Table of content introduction

 
Chapter l. A brief account of the life of the American writer Washington 
Irving 
1.1Information about adolescence 
Washington Irving, (born April 3, 1783, New York, New York, U.S.—died 
November 28, 1859, Tarrytown, New York), writer called the “first American man 
of letters.” He is best known for the short stories “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” 
and “Rip Van Winkle.”The favourite and last of 11 children of 
an austere Presbyterian father and a genial Anglican mother, young, 
frail Irving grew up in an atmosphere of indulgence. He escaped a college education, 
which his father required of his older sons, but read intermittently at the law, notably 
in the office of Josiah Ogden Hoffman, with whose pretty daughter Matilda he early 
fell in love. He wrote a series of whimsically satirical essays over the signature of 
Jonathan Oldstyle, Gent., published in Peter Irving’s newspaper, the Morning 
Chronicle, in 1802–03. He made several trips up the Hudson, another into Canada 
for his health, and took an extended tour of Europe in 1804–06.On his return he 
passed the bar examination late in 1806 and soon set up as a lawyer. But during 
1807–08 his chief occupation was to collaborate with his brother William and James 
K. Paulding in the writing of a series of 20 periodical essays entitled Salmagundi. 
Concerned primarily with passing phases of contemporary society, the essays retain 
significance as an index to the social milieu.His A History of New York…by 
Diedrich Knickerbocker (1809) was a comic history of the Dutch regime in New 
York, prefaced by a mock-pedantic account of the world from creation onward. Its 
writing was interrupted in April 1809 by the sudden death of Matilda Hoffman, as 
grief incapacitated him. In 1811 he moved to Washington, D.C., as a lobbyist for the 
Irving brothers’ hardware-importing firm, but his life seemed aimless for some years. 
He prepared an American edition of Thomas Campbell’s poems, edited 
the Analectic Magazine, and acquired a staff colonelcy during the War of 1812. In 
1815 he went to Liverpool to look after the interests of his brothers’ firm. In London 
he met Sir Walter Scott, who encouraged him to renewed effort. The result was The 
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Ellis, David M., James A. Frost, Harold C. Syrett, and Harry J. Carman. A History of New York State. Ithaca, NY: 
Cornell University Press, 1967. 

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Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent (1819–20), a collection of stories and essays 
that mix satire and whimsicality with fact and fiction. Most of the book’s 30-odd 
pieces concern Irving’s impressions of England, but six chapters deal with American 
subjects. Of these, the tales “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van 
Winkle” have been called the first American short stories. They are both 
Americanized versions of German folktales. The main character of “Rip Van Winkle” 
is a henpecked husband who sleeps for 20 years and awakes as an old man to find 
his wife dead, his daughter happily married, and America now an independent 
country. The tremendous success of The Sketch Book in both England and the 
United States assured Irving that he could live by his pen. In 1822 he 
produced Bracebridge Hall, a sequel to The Sketch Book. He traveled in Germany, 
Austria, France, Spain, the British Isles, and later in his own country. Early in 1826 
he accepted the invitation of Alexander H. Everett to attach himself to the American 
legation in Spain, where he wrote his Columbus (1828), followed by The 
Companions of Columbus (1831). Meanwhile, Irving had become absorbed in 
the legends of the Moorish past and wrote A Chronicle of the Conquest of 
Granada (1829) and The Alhambra (1832), a Spanish counterpart of The Sketch 
Book. After a 17-year absence Irving returned to New York in 1832, where he was 
warmly received. He made a journey west and produced in rapid succession A Tour 
of 
the 
Prairies (1835), Astoria (1836), 
and The 
Adventures 
of 
Captain 
Bonneville (1837). Except for four years (1842–46) as minister to Spain, Irving 
spent the remainder of his life at his home, “Sunnyside,” in Tarrytown, on 
the Hudson River, where he devoted himself to literary pursuits. The Sketch Book, 
in full The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., short-story collection 
by Washington Irving, first published in 1819–20 in seven separate parts. Most of 
the book’s 30-odd pieces concern Irving’s impressions of England, but six chapters 
deal with American subjects. Of these the tales “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and 
“Rip Van Winkle” have been called the first American short stories, although both 
are actually Americanized versions of German folktales. In addition to the stories 
based on folklore, the collection contains travel sketches, literary essays, and 
miscellany. The Sketch Book was a celebrated event in American literary history. 
The collection was the first American work to gain international literary success and 
popularity. Its unprecedented success allowed Irving to devote himself to writing. 
Washington 
Irving's 
parents 
were 
William 
Irving 
Sr., 
originally 
of Quholm, Shapinsay, Orkney,Scotland, and Sarah (née Saunders), originally 
of Falmouth, Cornwall, England. They married in 1761 while William was serving 
as a petty officer in the British Navy. They had eleven children, eight of whom 
survived to adulthood. Their first two sons died in infancy, both named William, as 
did their fourth child John. Their surviving children were William Jr. (1766), Ann 

