Washington Irving
Washington Irving (1783 - 1859) was an American author most well known for Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
- Washington Irving: BiographyFamed 19th century American author Washington Irving is known for his biographical works and such stories as 'Rip Van Winkle' and 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.'
- Washington Irving: BritannicaWashington Irving, (born April 3, 1783, New York, New York, U.S.—died November 28, 1859, Tarrytown, New York), writer called the “first American man of letters.” He is best known for the short stories “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle.”
- Washington Irving: Mount VernonWashington Irving was one of the most famous American authors of the nineteenth century. While he is primarily remembered for short stories such as “Rip van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” he also penned an extensive biography of George Washington.
Research & Reference
- Irving, Washington: American National BiographyAmerican National Biography of Washington Irving.
- Washington Irving: Credo ReferenceA Credo Reference landing page on Washington Irving. This page includes links to reference works, journal articles, and a mind map.
- Washington Irving Collection: YaleThe collection provides evidence of the personal and professional life of Washington Irving and dates from 1802 to 1966. The collection documents Irving's writing career, diplomatic work, and travels through Europe, and consists of correspondence, writings, personal papers, and printed material.
Streaming Media
- The Headless HorsemanThis silent classic, starring the great Will Rogers, is an adaptation of Washington Irving's famous short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. A village's new schoolteacher, Ichabod Crane, competes with a tough local named Brom Bones for the love of a beautiful heiress. The climax of the comical tale is Crane's midnight encounter with a creature from local legend, the Headless Horseman.
- Meet Washington IrvingMeet Washington Irving, the father of the American short story and author of one of the most famous and iconic Halloween stories: “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Neill Hartley portrays Washington Irving sharing Irving’s life and excerpts from his short stories.
- Rip Van WinkleThis early silent version of Rip Van Winkle is actually adapted from a 19th-century play by Joseph Jefferson and Dion Boucicault that was in turn adapted from Washington Irving's classic short story. It describes the strange and comical experiences of a man who wakes up from a nap of 20 years.
Author's Works & Perspectives
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
With Irving's companion piece "Rip Van Winkle", "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is among the earliest examples of American fiction still read today. PLOT The story is set circa 1790 in the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town (based on Tarrytown, New York), in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow. It tells the story of Ichabod Crane, a lean, lanky, and extremely superstitious schoolmaster from Connecticut, who competes with Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, the town rowdy, for the hand of 18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter and sole child of a wealthy farmer, Baltus Van Tassel. As Crane leaves a party he attended at the Van Tassel home on an autumn night, he is pursued by the Headless Horseman, who is supposedly the ghost of a Hessian trooper who had his head shot off by a stray cannonball during "some nameless battle" of the American Revolutionary War, and who "rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head". Ichabod mysteriously disappears from town, leaving Katrina to marry Brom Bones, who was "to look exceedingly knowing whenever the story of Ichabod was related".
Washington Irving: Three Western Narratives (LOA #146)
America's first internationally acclaimed author, Washington Irving established his fame with tales of the Hudson Valley in the days of Dutch rule, and then spent seventeen years in Europe mining the Old World for stories. When he finally returned to the United States, he embarked on a trilogy of books on the American West that would prove decisive in molding his compatriots' conception of the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the Pacific Northwest. The Library of America presents this Western trilogy in its third volume of Irving's work. Irving's own encounter with the West came in 1832 when he accompanied the Commissioner of Indian Affairs on a month-long journey to what is now eastern Oklahoma. His account of that trip, A Tour on the Prairies (1835), described wild landscape, rugged inhabitants, and dramatic chases and hunts with an eye for romantic sublimity and a keen appreciation of the frontiersman's "secret of personal freedom." After the success of his first western book, Irving undertook to write the history of John Jacob Astor's ultimately failed attempt to establish a fur-trading empire in the Northwest. In Astoria (1836), he created a sweeping epic of exploration, commercial enterprise, and "contest for dominion on the shores of the Pacific," drawing on Astor's rich archive of materials and enlivening it with his flair for vigorous storytelling. In The Adventures of Captain Bonneville (1837), Irving focused on a single memorable figure--an army officer and fur trader who may also have been an American spy tracking British ambitions in the far country--to reveal the flavor of frontier life in the Rockies and beyond. LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.
The Adventures of Captain Bonneville, U. S. A. , in the Rocky Mountains and the Far West
WHILE ENGAGED in writing an account of the grand enterprise of Astoria, it was my practice to seek all kinds of oral information connected with the subject. Nowhere did I pick up more interesting particulars than at the table of Mr. John Jacob Astor; who, being the patriarch of the fur trade in the United States, was accustomed to have at his board various persons of adventurous turn, some of whom had been engaged in his own great undertaking; others, on their own account, had made expeditions to the Rocky Mountains and the waters of the Columbia.
Old Christmas
Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 - November 28, 1859) was an American author of the early 19th century. Best known for his short stories The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip van Winkle (both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon), he was also a prolific essayist, biographer and historian. Irving and James Fenimore Cooper were the first American writers to earn acclaim in Europe, and Irving is said to have encouraged authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Edgar Allan Poe. Irving was also the U.S. minister to Spain 1842-1846.
The Student's Life of Washington
Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 - November 28, 1859) was an American author of the early 19th century. Best known for his short stories The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip van Winkle (both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon), he was also a prolific essayist, biographer and historian. Irving and James Fenimore Cooper were the first American writers to earn acclaim in Europe, and Irving is said to have encouraged authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Edgar Allan Poe. Irving was also the U.S. minister to Spain 1842-1846.