• for: Washington Irving, book - the History of New York, book - A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus

• comment

  • Irving was a American writer who wrote fiction for the intent of stoking nationalism. He bent the truth in many ways.
  • Among his most famous and impactful historical lies that Irving fabricated in his book on Columbus was that prior to Columbus, the majority of educated people thought the earth was flat. In fact, most educated people believed the earth to be round during the time of Columbus.

• interesting fact: knickerbocker

  • The term knickerbocker originated in the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker that Irving chose for his book "A History of New York"

Hayton, Darin. “Washington Irving’s Columbus and the Flat Earth.” History of Science blog. Darin Hayton, December 2, 2014. https://dhayton.haverford.edu/blog/2014/12/02/washington-irvings-columbus-and-the-flat-earth/.

Source of the Columbus/Flat Earth portion of the bunk theory.

https://library.harvard.edu/collections/reading-harvard-views-readers-readership-and-reading-history

Reading: Harvard Views of Readers, Readership, and Reading History<br /> Exploring the intellectual, cultural, and political history of reading as reflected in the historical holdings of the Harvard's libraries.

Were there uninformed people of his time who didn't think the world was round?

The myth about the flat world was primarily an invention of Washington Irving. Good to see him tangentially deflating this myth here.