Early in the year 1809 a notice in the newspapers, headed "Distressing," announced the disappearance from his lodgings of a "small elderly gentleman" named Knickerbocker; and another notice, signed Seth Handaside, landlord of the Independent Columbian Hotel, Mulberry Street, reads:
"Sir:—You have been good enough to publish in your paper a paragraph about Mr. Diedrich Knickerbocker, who was missing so strangely from his lodgings some time since. Nothing satisfactory has been heard of the old gentleman since; but a very curious kind of a written book has been found in his room in his own handwriting. Now I wish you to notice him, if he is still alive, that if he does not return and pay off his bill, for board and lodging, I shall have to dispose of his Book, to satisfy me for the same."
On December 6, 1809, the actual publication of the work is announced in the American Citizen:
"Is This Day Published,
By Inskeep And Bradford—No. 128 Broadway
A History Of New York.
In 2 vols. duodecimo—price 3 dollars.
"Containing an account of its discovery and settlement, with its internal policy, manners, customs, wars, &c., &c., under the Dutch government, furnishing many curious and interesting particulars never before published, and which are gathered from various manuscripts and other authenticated sources, the whole being interspersed with philosophical speculations and moral precepts.
"This work was found in the chamber of Mr. Diedrich Knickerbocker, the old gentleman whose sudden and mysterious disappearance has been noticed. It is published in order to discharge certain debts he has left behind."
In this way Irving chose to introduce his satire to the world. The book was put to press in Philadelphia instead of in New York, in order the more easily to preserve its anonymous character.
The pretence that it was a serious history was carried even into the dedication "To the New York Historical Society," and the work may really be described as a practical joke in book form.