Irving

Washington (April 3, 1783 to November 28, 1859), an American author. He was born in New York, then a city of 23,000 inhabitants. His father, William Irving, was Scotch, the descendant of an armor bearer of Robert Bruce. He was a "blue Presbyterian," an ardent upholder of the colonial cause. Irving's mother, Sarah Sanders, was of Cornish descent. She was a gentle, cheerful, sympathetic woman, who, nevertheless, had her own way in the family and brought up her eleven children to be Episcopalians. The family was intimate with both Dutch and English neighbors.

Washington Irving was the youngest of the family. He was a merry, roguish chap. The old home, of which nothing now remains, was one of numerous flat-roofed buildings. The young lad delighted in getting out through a skylight and running around above people's heads, dropping bits of mortar down the chimneys. These and other pranks gave his strict father much anxiety. In later years, after his parents thought him asleep, Washington used to get out at a window and make his way to the theater. He says of himself that he was "led to believe that everything that was pleasant was wicked."

At school Irving was fond of reading and telling tales, but he abhorred arithmetic. He wrote gladly for the other boys and got them to solve his problems for him. Owing to feeble health the young lad was not sent regularly to school, nor did he follow his elder brothers to Columbia College. He received a little desultory instruction in Latin and in music. He continued his reading, however. His favorite books were Sinbad the Sailor, Gulliver's Travels, Robinson Crusoe, and Pilgrim's Progress.

As he grew up Irving was set to read law, but he did not like the subject. He was a "heedless student." He gave little attention to his studies but carried on an extensive course in general reading. In 1804 his brothers, who were now in business, sent him to Europe in quest of pleasure and health. He was so full of pranks that the captain is said to have remarked: "That chap will go overboard before we get across." He saw Nelson's fleet in the Mediterranean, ready for the battle of Trafalgar. He visited Rome, and was much taken with the idea of becoming an artist. He visited Paris and wrote home, excusing himself for delay by saying: "I am a young man, and in Paris." In London he had the pleasure of hearing John Kemble and the renowned actress, Mrs. Siddons.

On his return to New York Irving resumed his study of the law, and was admitted to the bar in due time; but, as before, he spent the greater part of the time in reading literature, and in attending social gatherings and teaparties as well. He was considered one of the most brilliant young men in society. In 1809 his betrothed, a Miss Hoffman, a daughter of the lawyer in whose office he had studied law, died. Irving never married. He kept her Bible, prayer book, her picture, and a lock of her hair always with him.

As early as 1802, before going to Europe, he had contributed humorous sketches over the name of Jonathan Oldstyle to the Morning Chronicle, a paper edited by an older brother, Peter. In 1807 he joined with three other young men, a brother, a brother-in-law, and James K. Paulding, in the publication of a little fortnightly periodical, Salmagundi. It has been called "The American Spectator." It was a bright, breezy affair, full of humorous hits and local allusions. Irving contributed the Whim-Whams and Opinions of Launcelot Longstaff. Twenty issues appeared.

Irving's next literary venture was Died-rich Knickerbocker's History of New York. It apeared anonymously. It was advertised as proceeding from a small, elderly gentleman in black coat and cocked hat, who had left a manuscript behind him at the Columbian Hotel, Mulberry Street. It was taken for genuine history by some Europeans. It was hailed by the literary world, including Walter Scott, as a "most excellently jocose history, a masterpiece of humor." It brought Irving $3,000.

In 1815 Irving's brothers formed an importing house and sent him to England to assist in carrying on the European end of the business. He accomplished little in a business way, but the result of his Knickerbocker's History gained him the acquaintance of Keene, Kemble, Moore, Jeffrey, Murray, Scott, and other literary notables. He visited Scott at Abbotsford. During this period of his life Irving wrote The Sketch Book, signing it Geoffrey Crayon. Geoffrey declared, "I have no wife, no children, good nor bad, to provide for. I am a mere spectator of other men's fortunes." The Sketch Book is a collection of sketches, written as by a leisurely traveler. It included his best productions. His first sketches were published in Philadelphia. Through the efforts of Walter Scott, Murray, the London publisher, was induced to bring out a British edition.

