In October of 1809, New York City's Evening Post newspaper had a notice about a missing person. Diedrich Knickerbocker was last seen leaving his home, and readers were encouraged to come forth if they had any clues as to his whereabouts. They later published a letter from a man claiming to have seen Knickerbocker. Then a letter from his landlord appeared. By this time, readers were rather invested in the mystery of the elderly man who went missing, especially New Yorkers who had the historic Knickerbocker name. So when another story updated the public with the news that a manuscript had been found in Diedrich Knickerbocker's apartment, and it would be published, readers were quite curious about it.
The two-volume book was titled A History of New York, and it was supposedly published by Knickerbocker's landlord. He had written a preface to it himself, detailing Knickerbocker's disappearance. But the book wasn't written by Knickerbocker, and the landlord didn't exist. Neither did Diedrich Knickerbocker. The book was written by a young man named Washington Irving, and came with ready-made publicity thanks to the Evening Post. But that didn't mean that the letters about Diedrich Knickerbocker stopped. Read how Irving pulled off the hoax and the fallout that still remains, at Mental Floss.
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