Knickerbocker Group

The Knickerbocker Group was a somewhat indistinct group of 19th-century American writers. Its most prominent members included Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper and William Cullen Bryant. Each was a pioneer in general literature—novels, poetry and journalism.

The Knickerbocker group was established by Washington Irving in the early 19th century in New York City. Irving was one of the first Americans to earn money from being a professional writer. Irving was seen as a writing pioneer by Gilmore who said that he was "an innovator who established American writing on a new footing as a viable profession." Irving has been "hailed as the father of American literature" and Bradbury considers him to be the "pioneer of American literary Romanticism."

Humorously titled after Irving's own pen name, many others later joined the club. These include James Kirke Paulding, Fitz-Greene Halleck, Joseph Rodman Drake, Robert Charles Sands, Lydia Maria Child, Gulian Crommelin Verplanck, and Nathaniel Parker Willis, most of whom were also frequent contributors to the literary magazine The Knickerbocker.

The group's penchant was writing heroic or epic stories in a sophisticated manner. They especially utilized parody, satire and romanticism. The Knickerbocker Group lived in New York City.

The short story The Black Vampyre has been viewed as a commentary on the Knickerbocker group, condemning them to be "vampires" that benefit on the behalf of others. The work criticizes plagiarism and authorship in the early-19th-century literary scene.