Washington Irving

Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American author of the early 19th century.

Biography

His first book was 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.

Related Topics:
1809 - Knickerbocker

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Irving left for Europe in 1815. In 1819-1820 he published The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, which includes his best known stories, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip van Winkle.

Related Topics:
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - Rip van Winkle

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The latter story was written overnight, 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. Bracebridge Hall or The Humorists, A Medley is based on Aston Hall, there.

Related Topics:
Henry van Wart - Birmingham - England - Aston Hall

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Irving wrote The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus in 1828, the Conquest of Granada a year later, and, the Voyages of the Companions of Columbus in 1831.

Related Topics:
Christopher Columbus - 1828 - Granada - 1831

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Irving returned to the United States in 1832 and published Legends of the Conquest of Spain 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 A Tour on the Prairies, 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:

Related Topics:
Prairie - Published in 1835

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:We 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.

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His second western book was Astoria; 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.

Related Topics:
John Jacob Astor - Fur trading - Astoria, Oregon

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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 The Adventures of Captain Bonneville, which most believe to be the best of his three western books.

Related Topics:
Benjamin Bonneville - Oregon Country - Washington, D.C. - 1837 book

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