The Dutch World of Washington Irving: Knickerbocker's History of New York and the Hudson Valley Folktales

The Dutch World of Washington Irving tells an alternative origin story of American literary culture.

In December of 1809, before finding fame with "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," Washington Irving published his satirical A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker. Elisabeth Paling Funk explains that the History of New York and the Hudson Valley folktales that followed were part of an e...