IRVLNG, WASHINGTON, one of the greatest American authors of the nine teenth century, born in New York in 1783. Most of his early education was gained by tramping through the beauti ful Westchester region and the Hudson Highlands, by lounging on the docks to watch the arrival and departure of the ships that seemed to him to ply between fairy lands of romance and his native city, and by visits to the theatre and reading whole libraries of romance. He studied law, but rebelled against it, and did not make a very active practitioner. He had no taste for politics, his leaning being rather toward Hamilton's theories than Jefferson's. In his letters, and in his "Knickerbocker History of New York," he expresses distaste for many of the aspects of American politics, and he satirizes Jefferson's conduct of foreign affairs. His first writings were rather thin imitations of the eighteenth cen tury English essayists, satires on fash ions and manners, the first of them pub lished in his brother Peter's newspaper, and continued, after his return from his first European journey, in "Salma gundi." This last, in which he had as collaborators his brother William and James Kirke Paulding, appeared twice a month for about a year (1807), and made a prodigious success.
Meantime, Irving went abroad (1804– 1806) where he indulged to the full his love of romance and tradition surround ing ancient lands and cities. "My na tive country was fuIl of promise," he wrote; "Europe was rich in the ac cumulated treasures of age." It became one of the objects of his life to give, so far as literature could avail, some thing of the charm of tradition to what he held to be a natural setting as ro mantic, especially around New York, as any scenes to be found abroad. He found his first opportunity to do this in his "Knickerbocker Histiry" (1809), first planned as a burlesque of a pom pous and pedantic work by Dr. Samuel Mitchill but soon developing into an in dependent work of astonishing variety and charm. The book owes much to Rabelais, "Don Quixote," and other writ ers of burlesque romance, and also to Fielding, Sterne and other English mas ters of the eighteenth century; but it also bas a high originality of its own. His portraits of the Dutch governors; his sa tire of contemporary politics under the guise of a sober history of the old Dutch colony; the abounding spirits and rollick ing humor; the remarkable way in which it translates the spirit of old romance to the American continent; above all, the flavor of the book, urbane, witty, keen, even if often exaggerated,—these make it the first important work of the pure imagination to appear in America.
He published it as if it were the work of an imaginary Dr. Diedrich Knicker bocker, who has become a well known figure in American letters; he dedicated it to the New York Historical Society, and it has often been classed by libra rians among legitimate "histories." After this success Irving published nothing for ten years. He attempted to practice law, engaged mildly in poli tics, revised his "History," edited a maga zine, but devoted most of his time to society. During the war with England he was military secretary to the gov ernor of New York. In May, 1815, he sailed once more for England, expecting only to pay a short visit to his brother, but seventeen years passed before his re turn. Though he was offered various literary posts in England, chiefly through the friendship of Sir Walter Scott, he refused to do anything that might look like an abandonment of his native coun try. The "Sketch Book," his most fa mous work, appeared in parts from MaYi 1819, to September, 1820. In 1822 ap peared "Bracebridge Hall" and two years later "Tales of a Traveller." In these books he links America and England in a series of essays, tales, and descriptive sketches, all of them marked by urban ity, humor, and by a finish of style pre viously unknown in American prose. The most famous of the sketches deal with certain folk legends, some of them from the Harz mountains, which he translated to the romantic region of the Catskills and old New York with its pic turesque Highlands to the north. As in "Knickerbocker," he sought "to clothe home scenes and places and familiar names with those imaginative and whim sical associations so seldom met with in our new country, but which live like spells and charms about the cities of the old world." From 1820 to 1826 he travelled in France and Germany, and in the latter year went to Spain, where he spent three years. Here he became interested in his torical work, the results being his "Life of Columbus" (1828) ; "Conquest of Granada" (1829) ; and "The Alhambra" (1832). Returning to England, in 1829, as secretary of the American legation, he was awarded a medal by the Royal So ciety and the degree of D.C.L. by Oxford. At length, in 1832, he returned to America, settling at Tarrytown, since famous as "the Irving country." He was offered various political posts, which he declined, but in 1842 accepted an ap pointment as Minister to Spain, where he spent four years. His last works were the "Crayon Miscellany" (1835); "Captain Bonneville" (1837) ; "Oliver Goldsmith" (1849) ; "Mahomet" (1849); "Life of Washington" (1859). He died 28 November, 1859, at "Sunnyside." Tarrytown.