable as it was to its original early-nineteenth-century audience.