Washington Irving

NAME Washington Irving. He often wrote under whimsical pseudonyms, most famously Dietrich Knickerbocker, Geoffrey Crayon, and Jonathan Oldstyle. 

WHAT FAMOUS FOR Irving is widely considered the "Father of American Literature." He was the first American author to achieve international fame and prove that the young United States could produce world-class prose. He is best known for his short stories "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle." Beyond fiction, he was a diplomat, a biographer of George Washington and Christopher Columbus, and a massive influence on American folklore.

BIRTH Born April 3, 1783, in Manhattan, New York City, the same week that New York City residents learned of the Treaty of Paris which ended the American Revolutionary War.  He was the youngest of eleven children, eight of whom survived to adulthood. (1)

FAMILY BACKGROUND Irving's father, William Irving Sr., was originally from Quholm, Shapinsay, Orkney, Scotland, and had served as a petty officer in the Royal Navy before emigrating to America and becoming a successful merchant. 

His mother, Sarah (née Saunders), was originally of Falmouth, Cornwall, England. They married in 1761. 

According to holograph notes by Irving's nephew Pierre Munroe Irving, the family's lineage traced back to Clan Irvine of Drum Castle in Scotland — a heritage of which Washington Irving was proud, using the clan's holly leaf imagery as a personal emblem. 

Several of Irving's brothers became active New York merchants and regularly supported him financially as he pursued his writing career. 

CHILDHOOD Irving grew up in Manhattan as part of the city's merchant class. He was an uninterested student who preferred adventure stories and drama, and by age 14 was regularly sneaking out of class in the evenings to attend the theater. 

An outbreak of yellow fever in Manhattan in 1798 prompted his family to send him upriver, where he stayed with his friend James Kirke Paulding in Tarrytown, New York — a region whose Dutch customs and local ghost stories made a deep impression on him. 

He also made an extended visit to Johnstown, New York, passing through the Catskill Mountains, the future setting of "Rip Van Winkle." "Of all the scenery of the Hudson," Irving wrote, "the Kaatskill Mountains had the most witching effect on my boyish imagination." (1)

EDUCATION Irving was an indifferent student who never attended university. 

He studied law under Judge Josiah Ogden Hoffman in New York City, by his own admission barely passing the bar examination in 1806. 

His real education came from voracious reading, theater-going, and — crucially — an extended European grand tour from 1804 to 1806, financed by his brothers who were concerned for his health. Rather than following the conventional itinerary for a young gentleman, he used the trip to sharpen the social and conversational skills that would make him one of the most sought-after guests of his era. 

While visiting Rome in 1805, he struck up a friendship with painter Washington Allston and was almost persuaded into a career as a painter. 

CAREER RECORD 1802 Irving began his writing career with a series of observational letters to the Morning Chronicle under the name Jonathan Oldstyle.

1806 Admitted to the New York bar, though he practiced law only sporadically and with little enthusiasm.

1807-1808 Co-published Salmagundi, a satirical periodical that mocked New York society and politics.

1809 Published A History of New York by "Dietrich Knickerbocker," a massive success that turned him into a local celebrity.

1815-1832 Lived in Europe, initially to help the family business in Liverpool. After the business failed, he turned to full-time writing, publishing The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (1819-1820).

1826-1829 Served as a diplomatic attaché in Madrid, Spain, where he conducted extensive research in the Spanish archives.

1829-1832 Served as Secretary to the American Legation in London.

1842-1846 Appointed by President John Tyler as the United States Minister to Spain.

1846-1859 Retired to his home, Sunnyside, to work on his multi-volume biography of George Washington.

APPEARANCE In his youth, he was described as handsome and charming with dark hair and a slight build. (2)

Portrait of Washington Irving in 1809 at about 26 years old, by John Wesley Jarvis

A daguerreotype (modern copy by Mathew Brady, original by John Plumbe) survives and shows a refined, composed, and somewhat patrician face in old age.( 3)

George W. Curtis, who knew him well, sketched him memorably: "Irving was as quaint a figure as Diedrich Knickerbocker ... Thirty years ago he might have been seen on an autumnal afternoon, tripping with an elastic step along Broadway, with low-quartered shoes neatly tied, and a Talma cloak — a short garment that hung from his shoulders like the cape of a coat." (4) 

FASHION Irving cut a notably elegant and quaint figure. Curtis's description of him "tripping with an elastic step along Broadway" in neatly tied low-quartered shoes and a Talma cloak suggests a man with an old-fashioned but carefully maintained sense of style. (4) 

His European years, particularly his time in Paris and London society, would have reinforced his taste for the fashionable dress of the era. Irving was feted in the drawing rooms of Europe and was regarded as an anomaly — an upstart American who could hold his own in the most polished company — suggesting an appearance and manner that was impeccably turned out. 

