Childhood/Adolescence:

    Washington Irving was born in New York City, April 3, 1783, the youngest of 11 children. His father was a wealthy merchant, and his mother, an English woman, was the granddaughter of a clergyman. According to a story, George Washington met Irving, named after him, and gave his blessing. In the years to come Irving would write one of his greatest works, THE LIFE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON (1855-59).

    Irving enjoyed visiting different places and a large part of his life was spent  in Europe, particularly England, France, Germany, and Spain.  He often wrote about the places he visited. For example, Bracebridge Hall (1822) is a view of life in England, and The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (1828), is about the Italian explorer who sailed under the Spanish flag. However, in spite of his foreign travels, Irving's imagination frequently drew upon his childhood memories of New York State.  These memories are reflected in letters that he wrote to family and friends from Europe, as well as in the stories from his most famous work, The Sketch-Book. Published in 1819 under another pen name, "Geoffrey Crayon, Gent," The Sketch-Book includes the short stories The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and  Rip Van Winkle.  The fictional Sleepy Hollow is actually the lower Hudson Valley area near Tarry town, N.Y., and Rip Van Winkle sleeps through the entire Revolutionary War in the Catskill mountains of  upstate New York.

    Early Adulthood:

    Irving's training was desultory, and his schooling ended at sixteen. This cutting short of the school-days was due to the state of his health in these early years, which forbade confinement or close association with books. Yet he read, and read intelligently, becoming familiar with the best, especially books of travel, voyages, and adventure. In his rambles about the city -- for he lived much out of doors -- he often turned toward the docks, dreamily wandering among the piers and along the waterside with mind apparently stirred by the sight of the shipping and the romantic suggestions of foreign lands. Up the Hudson, also, he wandered -- into the Highlands and over all the country-side, until the suburbs of Manhattan and the picturesque region of the Catskills were familiar ground.

    He studied law privately but practiced only briefly. From 1804 to 1806 he traveled widely in Europe. After returning to the United States, Irving was admitted to the New York bar in 1806. He was a partner with his brothers in the family hardware business and representative of the business in England until it collapsed in 1818. During the war of 1812 Irving was a military aide to New York Governor Tompkins in the U.S. Army.

    Early in his life Irving developed a passion for books. He read Robinson Crusoe, Sinbad the Sailor, and The World Displayed (stories about voyages and travels). He studied law privately in the offices of Henry Masterton (1798), Brockholst Livingston (1801), and John Ogde Hoffman (1802), but practiced only briefly. From 1804 to 1806 he traveled widely Europe. He visited Marseilles, Genoa, Sicily, where he saw the famous English naval officer, Nelson, and met Washington Allston, the painter, in Rome.

    Feeling a desire to be among fellow Americans and his family, in 1832 Irving returned from Europe to New York where he established his home Sunnyside in Tarry town.  Irving never married or had children.  Rather, for the next twenty-five years he shared Sunnyside with his brother Ebenezer and Ebenezer five daughters. During this period, when Irving traveled or was sent on a diplomatic mission, he always had a home and family to which to return.   

    Trained as a lawyer, Irving was active in the field of diplomacy.  In 1842, American President Tyler appointed him Minister to Spain - a position we would now call ambassador. This meant he traveled throughout Europe as a diplomatic representative of the United States.

   Irving had many interests including writing, architecture and landscape design, traveling, and diplomacy. He is best known, however, as the first American to make a living solely from writing. Initially, he wrote under pen names;  one was "Diedrich   Knickerbocker." In 1809, using this pen name, Irving wrote A History of New York that describes and pokes fun at the lives of the early Dutch settlers of  Manhattan. Eventually, this pen name came to mean a person from New York, and is where the basketball team The New York Knickerbockers (Knicks) got its name.

Adulthood:

    He then set about writing in earnest. The first book he did after this was ‘The Sketch Book'. Sir Walter Scott helped him sell the book to an English publisher, and Irving received $2,000 for it. Irving remained abroad for many years, traveling, writing, and in the diplomatic service of his country. While minister to Spain in 1842 he became interested in Spanish history. His studies there furnished his lively imagination with plenty of material for ‘The Alhambra' and other works. The last 13 years of his life he spent at his home near Tarry town on the Hudson, a region his pen made famous. He is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, near the road where Ichabod Crane fled from the headless horseman.

    ‘The Sketch Book' is the most widely known of Irving's works. It contains ‘Rip van Winkle' and ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'. In these he used the legends the descendants of the old Dutch settlers had told him the mysterious tale of the return of Hendrick Hudson and his men and the ghost story of the headless horseman. Other charming sketches by Irving are the essays on Westminster Abbey and the Shakespeare country.

 ‘Sketch Book' (1819)

 ‘Bracebridge Hall' (1822)

 ‘Tales of a Traveler' (1824)

 ‘The Alhambra' (1832)

‘Wolfert's Roost' (1855) 

Histories and biographies:
‘The Life and Voyages of Columbus' (1828)

 ‘The Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada' (1829)

 ‘The Life of Mahomet' (1849)

 ‘The Life of Goldsmith' (1849)