Comprehensive information and links about Washington Irving

Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American author of the early 19th century. He is perhaps best known for his short stories, his most famous being ), but he was a prolific writer of essays, biographies, and other forms as well. He and James Fenimore Cooper were the first American writers to earn acclaim in Europe, and Irving is said to have mentored authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Edgar Allan Poe.

Irving was born in Manhattan. A lawyer, he was a member of the American diplomatic staff in Britain and in Spain. He spoke fluent Spanish, which served him well in his writings on that country, and he could read several other languages, including German and Dutch. He was a prolific essayist who wrote widely respected biographies of George Washington, Muhammad, and others, and he wrote a number of books on 15th century Spain dealing with subjects such as Columbus, the Moors, and the Alhambra.

He lived in his famous home of Sunnyside, which is still standing just south of the Tappan Zee Bridge in New York. The original house and the surrounding property were once owned by 18th century colonist Wolfert Acker, about whom Irving wrote his sketch "Wolfert's Roost" (the name of the house).

It is believed that the city of Irving, Texas was named after him, as are Washington Street and Irving Street in Birmingham, Alabama. His book A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, by Dietrich Knickerbocker (1809), a sly satire on self-important local history that brought "Knickerbocker" into the American lexicon, and then wider English usage.

Irving left for Europe in 1815. In 1819-1820 he published . During this stay in Europe he was a member of the American Ligation to England but in his spare time he traveled to the continent and widely read Dutch and German folk tales. The pieces for the Sketch Book were originally written by Irving in Europe and were sent to his publishers in New York for publication in periodicals in the U.S. While in England, his sketches were published in book form by British publishers without his permission and hence he decided to publish and protect his copyright interests by publishing in Europe and the U.S. concurrently.

The latter story was written overnight (Rip Van Winkle), while Irving was staying with his sister Sarah and her husband, Henry van Wart in Birmingham, England—a place which also inspired some of his other works. * 1832 which was to be published concurrently in England and the United States (the actual title is more lengthy as its contents amounted to a collection of sketches. In 1851 he wrote an "Author's Revised Edition" entitled in 1835. But primary among his works of this period were three "Western" books, designed to put to rest the notion that Irving's time in England and Spain had made him more European than American. His first western book was , published in 1835; the beginning of Chapter 10 includes the following, interpreted by some literary critics to be a comment on concerns about his public persona:

dlWe send our youth abroad to grow luxurious and effeminate in Europe; it appears to me, that a previous tour on the prairies would be more likely to produce that manliness, simplicity, and self-dependence, most in unison with our political institutions.; he wrote it during a six-month stay with the then-retired John Jacob Astor. It was a worshipful account of Astor's attempt to establish a fur trading colony at present-day Astoria, Oregon.

During Irving's stay with Astor, Benjamin Bonneville paid a visit. His tales of his three years in Oregon Country were said to have enthralled Irving. A month or two later, when Irving encountered Bonneville in Washington, D.C., Bonneville, struggling to write about his journey, decided instead to sell his maps and notes to Irving for $1,000. Irving used that material as the basis for his 1837 book , which is often considered the best of his three western books.

He appeared as an alias for forgers in Joseph Heller's classic novel Ordinance No. 7345, adopted in 1998 by the City Council of Irving, Texas, making the case that the city is named after Irving