IRVING, WAsItINGTON An American author. lie was born in New York it). April 3, I753. llis mother was English and Iris father had come from Scotland to New York City, where he enraged in trade. Irving studied in the schools I) f New York, and at the age of six teen took up law. lie fore lie was twenty lie eon trilmted, under the pseudonym of 'Jonathan Old style.' to the New York 11o•ning Chronicle, of which his lirother was editor. Never in good health, lie was obliged in to go to Europe, where lie remained two years. after his return, lie published in ism; with his brother William and dames K. Paulding (q.v.). Salma gundi, or the Whim-Whams and ()pinions of Launeelot Langstaff, Esq., an undertaking in the style of .\dilison's Spectator. in Istu.) appeared .1 history of Veit- York from the Beginning of the World to the F:Iid of the Dutch Dynast y, by Died rich r—a humorous. whimsical, and genially satirical sketch, which brought him repu tation and money. This hook had been begun with the intention of burlesquing a pretentious by 1)r. Samuel .Mitchell. The Iiiiiek erboekcr history, to give it its most common name. nit as lgsiggys hinno• found more and more curiosities in the quaint and phlegmatic Dutch type, whieli is so strongly eontrasted with the quick and more volatile des•lmdant I if British stock. lie then gave up any idea of law. and be came a sleeping partner of his brothers, whose business house was in Liverpool, oceupying him self meanwhile with literary work. Ir•ing's reputation had preceded him to England. where hi. gracious manners made him a favorite in society. Ile met f'ampbell and Thomas Moose and heartily liked by Walter Scott, who per suaded Murray to publish Geoffrey Crayon's tch-Book. Among other things, he edited The Poetical Works of 7'homas During the \Var ot 1SP2 lie was on the staff of Governor Tompkins. of New York. and was connected with the A naleetic Magazine of Philadelphia. in 1S15 he went to Europe to look out for the business interests of the tiro, the failure of which in ISIS turned him for good and all to literature.
In Is19, in New York, and in 1'121), in London, Irving published book by which he is most impularly known, 7/o Skt tcb-Book of (I, o)frey ('rayon, Gent. It was heartily INOCOIlled 011 bOtil
sides of the Atlantic, and two of the stories especially, kip I an Winkb and the by. nd of Nlerpy 1101101r, have become classics in American literature. The ski•te/e/Cook soon went through many editions. was illustrated by Caldieott and commentated by Pfundheller for the Germans. The vein of the book is one of humor, tender ness, geniality, and good-fellowship; the manner is reminiscent of Goldsmith and other English authors of the eighteenth eentury, to whom trying was temperamentally drawn. In 1S•22 appeared anialier volume in much the same manner, Braer bridge hall, or the Humorists, a series of sketches, translated by Spiker into German in 1S2li. In 1S22 he visited the Rhine. lived for a while in Paris. and again in England in IS2-1. 111 IS24 appeared the Talcs of a Trap Ilcr, a col lection of short stories, with the same general good feeling. but with more action. In IS36 Irving went to Spain, remaining there milli 18!9, and, as a result of his stay, produced four books quite dilTerent from his former work: History of the Life and 7'inies of Christopher Columbus 1182s) ; .1 Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada (1829), an interesting narrative, but of no real historical value: Voyages and Discoreries of the Companions of Columbus 1S31) : and The .1I hambra (1S32), a series of sketches and stories associated with the author's life in the romantic mins of Granada. Irving's hook on Columbus was written with the help of Spanish archives, after Irving had given np his original purpose to translate Navarrete's recently published work on the discoverer. The rhrmiele of the Conquest of Granada purports to he founded on the manu scripts of Fray Antonio Agapida, an imaginary chronicler. The .1111ambra was written mainly in London. where Irving was secretary of the United States Legation from 1S39-31. He re turned to America in I S32, where he was wel comed with almost national honor: for the people of the United States thought, with good grounds, that he had won recognition abroad of American literature.