KNICKERBOCKER HISTORY OF NEW YORK, The. Knickerbocker's 'History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty,' planned and partly written by Peter and Wash ington Irving together, was later replanned by the younger brother, entirely executed by him and published in 1809 under the whimsical pre tense of being by an eccentric Dutch antiquary, Diedrich Knickerbocker. It was originally meant to be a mere skit by which two gay young men might poke fun at their fellow townsmen, but it unconsciously into a full-bodied masterpiece of good-humored satire which established the settlers of an obscure Dutch colony as permanent citizens of the wider world of historical legend. Irving did not derive from facts his conception of the first New Yorkers, nor did he invent it; he merely followed a tradition current in British satire since the wars with Holland in the 17th cen tury. The idea of writing burlesque history, too, was not novel. Moreover, Book I of the
Knickerbocker 'History,' with its parodies of pedantic learning, belongs rather with the plan relinquished than with the mature performance. But Irving's indebtedness and his halting over ture only slightly modify the credit due him for his comic masterpiece. Hearty affection for New York, tenderness toward any past with a touch of myth in it, natural mellowness of 'lan guage— these lend substance to a gay and im pudent wit. In the third book, which deals with the unforgettable Wouter Van Twiller' and the manners of his reign, Irving is at once brilliant and charming. The books recording the deeds of Peter Stuyvesant are even more spirited, particularly in the passages of mock heroic, which are hardly to be matched else, where in English. Illustrations for the tory> have been made by Allston, Leslie, Jar vis and Darley.