Paulding, James Kirke (1778–1860), born in New York state, was reared at Tarrytown, where he became intimate with Washington Irving, whose brother William had married Paulding's sister. He was a member of their informal literary group, the “Nine Worthies of Cockloft Hall,” and with them collaborated on
Salmagundi (1807–8), of which he published a second series alone (1819–20).
Stimulated by this venture and Irving's
History of New York, Paulding wrote
The Diverting History of John Bull and Brother Jonathan (1812), a comic account of the settlement, growth, and revolt of the American colonies. His flair for satire and opposition to the romanticism of Scott led him to write
The Lay of the Scottish Fiddle (1813), while he defended his own conception of a hero as an oppressed individual who finds freedom on the frontier in the long poem
The Backwoodsman (1818). His admiration for homespun American qualities and dislike of Tory England led him to answer British critics in a series of books employing both realistic descriptions of the U.S. and burlesques of the English.
The United States and England (1815) is a wholly serious work;
Letters from the South (2 vols., 1817) is an agrarian, Jeffersonian defense of the South; and
A Sketch of Old England, by a New England Man (2 vols., 1822) and
John Bull in America; or, the New Munchausen (1825) are further contributions to this cause. These books, besides making him famous, brought him an appointment to the Board of Navy Commissioners (1815–23).
Having completed his work on the Anglo‐American controversy, he wrote a series of realistic tales, some of which were published in
Tales of the Good Woman (1829) and
The Book of St. Nicholas (1836), which continue to show his dislike of the English, attacking their current literary styles, as represented in Byron and Scott. His novels also continue this realism and satire of false romanticism, in the treatment of historical subjects.
Koningsmarke, the Long Finne (1823) is concerned with the early Swedish settlement on the Delaware;
The Dutchman's Fireside (1831) deals with life in upper New York during the French and Indian War;
Westward Ho! (1832) tells of a Virginia family pioneering in Kentucky;
The Old Continental; or, The Price of Liberty (1846) is a realistic account of lower‐class New Yorkers during the Revolution; and
The Puritan and His Daughter (1849) deals with 17th‐century life in Virginia and New England, condemning the mutual intolerance of Puritans and Cavaliers. Other works include
The Merry Tales of the Three Wise Men of Gotham (1826), satirical fiction;
The Lion of the West (1830), a comedy about a backwoodsman in New York;
A Life of Washington (1835);
Slavery in the United States (1836); and
The Bucktails; or, Americans in England (1847), a satirical play.
Paulding's writings showed, despite his affiliation with the
Knickerbocker Group, that he was a consistent Jeffersonian in his social creed and that he attempted to deal with all phases of American life. His constant interest in naval affairs culminated in his appointment as Van Buren's secretary of the navy (1838–41), which capped his political career. After 1849 he retired to his estate at Hyde Park and ceased to write. His selected
Letters was published in 1962.
