A BOOK OF THE HUDSON. COLLECTED FROM THE VARIOUS WORKS OF DIEDRICH KNICKERBOCKER. Edited by Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym]. New York: G. P. Putnam, 155 Broadway, 1849. 12mo, pp. [i-x [page x is mis-paged "viii"] [11] 12-215 [216: blank] + 16-page publisher's catalogue dated "March, 1849" inserted at rear, flyleaves at front and rear, original decorated slate green cloth, front and rear panels stamped in blind, spine panel stamped in gold and blind, cream endpapers. First edition, first printing. The "Guests from Gibbet Island," appears here for the first time in a collection of fiction solely by Irving. The story first appeared in THE KNICKERBOCKER SKETCH-BOOK (1845), a literary annual edited by Lewis Gaylord Clark, and was later collected in WOLFERT'S ROOST AND OTHER PAPERS (1855). "Irving wrote quite a few supernatural stories, most of which are ironic light fantasy. THE SKETCH BOOK contains two familiar tongue-in-check classics, 'Rip Van Winkle' and 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' [both reprinted here]. Set in the same sleepy pre-Revolutionary Dutch culture that Irving mocked so gently is also 'Guests from Gibbet Island,' a variant of the Don Juan theme. A retired pirate makes the mistake of inviting his hanged comrades to dinner." - E. F. Bleiler (Sullivan, ed., The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, pp. 224-5). Bleiler, The Guide to Supernatural Fiction 887b. BAL 10170. Wright (I) 1378. Gold lettering on spine panel a bit dull, otherwise a lovely copy. (#164607).
Price: $150.00
No statement of printing.