Published Tuesday, February 27, 2007 by Sean Corrigan
During the Panic of 1819, writes Sean Corrigan, the well-known American author, Washington Irving (of "Sleepy Hollow" fame), was enjoying a prolonged trip to Europe. During his sojourn there, he turned his hand to a treatment of that earlier moral fable of financial hubris and nemesis, the Mississippi Bubble. So vivid is the description of the background to the folly — and so utterly unchanging is the course of the pathology there laid out — that an extended quote, taken from the collection of essays entitled "The Crayon Papers," is surely merited for our instruction
(Original Text)
Washington Irving: Critic of Loose Money (2.71 MB)