The Works of Washington Irving: Vol. 4

Long before the advent of social media and other tools utilized by today's media-savvy authors, Washington Irving embarked on one of the first great viral marketing campaigns to help launch the book that truly established him as a rising literary star. In late 1809, Irving began posting missing person advertisements in various New York newspapers seeking information on a fusty old Dutch historian by the name of Diedrich Knickerbocker. Readers followed the story of Knickerbocker with interest (particularly after a notice appeared threatening publication of the manuscript Knickerbocker left behind), and by the time A History of New York was published in December 1809, it enjoyed immediate success. A satire both on the grandiose local histories popular in the nineteenth century as well as New York politics of Irving's era, A History of New York remains a fascinating read to this day, just as the term "Knickerbocker" lives in New York culture.