Knickerbocker: The Myth behind New York

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Overview

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 City—themed 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."

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Diedrich Knickerbocker, a fictional man of stature, flamboyance and Dutch lineage, gets a history and identity worthy of New York's swagger in this exploration by Bradley (a contributor to The Encyclopedia of New York City) of how Knickerbocker shaped the city's identity. The narrator of Washington Irving's A History of New York, Knickerbocker has charmed readers since 1809 with his half-fantastical urban history, one that inspired local pride at a time when, according to Bradley, the city faced an identity crisis. Peppered with anecdotes, such as Knickerbocker's claiming of the doughnut for his city, Bradley's account maintains that the proud Dutchman "inspired New Yorkers to assert their own idiosyncratic relationship to the city, and to its history." Knickerbocker was appropriated: for political gain during FDR's presidency, commercial reward for countless businesses and sports promotion for teams like the New York Knicks. While Bradley's flat prose fails to match the Knickerbocker's largesse, literary historians and proud New Yorkers alike will delight in the character who brought pomp and legend to the city first nicknamed Gotham by Washington Irving 200 years ago. (July)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Library Journal

Bradley (deputy director, Cullman Ctr. for Scholars & Writers, NYPL) draws upon archival resources to present the life cycle of Dietrich Knickerbocker, the boastful New York City resident Washington Irving created 200 years ago in his farcical, semifictional Knickerbocker's History of New-York. Her deceptively slim volume brims with information about the burgeoning use of Knickerbocker as a literary device in novels, newspaper articles, and advertisements as a touchstone of popular culture, e.g., think of beer, hotels, and baseball and basketball teams, to name only a few examples. Knickerbocker evolved from a trope for provincial Dutch descendants to an upper-class symbol to a more inclusive and unifying icon of New Yorkers generally, whether or not native born. Broader in scope than the much newer symbol of the Big Apple, the depicting of urban corporate identity (now termed branding) through the Knickerbocker moniker underscored that the residents of Gotham (itself an Irving-applied nickname) were proud and distinctive yet welcoming and often so exaggerated as to be endearing. Entertaining enough for the general reader-including those planning a trip to one of the world's most visited cities-and amply annotated for the scholar, this is highly recommended.
—Frederick J. Augustyn Jr.

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The Barnes & Noble Review

These days the word "knickerbocker" represents "little more than a comical handle, a Dutch-inflected sound -- or a heartbreaking season at Madison Square Garden," observes Elizabeth Bradley in Knickerbocker: The Myth Behind New York. Her slender, charming volume aims to change that. Bradley delves into the 200-year history of the term, which originated in Washington Irving's 1809 History of New York, a satirical account of the rise and fall of the former Dutch settlement "as told from the perspective of a very sore loser," one Diedrich Knickerbocker. The wildly successful book made Irving the first American literary sensation and made his fictional narrator an instant icon. Before there were the New York Knicks, there were Knickerbocker hats, bakeries, cocktails, steamboats, beer, and more. The Knickerbocker baseball club, founded in 1845, was the first organized baseball team in the United States. Knickerbocker has also been invoked in various political campaigns, and Bradley reproduces political cartoons depicting "Father Knickerbocker" presiding over the consolidation of Manhattan and Brooklyn in the late 19th century. What these diverse appropriations shared, the author argues, was the claim to represent an authentic New York experience. Given that New Yorkers are famously preoccupied with their own exceptionalism, they would do well to learn more about one of the city's original boosters. --Barbara Spindel

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780813545165
Publisher: Rivergate Books
Publication date: 7/1/2009
Pages: 192
Sales rank: 458,620
Product dimensions: 5.90 (w) x 8.60 (h) x 0.90 (d)

Meet the Author

Elizabeth L. Bradley is deputy director of the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. She is the editor of Washington Irving's A History of New York, a contributor to the Encyclopedia of New York City, and has written about New York history and culture for several publications.

Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction The Picture of Knickerbocker Inheriting Knickerbocker Fashioning a Knickerbocracy Knickerbocker in a New Century Conclusion Notes Index

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Knickerbocker: The Myth behind New York

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