In 1804 Irving’s failing health compelled him to abandon his legal studies and he went abroad, spending two years in European travel, and gathering a stock of material for his future writings. In 1806 he returned to New York, took up again the study of law and was admitted to the bar, but never practised the profession. The next year, with his brother and James K. Paulding, he started the “Salmagundi; or, Whim-Whams and Opinions of ♦Launcelot Langstaff, Esq.,” which was published fortnightly and ran through twenty numbers. This humorous magazine, intended by its authors only to “hit off” the gossip of that day, has now become an amusing history of society events a century ago, and is still widely read. The next two years were occupied in writing his “Knickerbocker’s History of New York,” which was published in December, 1809. This was to have been the joint work of Washington Irving and his brother, Peter, but the latter was called away to Europe, and Washington did it alone. To introduce this book, Irving, with genuine Yankee shrewdness, advertised in the newspapers some months in advance of its publication for an old gentleman by the name of Knickerbocker, who had suddenly disappeared, leaving behind him the manuscript of a book and his board bill unpaid. It was finally announced that his landlord had decided to publish the book in the hope of realizing enough profit to satisfy his claim for board against the author. It proved to be the most readable book which had yet appeared in America and was received with enthusiasm by the public. Abroad it created almost as great a sensation. Sir Walter Scott read it aloud to his family, and it first revealed to the critics of the Old World that America was to have a literature of its own. This book quickly brought its author both reputation and money, and with bright hopes he entered the business firm of his brother as a silent partner. ♦ ‘Lancelot’ replaced with ‘Launcelot’