The Original Knickerbocker: The Life of Washington Irving (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: nervous gentleman, sketch book, Washington Irving, Rip Van Winkle, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

University of Tulsa's Burstein, best known for his studies of Thomas Jefferson (Jefferson's Secrets), offers a serviceable biography of another early American celebrity: Washington Irving, whom Burstein credits with creating a national literature and with helping persuade Europeans that America wasn't full of simpletons and savages. Burstein speculates about Irving's inner life: was he gay? Possibly, but Burstein thinks it more likely the writer was simply a bachelor, a respectable role in his time and place. Burstein also helpfully recreates early 19th-century New York, a port city with a population in the tens of thousands. He offers judicious literary analysis, teasing out the roles history and memory play in Irving's work. But Burstein's most significant contribution comes in situating Irving's literary work in its larger social and political context. For example, he argues that Irving's satirical and immensely popular A History of New York (1809)—better known as Knickerbocker's History—established the city as a place with a literary future, and he reads Rip Van Winkle as a symbol of early 19th-century America's energetic, pioneering, adolescent charm. Overall, this is an insightful if not inspiring addition to the cultural history of pre–Civil War America. 16 pages of b&w photos. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From The Washington Post

Reviewed by Dennis Drabelle

Is there another major American writer whose reputation rests on so narrow a base as Washington Irving's? Two indelible short stories -- "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" -- are still in circulation, but that's about it. Irving's masterpiece was his first book, the witty Knickerbocker's History of New York, but who even dips into it now? Or the rest of Irving's substantial oeuvre? He seems to epitomize the canonical author whose Complete Works occupy the shelf like an uncracked fortress: 15 volumes, in his case, including the worshipful biographies of Columbus and George Washington, the travels hither and the tours yon.

This smart new life of the writer, by University of Tulsa history professor Andrew Burstein, may not inspire you to address your Irving gap, but it ably locates an appealing figure in his place and time. Irving belonged to that pre-Whitman, pre-Mark Twain cohort of American authors who sought to make room for their country in world literature as it existed, rather than striking out in new directions more suited to unique national circumstances. "Rip Van Winkle" itself was a borrowing, from a German folktale called "Peter Klaus," which Irving transported to a time and place -- the Empire State-to-be when it was a Dutch colony -- with a strong European presence. This playfully genteel author uttered no barbaric yawps.

He was born in New York City in 1783, the 11th and youngest child of parents who had come over from England two decades earlier. Irving's father owned a store that sold "hardware, wine, and sundries," a business in which several of the sons worked on and off; Washington himself helped with the bookkeeping from time to time. He allied himself with Aaron Burr, a patrician whose federalist politics appealed to the young Irving largely because, in Burstein's words, "he gravitated to people of substance." Later in life, Irving became more attuned to Jacksonian democracy.

Irving began writing newspaper pieces as a teenager, emulating the urbane irony of Addison and Steele's Spectator Papers and publishing under the pseudonym Jonathan Oldstyle. In his early 20s, Irving toured upstate New York and then Europe -- the first of many excursions that made him one of American literature's great nomads. Back home, he joined with other wits and journalists to put out a magazine, Salmagundi, and to study law. He and his brother Peter dreamed up the idea of a mock history of New York, but when Peter dropped out, Washington saw the project through alone, inventing an eccentric Dutchman, Diedrich Knickerbocker, as the purveyor of mixed fact and fiction, complete with droll nicknames for colonial governors, such as Walter the Doubter and William the Testy.

Decades later, Irving met Charles Dickens, his junior by 29 years, who told him how much Knickerbocker's History had meant to him, and the line between Irving's work and the inspired silliness of early Dickens -- especially The Pickwick Papers and Nicholas Nickleby -- is not hard to trace. As Burstein notes, Knickerbocker's History owes debts of its own to Fielding, Sterne and Swift, but it's refreshing to find this early instance of literary influence running from America to England, rather than the other way 'round.

