La Bataille de Aspern-Essling 1809

The artist of the era, Jacques-Louis David, continued his legendary oeuvre by painting Sappho and Phaon, which today is on permanent exhibit in St. Petersburg, Russia The most significant literary event of the year occurred in the Americas. In New York City, author Washington Irving, who later would introduce the world to Rip Van Winkle and Ichabod Crane, released the faux history “A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty” by Diedrich Knickerbocker. Knickerbocker was not a real person, but Irving released information to the gullible New York newspapers announcing that this imaginary author had disappeared and generated tremendous publicity and sales in this early example of reality media…what was true and what was fiction would be ever blurred.

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