Washington Irving

Washington Irving (1783-1859) was an American writer, born in Manhattan and named after George Washington. He was among the first authors from the United States that Europe read and admired, and he earned that reputation while living abroad.

He studied law and barely passed the bar in 1806. What settled his career was money. He sailed to England in 1815 to rescue the family trading firm, the firm went bankrupt anyway, and from then on he wrote for a living.

He published under invented names, each attached to different work. Jonathan Oldstyle wrote letters to a New York paper. Diedrich Knickerbocker, a Dutch antiquary who was said to have vanished and left his manuscripts behind, was credited with A History of New York in 1809 and later with the two tales that made Irving famous. Geoffrey Crayon signed The Sketch Book, which came out in seven installments in New York in 1819 and 1820. Rip Van Winkle was in the first of them.

Later he served as secretary to the American legation in London and then as United States minister to Spain. He died at Tarrytown in 1859 and is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery under a stone that carries nothing but his name and his dates.