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from the first number, the “Letters from Mustapha” from nos. III, VII, and XI, and the authors’ farewell in the final number. Of the three Mustapha letters, Bruce I. Granger and Martha Hartzog—the editors who prepared the modern scholarly edition of Salmagundi for The Complete Works of Washington Irving, vol. 6 (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1977; see “For Further Reading”)—definitively attribute to Irving only the one written for no. XI. The two others have been included in this edition to give readers a more complete sense of how the Mustapha series is a satire on America’s evolving democratic process. Besides these obvious political satires, the pages of Salmagundi lampoon a range of subjects in an effort “to do justice to this queer, odd, rantipole city, and to this whimsical country” (p. 44).

2 (p. 21) Several Tripolitan prisoners ... were brought to New York, ... restore them to their own country.—Paris Ed. [Irving’s note] : Irving refers here to the long-standing conflict between the United States and the Barbary states—northern Africa’s Tripolitania, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco—whose main port was Tripoli (now the capital of Libya). Tripoli served as the home base of the Barbary pirates, who targeted trade routes along the coast of northern Africa. In the First Barbary War, also known as the Tripolitan War (1801-1805), commander William Bainbridge was captured while trying to enforce a blockade of the harbor at Tripoli. The war serves as the historical backdrop for Irving’s satirical treatment of American politics in the “Letters from Mustapha.”

3 (p. 21) who understands all languages, not excepting that manufactured by Psalmanazar: The reference is to George Psalmanazar (1679?-1763), an English literary imposter whose real name is not known. He published An Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa (1704) and invented and taught to students at Oxford University a fictional “Formosan” language. His ruse was discovered in 1706, and he was forced to publicly acknowledge the fraud. Irving likely knew his posthumously published Memoirs of—, Commonly Known by the Name George Psalmanazar (1764). Psalmanazar may have provided the example Irving followed when he staged the literary hoax of Diedrich Knickerbocker’s disappearance to advertise the publication of A History of New York (see the Introduction, p. xxiii).

4 (p. 24) The present bashaw: “Bashaw,” or “pasha,” is a Turkish term that refers to a man of high rank. The reference here is to Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States (1801-1809). The “Letters of Mustapha” are consistently critical of Jefferson and his administration, lampooning his involvement in the Tripolitan War, presenting him as a disengaged dilettante, and satirizing his rejection of the Bible on scientific grounds (see pp. 28-29). A supporter of the Federalists (advocates of a strong federal government), Irving was sympathetic to those who thought the Jeffersonian Republicans were reducing the government to a “mobocracy” (see pp. 26-27).

5 (p. 26) No. VII.—Saturday, April 4, 1807: In this second “Letter from Mustapha,” the authors of Salmagundi coin a new term to describe America’s political system. Because of the seemingly endless debates characteristic of the democratic process, they describe it as a “logocracy, or government of words” (p. 27). The extent to which public opinion can be influenced by the press is a theme Irving returned to in his sketch “English Writers on America”: “Over no nation does the press hold a more absolute control than over the people of America” (p. 95).

6 (p. 43) In compliance with ... : The subsequent paragraphs are the editors’ farewell to their readership in the final number of Salmagundi. Paulding and the Irvings decided to end the series after their publisher, David Longworth, took out copyright in his name and raised the price to one shilling.

The Sketch-Book

1 (p. 47) The Sketch-Book: The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. was published consecutively in the United States and England. The first American edition appeared in seven