Betsy Bradley

Brooklyn, NY

statue of Washington Irving in Prospect Park

Washington Irving was New York's first storyteller. While best known today for his Hudson River Valley tales, he was the creator of the city's founding mythology (via his satirical History of New York, and, more importantly, the creator of the city's first mascot, Father Knickerbocker. The Irving statue in Prospect Park is one of the only monuments to Irving in the five boroughs.