Knickerbocker's History of New York, Complete

"Knickerbocker's History of New York, Complete" is a historical work by Washington Irvin. Irving created the work under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker, who allegedly was a Dutch historian. About the time of publishing, New York newspapers were buzzing with ads regarding the mysterious historian, and later it turned out that Irving posted those ads himself. The book is dedicated to the first New York settlers, which are described as "the foremost traders of their time; but who has loved liberty with a more passionate devotion than they, and where does the genius of man interpret the soul of man with more commanding and searching power than on the walls of the galleries of The Hague, of Haarlem, and Amsterdam?"