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(1770), Peter (1771), Catherine (1774), Ebenezer (1776), John Treat (1778), Sarah 
(1780), and Washington. Watercolor of Washington Irving's encounter withGeorge 
Washington, painted in 1854 by George Bernard Butler Jr. The Irving familysettled 
in Manhattan, and were part of the city's merchant class. Washington was born on 
April 3, 1783,[1] the same week that New York City residents learned of the British 
ceasefire which ended the American Revolution. Irving's mother named him after 
George Washington.[3] Irving met his namesake at age 6 when George Washington 
was living in New York after his inauguration as President in 1789. The President 
blessed young Irving,[4] an encounter that Irving had commemorated in a small 
watercolor painting which continues to hang in his home. The Irvings lived at 131 
William Street at the time of Washington's birth, but they later moved across the 
street to 128 William St. Several of Irving's brothers became active New York 
merchants; they encouraged his literary aspirations, often supporting him financially 
as he pursued his writing career.Irving was an uninterested student who preferred 
adventure stories and drama, and he regularly sneaked out of class in the evenings 
to attend the theater by the time he was 14. An outbreak of yellow fever in 
Manhattan in 1798 prompted his family to send him upriver, where he stayed with 
his friend James Kirke Paulding in Tarrytown, New York. It was in Tarrytown he 
became familiar with the nearby town of Sleepy Hollow, New York, with its Dutch 
customs and local ghost stories. He made several other trips up the Hudson as a 
teenager, including an extended visit to Johnstown, New York where he passed 
through the Catskill Mountains region, the setting for "Rip Van Winkle". "Of all the 
scenery of the Hudson", Irving wrote, "the Kaatskill Mountains had the most 
witching effect on my boyish imagination".Irving began writing letters to the New 
York Morning Chronicle in 1802 when he was 19, submitting commentaries on the 
city's social and theater scene under the pseudonym Jonathan Oldstyle. The name 
evoked his Federalist leanings[10] and was the first of many pseudonyms he 
employed throughout his career. The letters bought Irving some early fame and 
moderate notoriety. Aaron Burr was a co-publisher of the Chronicle, and was 
impressed enough to send clippings of the Oldstyle pieces to his 
daughter Theodosia. Charles Brockden Brown made a trip to New York to try to 
recruit Oldstyle for a literary magazine he was editing in Philadelphia. Concerned 
for his health, Irving's brothers financed an extended tour of Europe from 1804 to 
1806. He bypassed most of the sites and locations considered essential for the social 
development of a young man, to the dismay of his brother William who wrote that 
he was pleased that his brother's health was improving, but he did not like the choice 
to "gallop through Italy… leaving Florence on your left and Venice on your 
right". Instead, Irving honed the social and conversational skills that eventually 
made him one of the world's most in-demand guests. "I endeavor to take things as 

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they come with cheerfulness", Irving wrote, "and when I cannot get a dinner to suit 
my taste, I endeavor to get a taste to suit my dinner".While visiting Rome in 1805, 
Irving struck up a friendship with painter Washington Allston[12] and was almost 
persuaded into a career as a painter. "My lot in life, however, was differently cast".
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