We catch an interesting glimpse of this poet-publisher in a letter of Coleridge's to Robert Southey, written under date of July 22, 1801: "Poor Joseph! he has scribbled away both head and heart. What an affecting essay I could write on that man's character! Had he gone in his quiet way on a little pony, looking about him with a sheep's-eye cast now and then at a short poem, I do verily think from many parts of the "Malvern Hill," that he would at last have become a poet better than many who have had much fame, but he would be an Epic, and so 'Victorious o'er the Danes, I Alfred, preach, Of my own forces, Chaplain-General.'" Duodecimo. COLLATION: _viii, 68 pp., 1 l., 69-210 pp., 1 l._ WASHINGTON IRVING (1783-1859) 67. A History | Of | New York, | From The Beginning Of The World To The | End Of The Dutch Dynasty. | [Eight lines] By Diedrich Knickerbocker. | [Quotation] In Two Volumes. | Vol. I. | Published By Inskeep & Bradford, New York; | Bradford & Inskeep, Philadelphia; Wm. M'Il- | Henny, Boston; Coale & Thomas, Baltimore; | And Morford, Willington, & Co. Charleston. | 1809. 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."