Diedrich KnickerbockerWashington Irving created a pseudo-historian in order to improve his work and entertain his readers. In 1809 Irving wrote "A History of New York" through a character known as Diedrich Knickerbocker. This was the Knickerbocker's first appearance in Irving's work, but it certainly wouldn't be the last. Although not real, Knickerbocker was a historian who seemed enamored of the people and landscape of the Northeast, particularly New York. Although Irving never revealed it, some of his characteristics can be found in Knickerbocker's writings. Washington Irving was born in New York in 1783, he always had a great appreciation for the land and the people there. Irving was quite against the fact that New York was becoming and would become one of the largest and most important cities in the entire world. Irving seemed to prefer the city's lush foliage and rolling hills rather than a crowded city and huge harbor. Irving conveys his beliefs through Knickerbocker in "A History of New York", in the essay Irving says "He would have been happy for New Amsterdam if it had always existed in this state of blissful ignorance and humble simplicity, but alas! the days of childhood it is too sweet to last! Cities, like men, grow out of them in time, and are doomed alike to grow in the bustle, cares, and miseries of the world." (Irving 570). Irving believed that his New York would not be the same if it were given all the exporting and importing power in the East, which was and is not how he would have wanted it to be. Irving also had a fond feeling for the early Dutch settlers in New York, from Henry Hudson and his men, to stories of Dutch origin in New York. Some of the... middle of paper......scene of the city and the spiritual, often strange, events that take place in the city. "Certainly the place is still under the influence of some bewitched power, which casts a spell on the minds of good people, making them walk in a continual reverie. They are given to all kinds of wonderful beliefs; they are subject to trances and visions; and I often see strange sights and hear music and voices in the air. The whole neighborhood is full of local tales, haunted places, and twilight superstitions (Irving 1). more believable because it makes the reader feel as if they were actually in the town of Sleepy Hollow, he turned a ghost story into a believable account of real events using his historical fake Knickerbocker..