Most Popular Books by Washington Irving

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With these words, Washington Irving expresses the dilemma of every American artist in the nineteenth century. The Sketch-Book (1820-1) looks simultaneously towards audiences on both sides of the Atlantic, as Irving explores the uneasy relationship of an American writer to English literary traditions. He sketches a series of encounters with the cultural shrines of the parent nation, and in two brilliant experiments with tales transplanted from Europe creates the first classic American shortstories, ''Rip Van Winkle'' and ''The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow''. The result was not only a hugely successful travel book; it exerted a strong formative influence on American writers from Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe to Henry James, and is well worth rediscovery in its own right today. Based on Irving''s final revision of his most popular work, this new edition includes comprehensive explanatory notes of The Sketch-Book''s sources for the modern reader. In her introduction, SusanManning suggests that the author forged a new idiom, the ''Literary Picturesque'', to accommodate and turn to advantage his dilemma of dual literary allegiances.

Bracebridge Hall (1822) was published under the pseudonym Geoffrey Crayon, and centers on an English manor, its inhabitants, and the tales they tell. Interspersed with witty, evocative sketches of country life among the English nobility is the well-known tale "The Stout Gentleman" and stories based on English, French, and Spanish folklore, vividly recounted with Irving''s inimitable blend of elegance and colloquial dash.

Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 - November 28, 1859) was an American short story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820), both of which appear in his collection, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works include biographies of Oliver Goldsmith, Muhammad, and George Washington, as well as several histories of 15th-century Spain dealing with subjects such as Alhambra, Christopher Columbus, and the Moors. Irving served as the U.S. ambassador to Spain from 1842 to 1846. He made his literary debut in 1802 with a series of observational letters to the Morning Chronicle, written under the pseudonym Jonathan Oldstyle. After moving to England for the family business in 1815, he achieved international fame with the publication of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., serialized from 1819-20. He continued to publish regularly-and almost always successfully-throughout his life, and just eight months before his death (at age 76, in Tarrytown, New York), completed a five-volume biography of George Washington. Irving, along with James Fenimore Cooper, was among the first American writers to earn acclaim in Europe, and Irving encouraged American authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Herman Melville, and Edgar Allan Poe. Irving was also admired by some European writers, including Lord Byron, Thomas Campbell, Charles Dickens, Francis Jeffrey, and Walter Scott. Also, as the United States'' first internationally best-selling author, Irving advocated for writing as a legitimate profession and argued for stronger laws to protect American writers from copyright infringement. Washington Irving''s parents were William Irving, Sr., originally of Quholm, Shapinsay, Orkney, Scotland, and Sarah (nee Sanders), both Scottish-English immigrants. 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, each named William, died in infancy, as did their fourth child, John. Their surviving children were: William, Jr. (1766), Ann (1770), Peter (1771), Catherine (1774), Ebenezer (1776), John Treat (1778), Sarah (1780), and Washington.The Irving family settled in Manhattan, New York and was part of the city''s small, vibrant merchant class when Washington Irving was born on April 3, 1783, the same week New York City residents learned of the British ceasefire that ended the American Revolution; Irving''s mother named him after the hero of the revolution, George Washington.At age 6, with the help of a nanny, Irving met his namesake, who was then living in New York after his inauguration as President of the United States, in 1789. The president blessed young Irving, an encounter Irving later 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 Irving''s birth. The family later moved across the street to 128 William St. Several of Washington Irving''s older brothers became active New York merchants, and they encouraged their younger brother''s literary aspirations....

A history book published in 1836 by Washington Irving. The book was commissioned by John Jacob Astor as an official history of his company''s 1810-1812 Astor Expedition to Oregon.

A collection of nine observational letters written by American writer Washington Irving under the pseudonym Jonathan Oldstyle. The letters first appeared in the November 15, 1802, edition of the New York Morning Chronicle, a political-leaning newspaper partially owned by New Yorker Aaron Burr and edited by Irving''s brother Peter. The letters were printed at irregular intervals until April 23, 1803. The letters lampoon marriage, manners, dress, and culture of early 19th-century New York City. They are Irving''s début in print.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is a short story of speculative fiction by American author Washington Irving, contained in his collection of 34 essays and short stories entitled, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.. Written while Irving was living abroad in Birmingham, England, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" was first published in 1820. Along with Irving''s companion piece "Rip Van Winkle", "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is among the earliest examples of American fiction with enduring popularity, especially during Halloween because of a character known as the headless horseman believed to be a Hessian soldier who lost his head to a cannonball in battle.

Knickerbocker''s History of New York In 1809, New Yorkers were humming about a group of categorized advertisements regarding the whereabouts of Dutch historian Diedrich Knickerbocker. These were unaware that Washington Irving acquired invented the person completely and positioned the advertisements himself. Knickerbocker''s purported manuscript, A History of New York, was Irving''s own. Told from Knickerbocker''s viewpoint, A History of New York is a chronicle of New York''s fifty years under Dutch guideline in the 1600s that has fast and loose with the reality, to uproarious impact. A History of New York propelled Irving to the levels of literary stardom.

The AlhambraWritten in 1831, Irving''s dreamlike description of the Alhambra, the stunning Moorish castle that described the height of Moorish civilization, and the encompassing territory of Granada remain among the best guidebooks to the spot and one of the very most interesting travelogues ever written.A heady mixture of historical truth, medieval myth and mystery, sensual explanations, and an appreciation for a civilization that valued beauty, beliefs, literature, science, and the arts on the same level with warrior skills. Key chambers, desperate fights, imprisoned princesses, palace ghosts, and fragrant gardens, explained in a wistful and dreamlike eloquence will transportation the listener to a paradise of his own.