Defensive ALS, three pages, 5 x 7.25, February 11, 1850. Irving stands his ground, writing in part: “I thank you for your very entertaining letter and the kind…which you manifest in regard to a recent attack upon me in the Herald. This charge of not having rendered…to…is an old…long since refuted. Navarrete’s work was not a history but a mere collection of documents, which formed a part only of my materials, and for which I gave him ample credit in my preface and in notes at the bottom of the pages throughout my work. In the preface to my revised edition I gave a quotation from Navarrete’s third volume of documents, published after the publication of…which is a different answer to all…on their head. As you may not have seen it I will requote it for you: though at the expense of my modesty (Here he pens a long quote in Spanish)…I have private letters from Navarrete to the…but I think the above quotation will quite suffice: especially as I have no doubt you understand the matter properly and know that histories are built up and out of facts and documents, not poetical inventions. You need not fear my being drawn into a scuffle with the rough and tumble fellows of the press. If my literary reputation is not old enough to go alone and take care of itself, it is not worth fighting about. If it cannot stand by itself at this time of day I am not going to prop it up.” In very good condition, with some partial separation along the intersecting folds and hinge, uniform toning, two small tears to the top edge of each page, a small piece of reparative tape to the top edge on the first page, the second integral page affixed to a slightly larger sheet, and one fold lightly affecting one letter of the signature.
By 1850, Irving was widely accepted as the greatest writer America had yet produced. His classic short stories The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle published thirty years earlier made him the first American internationally best-selling author. The "old...long since refuted" charges of plagiarism that were brought up in the Herald were in reference to his books The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus and Voyages and Discoveries of the Companions of Columbus which were published two decades earlier. A unique letter which finds Irving defending his work, something that he almost never had to do. Pre-certified PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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