On one occasion Irving speaks of him in a letter as "little Charles." In early l^oyhood he was crippled for life by being crushed between a river steamboat and the wharf, an accident that may have driven him to more diligent stud\% by depriving him of many of the active sports of boyhood. He was sent to the old Poughkeepsie Academy, then a somewhat famous school, but ran away because of alleged harsh treatment, and prepared for college under private tuition. He entered Columbia at the early age of fifteen, leaving, however, before graduation. Having studied law with Mr. Hermanns Bleecker of Albany, he was admitted to the bar when he attained his majority. But after a short time he abandoned the i^rofession of the law for the more alluring pursuit

256 The Hudson River

of literature, finding in the new field a congenial employment for powers which, if not great, were at least of a high order. A tour of the West, undertaken in search of health, furnished material for numerous contributions toThe American and other magazines; and these were afterwards collected into one or two volumes. The Romance of Greyslaer followed after a few years, and several books of prose and verse, published at intervals, added to the writer's reputation. Some time before the publication of Greyslaer., Mr. Hoffman commenced the afterwards widely known Knickerbocker Magazine, and was also connected at difi'erent times with TJie Mirror, The Literary World, and The New York American Magazine. This editorial work threw him into agreeable relations with some of the most brilliant and celebrated men of his day. His familiar associates included William Cullen Bryant, Chancellor Kent, Lewis Gaylord Clarke, Colonel William Leete Stone, and a score of others, some of whose names have a prominent place in this chapter. The honourary degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon him by Columbia College, his companions upon that occasion being Bryant and Halleck.