edrich. This little man in knee breeches and
cocked hat was the germ of the whole "Knickerbocker legend," a fantastic
creation, which in a manner took the place of history, and stamped upon
the commercial metropolis of the New World the indelible Knickerbocker
name and character; and even now in the city it is an undefined patent of
nobility to trace descent from "an old Knickerbocker family."

The volume, which was first printed in Philadelphia, was put forth as a
grave history of the manners and government under the Dutch rulers, and
so far was the covert humor carried that it was dedicated to the New York
Historical Society. Its success was far beyond Irving's expectation.
It met with almost universal acclaim. It is true that some of the old
Dutch inhabitants who sat down to its perusal, expecting to read a
veritable account of the exploits of their ancestors, were puzzled by the
indirection of its commendation; and several excellent old ladies of New
York and Albany were in blazing indignation at the ridicule put upon the
old Dutch people, and minded to ostracize the irreverent author from all
social recognition. As late as 1818, in an address before the Historical
Society, Mr. Gulian C. Verplanck, Irving's friend, showed the deep
irritation the book had caused, by severe strictures on it as a "coarse
caricature." But the author's winning ways soon dissipated the social
cloud, and even the Dutch critics were erelong disarmed by the absence of
all malice in the gigantic humor of the composition. One of the first
foreigners to recognize the power and humor of the book was Walter Scott.
"I have never," he wrote, "read anything so closely resembling the style
of Dean Swift as the annals of Diedrich Knickerbocker. I have been
employed these few evenings in reading them aloud to Mrs. S. and two
ladies who are our guests, and our sides have been absolutely sore with
laughing. I think, too, there are passages which indicate that the
author possesses power of a different kind, and has some touches which
remind me of Sterne."

The book is indeed an original creation, and one of the few masterpieces
of humor. In spontaneity, freshness, breadth of conception, and joyous
vigor, it belongs to the springtime of literature. It has entered into
the popular mind as no other American book ever has, and it may be said
to have created a social realm which, with all its whimsical conceit, has
almost historical solidity. The Knickerbocker