Irving's reputation, as well as an income from literary sources, was now secure. He had, no doubt, a faith that prosperity was coming, for he had already turned aside friends who desired to put him in the way of the mayoralty of New York, a seat in Congress, and a secretaryship worth $2,500 a year under President Van Buren.

The Sketch Book appeared in 1819. Bracebridge Hall, a similar volume, spoken of sometimes as the "English Sketch Book," appeared in 1822. Murray offered him $5,000 for it without seeing the manuscript. The "original home," immortalized by Irving in this book, is Ashton Hall, in the vicinity of Birmingham. Tales of a Traveler followed soon after. From 1826 to 1829 Irving was secretary of the American legation at Madrid. He collected a large amount of historical material which he used later in A Life of Columbus. During the summer of 1829 he lived in an apartment of the Alhambra yet shown to visitors. It was here, on historic ground, that the inspiration came to him for his Conquest of Granada and The Alhambra, spoken of sometimes as "The Spanish Sketch-Book." In 1829 he was transferred to the legation at London. Oxford University made him a Doctor of Laws.

In 1832 he returned to New York. Although a master of English he is said to have broken down utterly in an attempt to make a speech at a banquet in his honor. About this time Irving purchased a Dutch stone cottage on the banks of the Hudson at Tarrytown. The name has been changed since to Irvington in his honor. The house belonged formerly to the Van Tassels. It was a cosy home, picturesquely situated. Ivy slips from Melrose Abbey soon covered it with a mantle of green. Among his proud possessions was the venerable weathercock that once surmounted the Stadt-House of New Amsterdam. He set it on the gable of his house. Irving called his home Sunnyside. It is described in his Wolfert's Roost. His income was ample. He invited a brother to settle with him here. His nieces, with whom he was fond of romping, continued to occupy the cottage at the close of the nineteenth century.

In 1842 Irving was appointed minister to Spain. He remained abroad four years. His residence at Tarrytown was interrupted by a trip to the West, which resulted in his writing A Tour on the Prairies, Astoria, and the Adventures of Captain Bonneville. His last work of importance was a Life of George Washington in five volumes. It appeared in 1855-9. Other biographies were Oliver Goldsmith, Mahomet, and Columbus. Irving's New York publisher was G. P. Putnam, who stood to him in much the same relation that James T. Fields afterward held to the poets of New England.

In person Irving was a man of medium height, rather stout in build. He had dark gray eyes, delicate eyebrows, a straight, handsome nose, and a shapely head. He was a humorous, modest, genial, sunny man, very sensitive in his nature. He was an amiable man in society, and free from literary jealousies. In this and many other respects he was much like Walter Scott, for whom he had a profound admiration. He was buried by the side of his mother in Sleepy Hollow near Tarrytown.

In point of rank the world has long since given Irving an eminent place among men of letters. He entered into the departed glories of the Moors and repeopled the Alhambra as no other writer has done. He described Westminster Abbey with such simplicity and feeling that Charles Kingsley, himself a master of English prose, felt his own pen fall powerless. He loved the ancestral halls, the lanes and hedges of England, as few of her native sons have done. He entered into the life of Abbotsford and made Walter Scott his friend for life, and yet, all said, the scenes of his greatest work are near at hand and at home. He is to the Catskill Mountains and the lower Hudson what Scott is to the Trossachs, to Edinburgh, and the Tweed.

The Alhambra, Westminster Abbey, and Abbotsford might have been described by another, but no other hand than Irving's could have painted Sleepy Hollow. No other eye could have seen Ichabod Crane as he saw him. His greatest creation is Rip Van Winkle, a unique character in literature.

See Catskills; Jefferson; Westminster

SAYINGS OF IRVING.

The Almighty Dollar.

A man as he grows old must take care not to grow musty, or fusty, or rusty--an old bachelor especially.

When I cannot get a dinner to suit my taste, I get a taste to suit my dinner.

The idol of today pushes the hero of yesterday out of our recollection; and will, in turn, be supplanted by his successor of tomorrow.

SAID OF IRVING.

Before Irving there was no laughter in the land.--Beers.

His writings are my delight.--Byron.

For fifty years, Irving charmed and instructed the American people and held the foremost place in their affections.--Warner.