Knickerbocker’s History of New York: From the Beginning of the World to The End of The Dutch Dynasty. Washington Irving. New York: R. H. Russell, 1900. Illustrated by Maxfield Parrish.
Large near-fine condition hardcover with grey boards and a beautiful illustration with gold on the front. Some slight discoloration on the back cover near the top, light shelfwear to the spine. Eight large beautiful illustrations by Maxfield Parrish. Pages clean and tightly bound. A wonderful copy, one of the best we have seen on the market.
A satirical masterpiece that humorously reimagines New York’s Dutch colonial past, blending fact and fiction in a way that shaped American literary humor. The book popularized the term Knickerbocker, which became synonymous with old New York families, and influenced later writers like Mark Twain. As one of America’s first major works of historical satire, it helped establish Irving as a literary pioneer and contributed to the cultural mythology of New York City that still lives on to this day.
