1783–1859

Born in New York City the same year the British were finally forced out by George Washington’s army, Washington Irving was the man who coined the nickname “Gotham” when he referred to New York as “the renowned and ancient city of Gotham” in his humor magazine Salmagundi. (It was a reference to a mythical city in England characterized by the utter stupidity of its inhabitants). His most famous works are Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, stories set in a haunting, mythologized version of the Hudson River Valley. Perhaps his best work, though, is the Knickerbocker’s History of New York, a fictionalized history of the city under the Dutch.