Publishing History
While Oldstyle marks Irving’s first foray into print, Irving would always look back on the nine letters as "crude and boyish." To Irving’s embarrassment, several letters were reprinted in pamphlet form in New York and London in 1824 following the success of The Sketch Book. Irving would not include any of the Oldstyle letters in the Author’s Revised Edition he put together for publisher George Putnam in the 1850s.
The first five letters finally appeared in Putnam’s 1866 edition of Spanish Papers and Other Miscellanies, and would be reprinted regularly through the end of the 19th century. All nine letters were eventually included in the sixth volume of the 30-volume The Complete Works of Washington Irving, collecting Irving’s works, letters, and papers. The Oldstyle letters reprinted in the Library of America edition of Irving’s works are based on that text.
Read more about this topic: Letters Of Jonathan Oldstyle
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