After meeting Sir Walter Scott in 1819, Irving got busy on the pieces that went into The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, among them the story that made him famous, "Rip Van Winkle." Irving fleshed out its forerunner, "Peter Klaus," by making Rip a sympathetic figure and playing on the discrepancy between changes that go on outside us and our inner conviction that we ourselves stay the same. Turning to "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," Burstein discerns a personal dimension to the story, in that Irving, like Ichabod Crane, was a "bachelor married to his imaginative prospects," a "visitor . . . in the lives of those to whom he is drawn." (Elsewhere, Burstein considers whether Irving, himself a lifelong bachelor who had many boon male friends and no known sexual encounters with women, might have been gay, but concludes that there is no clear evidence one way or the other.)

Irving was befriended by Sir Walter Scott, admired by Lord Byron and widely considered the first American writer who could hold his own with England's best. His Christmas stories helped magnify a middling feast day into an annual orgy of sentiment and spending, and his Tales of the Alhambra focused a romantic light on Spain, a country previously outshone by Italy and Greece. But all too soon he began to revisit old literary ground and to write those pious biographies, including one commissioned by the merchant prince John Jacob Astor. Irving shrewdly packaged his writings and fought tenaciously for copyright protection, he served his country well as minister to Spain, and he has the distinction of being the first American author to make a living strictly by his pen. Although his best work lay almost 40 years in the past, he died, in 1859, a wealthy man.

On a personal note, Knickerbocker's History came as a godsend when I was studying early American literature in graduate school. Through most of the course, the reading assignments had featured hectoring Puritan sermons and feeble knockoffs of Dryden and Pope. The History looked fat and formidable, but it proved to be a breezy compendium of genial nonsense. For having loosened up American letters, Washington Irving deserves the gratitude of us all.

Copyright 2007, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (February 25, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465008542
• ISBN-13: 978-0465008544
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #496,511 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A dull depiction of a fascinating man., April 20, 2007

By	Reviewer - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Original Knickerbocker: The Life of Washington Irving (Hardcover)

I have read one other biography of Irving, most of Irving's work and have two books of his personal notes and journals, so this is not a subject I am unfamiliar with.

First of all it's nice to see someone trying to resurrect this now forgotten but important figure of American Literature. If Americans know him at all, its through cartoons of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Irving is much more - a great wit and merry soul with, as the author points out, a unique combination of romanticism and healthy realism/skepticism.
While I can't find fault with the author's prose, I did not find it inspiring or lively - something I would expect, no, require from anyone writing about Irving. He seems to 'not get' the charm Irving's character - and here's one example:

He tells the famous story of Irving's Scottish maid introducing George Washington to his six year old namesake, Irving. However, he doesn't add in the famous quip by Irving -that his bald spot was the result of the President laying his divine hand on his head (or something like that). Its little details like that that make the story interesting - and a perfect opportunity to illustrate Irving's character.

Nowhere did he go into Irving's influence on other authors: Irving, I understand, is purported to have suggested the "Rebbecca" character in Ivanhoe to Sir Walter Scott, based on an actual Jewish woman he knew or had heard of in Philadelphia. Also, Dicken's admiration of Irving and the fact that Irving's brother was named Ebeneezer should provide a 'connect the dots' for somebody on the ball. [...].

Another glaring omission: Irving's contemplation of pursuing a career as an artist - and the sketches that often accompany his journals.

The Burstein's sometime PC/modern sensibilities were annoying but mercifully few and far between. But he either has a bias or simply didn't do the research into Irving's religious background. While not 'fanatic' or even overtly spiritual - he did convert to Episcopaliansim in secret at trinity church when still a teenager, and later in life served as a vestryman at the Episcopal church in Tarrytown where his personal affects are still on display - how could someone writing a book on Irving not know this? one gets the sense that Burstein never even visited Tarrytown/Sunnyside though I am sure he did. Burnstein doesn't hesitate to go into Irving's condemnation of religious fanaticism and dislike of his father's stern Presbyterianism, so I can only guess that he as an active bias, or he's very sloppy.

I also thought the sections on his stay at the Alhambra and Spain was too short and lacking any vitality. I have stood in the chambers at the Alhambra that Irving was purported to stay in, walked the grounds that so enchanted him and have to say, after doing that, reading Irving's book Tales of the Alhambra, I wonder if Burstien and I are talking about the same place and writer. It's a crime to be mundane about either!

