Noms de Plume and Literary Hoaxes / 1

On October 26, 1809, the New York Evening Post carried the following announcement, 'Distressing - Left his lodgings some time since and has not since been heard of, a small, elderly gentleman, dressed in an old black coat and cocked hat, by the name of Knickerbocker.'

Then, two weeks later, an item appeared saying that a man fitting that description had been spotted on a stagecoach heading for Albany. Ten days later, the paper carried a news story that the Columbian Hotel had found a handwritten manuscript he believed to be written by the mysterious Knickerbocker. Seth Handaside, the hotel manager, decided to sell the manuscript in order to settle the bill the elusive boarder had failed to pay.
Months later, the book, a two-volume set, appeared in bookstores (selling for $3), bearing the title The History of New York, by Diedrich Knickerbocker. It was a huge success. The author of the book and the elaborate hoax was Washington Irving, who wanted to create a huge publicity campaign for the book and have a little joke on the reader. The name (Died/rich) Knickerbocker was his private joke.
- source: James Charlton and Lisbeth Mark, The Writer's Home Companion

The famous History of New-York was published in 1809. The mystery surrounding the disappearance of old Diedrich Knickerbocker, to whom was assigned the authorship, was preserved for a number of months. The first announcement of the book stated that the manuscript had been found by the landlord of the Columbian Hotel in New York among the effects of a departed lodger, and had been sold to the printer in order to offset the lodger’s indebtedness. Before the manuscript was disposed of, Seth Handaside, the landlord, inserted in New York and Philadelphia papers an advertisement describing Mr. Knickerbocker and asking for information about him. When acknowledgment of the authorship of the book was finally made by Irving, it was difficult for his fellow New Yorkers to believe that this unsuccessful young lawyer and attractive “man about town” could have produced a work giving evidence of such maturity and literary power. He had secured an excellent position in New York society, a society which in the earlier years of the century was still largely made up of the old Dutch families. In the ‘veracious chronicle’ of Mr. Knickerbocker free use was made of the names of these historic families, and it is related that not a few of the young author’s Dutch friends found it difficult to accord forgiveness for the liberty that had been taken with their honourable ancestors in making them the heroes of such rollicking episodes.
- source: The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
VOLUME XV. Colonial and Revolutionary Literature; Early National Literature, Part I.