IRVING, WASHINGTON American man of letters, was born in New York city on April 3, 1783. Both his parents were immigrants from Great Britain, his father—orig inally an officer in the merchant service, but at the time of Irving's birth a considerable merchant—having come from the Orkneys and his mother from Falmouth. Irving was intended for the legal profession, but his studies were interrupted by an illness necessi tating a voyage to Europe, in the course of which he proceeded as far as Rome and made the acquaintance of Washington Allston.
He was called to the bar upon his return, but made little effort to practise, preferring to amuse himself with literary ventures. The first of these of any importance, a satirical miscellany en titled Salmagundi, or the Whim-Whams and Opinions of Launcelot Langstaff and Others, written in conjunction with his brother William and J. K. Paulding, gave ample proof of his talents as a humorist. These were still more conspicuously displayed in his next attempt, A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, by "Diedrich Knicker bocker" (1809). The satire of Salmagundi had been principally local, and the original design of "Knickerbocker's" History was only to burlesque a pretentious disquisition on the history of the city in a guide-book by Dr. Samuel Mitchell. The idea expanded as Irving proceeded, and he ended by creating a distinct literary type out of the solid Dutch burgher whose phlegm had long been an object of ridicule to the mercurial Americans. Though far from the most finished of Irving's productions, "Knickerbocker" manifests the most original power, and is the most genuinely national in its quaintness and drollery. The very tardiness and prolixity of the story are skilfully made to heighten the humorous effect.
Upon the death of his father, Irving had become a sleeping part ner in his brother's commercial house, a branch of which was established at Liverpool. This, combined with the restoration of peace, induced him to visit England in 1815, when he found the stability of the firm seriously compromised. After some years of ineffectual struggle it became bankrupt. This misfortune com pelled Irving to resume his pen as a means of subsistence. His reputation had preceded him to England, and the curiosity natu rally excited by the then unwonted apparition of a successful American author procured him admission into the highest liter ary circles, where his popularity was ensured by his amiable tem per and polished manners. As an American, moreover, he stood aloof from the political and literary disputes which then divided England. Campbell, Jeffrey, Moore, Scott, were counted among his friends, and the last-named zealously recommended him to the publisher Murray, who consented (182o) to bring out The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (1819-2o). The most interesting part of this work is the description of an English Christmas, which displays a delicate humour not unworthy of the writer's evident model, Addison. Some stories and sketches on American themes contribute to give it variety ; of these "Rip van Winkle" is the most remarkable. It speedily obtained the greatest success on both sides of the Atlantic. Bracebridge Hall, or the Huinourists, a work purely English in subject, followed in 1822, and showed to what account the American observer had turned his experience of English country life. The humour is, nevertheless, much more English than American.
Tales of a Traveller (4 pts.) appeared in 1824 at Philadelphia, and Irving, now in comfortable circumstances, determined to en large his sphere of observation by a journey on the Continent. After a long course of travel he settled down at Madrid in the house of the American consul, Rich. His intention at the time was to translate the Coleccion de los Viajes y Descubrimientos (Madrid, 1825-37) of Martin Fernandez de Navarrete ; finding, however, that this was rather a collection of valuable materials than a systematic biography, he determined to compose a bio graphy of his own by its assistance, supplemented by independent researches in the Spanish archives. His History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (London, 4 vols.) appeared in 1828, and obtained a merited success. The Voyages and Discov eries of the Companions of Columbus (Philadelphia, 1831) fol lowed; and a prolonged residence in the south of Spain gave Irving materials for two highly picturesque books, A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada from the MSS. of [an imaginary] Fray Antonio Agapida (1829), and The Alhambra : a series of tales and sketches of the Moors and Spaniards (1832). Previous to their appearance he had been appointed secretary to the em bassy at London, an office as purely complimentary to his literary ability as the legal degree which he about the same time received from the University of Oxford.
Returning to the United States in 1832, after 17 years' absence, he found his name a household word, and himself universally honoured as the first American who had won for his country re cognition on equal terms in the literary republic. After the rush
of fetes and public compliments had subsided, he undertook a tour in the western prairies, and returning to the neighbourhood of New York built for himself a delightful retreat on the Hudson, to which he gave the name of "Sunnyside." His acquaintance with the New York millionaire, John Jacob Astor, prompted his next important work—Astoria (1836), a his tory of the fur-trading settlement founded by Astor in Oregon, deduced with singular literary ability from dry commercial rec ords, and, without laboured attempts at word-painting, evincing a remarkable faculty for bringing scenes and incidents vividly before the eye. The Adventures of Captain Bonneville (1837), based upon the unpublished memoirs of a veteran explorer, was another work of the same class. In 1842 Irving was appointed ambassador to Spain. He spent four years in the country, without this time turning his residence to literary account ; and it was not until two years after his return that Forster's life of Goldsmith, by reminding him of a slight essay of his own which he now thought too imperfect by comparison to be included among his collected writings, stimulated him to the production of his Life of Oliver Goldsmith, with Selections from his Writings (1849). Without pretensions to original research, the book displays an admirable talent for employing existing material to the best effect. The same may be said of The Lives of .Mahomet and his Successors (1849-5o). Here as elsewhere Irving correctly dis criminated the biographer's province from the historian's, and, leaving the philosophical investigation of cause and effect to writers of Gibbon's calibre, applied himself to represent the pic turesque features of the age as embodied in the actions and utter ances of its most characteristic representatives.
His last days were devoted to his Life of George Washington (5 vols., 1855-59, New York and London), undertaken in an enthusiastic spirit, but which the author found exhausting and his readers tame. His genius required a more poetical theme, and indeed the biographer of Washington must be at least a potential soldier and statesman. Irving lived to complete this work, dying of heart disease at Sunnyside, on Nov. 28, 1859.
Although one of the chief ornaments of American literature, Irving was not characteristically Ainerican. But he was one of the few authors of his period who really manifested traces of a vein of national peculiarity which might under other circumstances have been productive. "Knickerbocker's" History of New York, although the air of mock solemnity which constitutes the staple of its humour is peculiar to no literature, manifests nevertheless a power of reproducing a distinct national type. Had circum stances taken Irving to the West, and placed him amid a society teeming with quaint and genial eccentricity, he might possibly have been the first Western humorist, and his humour might have gained in depth and richness.
In England, on the other hand, everything encouraged his natu ral fastidiousness ; he became a refined writer, but by no means a robust one. His biographies bear the stamp of genuine artistic intelligence, equally remote from compilation and disquisition. In execution they are almost faultless; the narrative is easy, the style pellucid, and the writer's judgment nearly always in ac cordance with the general verdict of history. Without ostenta tion or affectation, he was exquisite in all things, a mirror of loyalty, courtesy and good taste in all his literary connections, and exemplary in all the relations of domestic life. He never married, remaining true to the memory of an early attachment blighted by death.
(R. G.)