Biography Of Washington Irving

One of the first noted American authors to be highly acclaimed in Europe during his life time, Irving was a prolific author of fiction and non-. He wrote numerous short stories, biographies, histories, and tales of his travels. His characters Ichabod Crane and Rip van Winkle are now icons of popular American culture, and many of Irving's works have inspired adaptations to the stage and film. Named in honour of American President George Washington, under whom the United States gained independence during the American Revolution, Washington Irving was born on 3 April 1783 in New York.
      In 1815 he left America for England to visit his brother but remained for the next seventeen years, again travelling to various countries in Europe. While in England, an unsuccessful business venture with his brothers caused him to turn to his pen in hopes of providing some income. Irving's short stories, first printed in America under his pseudonym Geoffrey Crayon between the years 1819-20 were collected in The Crayon Papers and The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon. They contain two of Irvings' most famous tales: "Rip van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". These stories were wildly popular in America and soon too in Europe where Irving, or, Geoffrey Crayon, was welcomed by noted society and literary figures including actors, writers, artists, Dukes, and Lords, Kings and Queens. Positive reviews were published and Charles Dickens, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord George Gordon Byron, and his friend Sir Walter Scott lauded his humorous and witty style. Irving's health failed again and for many months he was unable to walk, but it did not stop him from continuing to write. His next novel was Bracebridge Hall, or, The Humorists, A Medley (1822). It was followed by Tales of a Traveller (1824), which Irving considered one of his finer works. In 1826 Irving moved to Madrid, Spain, where he set to writing his highly lauded The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (1828), Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada (1829), and Tales of the Alhambra (1832). In 1832 Irving returned to America, greeted by his overwhelmingly adoring readership. With the intent of creating a secluded retreat for writing, he bought a farm on the banks of the Hudson River at Tarrytown in New York State. The little Dutch cottage and the picturesque views was soon transformed into the now famous residence "Sunnyside". Irving the bachelor was surrounded by loving friends and relatives, and apart from his sojourn as Minister to Spain in 1842-48, his days of living abroad were over. Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey (1835) was followed by Astoria: Anecdotes of an enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains (1836). "....I have felt anxious to get at the details of their adventurous expeditions among the savage tribes that peopled the depths of the wilderness." It explores Irving's impressions from travels in Canada and America as guest of John Jacob Astor's Northwest Fur Company. Irving expresses his sympathy to the displaced, and dispossessed 'savage' Native American Peoples in such stories as "Philip of Pokanoket", "Traits of Indian Character", and "Origin of the White, the Red, and the Black Men". The Adventures of Captain Bonneville (1837) was followed by Irving's biographical works Oliver Goldsmith: A Biography (1850) and Lives of Mahomet and his Successors (1850). Wolfert's Roost and Miscellanies (1855) includes short stories first published in Knickerbocker Magazine. Irving's last finished work, something he had been working on for many years but kept putting aside for other more pressing projects is his Life of George Washington (1859). Washington Irving died on 28 November 1859 and now rests in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery overlooking the Old Dutch Church in Tarrytown, New York.