Still overall, I would say the book is worth reading because it's the only contemporary source of consolidated information on Irving (I believe that the last biography was over 40 years ago) however, Burstein does not provide enough of an argument, or 'tools' to justify a long overdue Irving revival. At the end of the day, despite digging his nose into Irving's works and life for some time, Burstein just 'doesn't get it'.
(ps, I would rate two stars, but you can't adjust after submitting)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A man who lived during historic times, April 18, 2008

By	R. DelParto "Rose2" (Virginia Beach, VA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is a unique book that blends literary analysis, history, and biography of the life of one of American literature's legendary authors, Washington Irving. Andrew Burstein examines a bulk of Irving's most renowned works, the picaresque The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle, A History of New York, and Life and Voyages of Columbus as well as several other short stories that have graced the pages of literature anthologies. But Irving was also a man of many facets as the subtitle of the book reveals, a diplomat, historian, and writer who hobnobbed with creative imagination as it related to the colonial and revolutionary historical past.

The only disconcerting aspect of the book is how Burstein excessively delves into the crevices of Irving's works within the first two sections. And as a result, one may almost forget what the book is about or wonder if the book is supposed to be about Irving or more about the synopsis of his stories; the passages may be helpful for readers not familiar with his works. However, interesting questions arise pertaining to Irving's own personal life outside his writings, such as his religious conversion and beliefs, the issue of slavery in Britain and America, the mysticism surrounding Matilda Hoffman and his sexuality, why did he live a transatlantic life, his romance with Spain, and his use of pseudonyms, Geoffrey, Crayon, Diedrich Knickerbocker and Jonathan Oldstyle, that are in need of further explanation.

Nonetheless, the insightful part about the book is when Burstein discusses the man who used pseudonyms during the early part of his writing care but later shed the anonymity with the publication of his biography about Christopher Columbus. And most importantly, Irving was one of the most animated travel writers who trekked west with Henry Ellsworth, son of Federalist delegate to the Constitutional Convention, Oliver Ellsworth, during one of the most historic events in American history that involved Indian territory west of the Mississippi River, which involved Indian Removal, Ellsworth-Irving Expedition. Irving vividly described and witnessed the changing American landscape within his stories that compared and paralleled the history of Indian America and White America, which Burstein discusses in the chapter, "A Tour on the Prairies." It was amazing to read of the various people Irving encountered and befriended during his lifetime, such as Sac Tribe Chief, Black Hawk, Andrew Jackson, James Fenimore Cooper, Lord Byron, Charles Dickens, and long list of others.

Overall, The Original Knickerbocker is an enlightening read. The book may appeal to those who are familiar with Washington Irving's most beloved tales and would like to know about the man behind the stories as well as those who are simply curious about this multifaceted man who was indeed a part of the landscape in which he wrote about.

3.0 out of 5 stars A dreamy cultural biography - a bit overdone, June 4, 2009

By	Dark Romantic (Near Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This, the most significant biographical treatment of Irving in decades, is both satisfying and disappointing. Burstein makes several arguments in this book in an effort to reclaim Irving as a cultural icon rather than a literary one. To do so, he gives ample context, including politics, economics, and developing urban landscapes. The result is mind-numbing; so much context sometimes leads us to forget that the book is about Irving. Additionally, he adds heavy doses of literary analysis, despite his apparent goal to treat Irving as a cultural rather than literary icon. Much of his analysis goes back to a theme of dreams or sleepiness - but not all - akin to Irving's "Rip Van Winkle." The book's ultimate chapter focuses heavily on this dream analysis, despite having come only in minor (and eye-roll-inducing) spurts throughout. In fact, much of that final chapter is a throw-away on modern/contemporary culture sprinkled with long leaps connecting movies like "Memento" to "Rip Van Winkle."

The book is a difficult read as well; so many names are dropped then recalled scores of pages later, including Irving's ever-widening circle of extended family and friends. This of course isn't Burstein's fault; Irving really was that popular. The book also has a bit of an awkward self-awareness. The reader is directly addressed here and there ("The reader here will note..." interludes) as if the narrative voice was breaking the fifth wall.

Overall, this is book is worthwhile reading, so long as the reader is patient and has a strong interest in cultural context and literary analysis. Irving, Burstein admits, may not be the most important of American writers - his genteel sensibilities hamper that idea - but his role in the rapidly-changing cultural landscape of the United States (and its view from abroad) is clearly brought to light.