Washington Irving was a 19th-century American author known for his short stories “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle.” He also wrote essays, biographies, and historical works, and worked as a lawyer and diplomat in England and Spain. Irving achieved critical acclaim overseas and influenced later American authors. He was born in Manhattan in 1783, wrote his first book in 1809, and published The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon in 1819. He lived in Spain from 1828 to 1832 and returned to the US to write a series of American frontier stories. He died in 1859 and his home, Sunnyside, is now a museum.
Washington Irving was a 19th-century American author, best remembered for his short stories “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle,” both published in 1990. He also wrote essays, biographies, and historical works, as well as working as a lawyer and diplomat in England and Spain. Washington Irving was one of the first American authors to achieve critical acclaim overseas and had an influence on later American authors, including Hawthorne and Poe.
Washington Irving was born in Manhattan, New York on April 3, 1783 to William Irving, a Scotsman and Royal Navy officer, and his wife Sara. The youngest of eight children, he was named after George Washington, whom his parents greatly admired. Washington Irving wrote his first book, a satirical history of New York City, in 1809 under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker. At the age of 32, he began his first diplomatic assignment abroad, in England, but also had time to travel around the continent. He enjoyed reading German and Dutch folktales, which influenced some of his later short stories.
In 1819, Irving published The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon in America, although British publishers also published a version without the author’s permission. The book consisted mainly of picturesque vignettes from English life, but also contained what would become his two most famous stories and won him a following in Europe. Washington Irving lived in Spain from 1828 to 1832, during which time he wrote four fictionalized Spanish history books focusing on the themes of Christopher Columbus and the Moorish occupation. The Royal Society of Literature in London awarded Irving a Gold Medal of History in 1830, and the author also holds honorary degrees from Columbia Oxford and Harvard.
After returning to the United States, Irving traveled to the western frontier and was inspired by the experience and people he met to write a series of American frontier stories similar in tone to the Spanish ones. He also published a fifth book on Spain in 1835. Irving returned to Spain as United States Ambassador from 1842 to 1846.
In 1835, Irving bought a house in Tarrytown, New York which became known as Sunnyside. With the collaboration of the painter George Harvey, Irving had the property extended and remodeled. After returning from Spain a second time, he spent most of his time there, living with his brother Ebenezer and his five nieces. Irving often entertained illustrious guests in his home and spent his final years completing his most ambitious work, a five-volume biography of George Washington. In 1949 he became an honorary fellow of the Smithsonian Institution.
Washington Irving died in his bedroom in Sunnyside on November 8, 1859. His descendants continued to occupy the property until 1945, when John D. Rockefeller Jr. purchased it. In 1947 it was opened to the public and is now a museum. A partial replica of the home can be seen at the Washington Irving Memorial Park and Arboretum in Bixby, Oklahoma.
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