History of New York, from the Beginning of the World
Item #79505
[IRVING, Washington]. A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty...by Diedrich Knickerbocker. New York [&c]: Inskeep & Bradford..., 1809. 1st ed. 2 Vols. xxiii,[1],268pp., folding frontispiece;[2],258pp. 12mo. Original full tree sheep. Rebacked in matching leather, gilt-ruled spines. Folding frontis. professionally mounted on acid-free paper, light tanning and foxing, very old waterstain to head of final leaves of Vol. Two, not affecting text, else very good HOWES I-83, "c." BAL 10098. Grolier American 100, 28. Sabin 35419. Langfeld & Kleinfield, pp. 11-12. First edition of Irving's first independent literary work, published in an edition reported to have consisted of only 2000 copies. Irving initially undertook to write this work as a satire of Mitchell's pretentious A PICTURE OF NEW YORK, but upon completion, he had accomplished nothing less than the first original non-scholarly American book, far more a comic history than any semblance of a literal history. The frontispiece is a folding panorama of "New Amsterdam (Now New-York)."
Price: $2,500.00