CHARACTER Irving was celebrated for his warmth, generosity, and encouragement of younger writers. As George William Curtis noted, "there is not a young literary aspirant in the country, who, if he ever personally met Irving, did not hear from him the kindest words of sympathy, regard, and encouragement." 

He was sociable, witty, and one of the most in-demand guests of his era, yet he could also be prone to depression, writer's block, and profound self-doubt — the poor reception of Tales of a Traveller in 1824 left him "hurt and depressed," retreating to Paris to lick his wounds. 

In old age, his four years as Minister to Spain soured his natural optimism: "I begin to have painful doubts of my fellow man," he wrote, "and look back with regret to the confiding period of my literary career, when, poor as a rat, but rich in dreams, I beheld the world through the medium of my imagination." 

SPEAKING VOICE His letters and the testimony of friends paint a picture of a man who was a captivating conversationalist. It was in Europe, during his grand tour of 1804–1806, that he "honed the social and conversational skills that eventually made him one of the world's most in-demand guests." 

His friend and sometime rival Walter Scott clearly found his company delightful, and the lifelong personal and professional friendship the two men struck up in 1817 speaks to Irving's ability to charm even the most formidable literary figures of his age. 

SENSE OF HUMOUR Irving's humour was satirical, absurdist, and characteristically American. His literary magazine Salmagundi (1807) lampooned New York culture and politics in a manner compared to the 20th-century Mad magazine. 

His masterpiece of comedy, A History of New York (1809), was a sustained burlesque of self-important local history and contemporary politics — and it was composed, with magnificent irony, while Irving was digging himself out of a black depression following the death of his fiancée Matilda Hoffman. (5) 

He was also a gifted hoaxer: before publishing A History of New York, he planted a series of fake newspaper advertisements claiming that a Dutch historian named Diedrich Knickerbocker had mysteriously gone missing from his hotel — fooling some New York city officials into offering a reward for the historian's safe return. 

RELATIONSHIPS He was a lifelong bachelor — described as "a content and rural old bachelor" in his later years at Sunnyside. (6)

Irving's great love was Matilda Hoffman, the 17-year-old daughter of his legal mentor Judge Josiah Ogden Hoffman. By the autumn of 1808, it was common knowledge that they were in love; the Judge gave his consent on condition that Irving provide financial security. (5) 

Before they could marry, Matilda died of tuberculosis in the spring of 1809 at the age of 17. Irving was devastated, and the loss haunted him for the rest of his life — decades later, the mere mention of her name was said to leave him speechless. (5) 

Matilda Hoffman, portrait by Anson Dickinson

Later in life, while residing in Dresden in the winter of 1822-23, the 39-year-old Irving became attracted to Emily Foster, an 18-year-old American living there with her family, but Emily refused his offer of marriage. 

Irving also learned through the playwright John Howard Payne that novelist Mary Shelley was romantically interested in him, though he never pursued the relationship. 

MONEY AND FAME Irving's financial life was turbulent. His brothers supported him financially during his early writing years, and he struggled greatly during and after the failure of the family business in England in the late 1810s. By the time of his return to the United States in 1832, however, he was a national celebrity, greeted in New York "warmly" and celebrated as America's first literary superstar. (2) 

He negotiated with publisher George Palmer Putnam a deal guaranteeing him 12 percent of the retail price of all copies sold — an agreement described at the time as "unprecedented." 

By 1859, author Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. noted that Sunnyside had become "next to Mount Vernon, the best known and most cherished of all the dwellings in our land." 

Irving was also a significant figure in the legal protection of writers, publicly advocating for stronger copyright laws. 

FOOD AND DRINK Direct records of Irving's food and drink preferences are sparse, though his writings hint at a man who enjoyed the pleasures of the table. His witty remark during his European tour — "I endeavor to take things as they come with cheerfulness, and when I cannot get a dinner to suit my taste, I endeavor to get a taste to suit my dinner" — suggests both a philosophical attitude and a genuine enjoyment of food. 

The word "doughnut" first appeared in print in his 1809 A History of New York: "An enormous dish of balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog's fat, and called doughnuts, or olykoeks." (7) 

Irving was also an enthusiastic promoter of old-fashioned Christmas customs, including the Christmas feast, which he helped revive in America through his five Christmas stories in The Sketch Book. (8)

MUSIC AND ARTS While visiting Rome in 1805, Irving struck up a friendship with painter Washington Allston and was, by his own account, almost persuaded into a career as a painter: "My lot in life, however, was differently cast." 

He was a devoted theatregoer from childhood, regularly sneaking out of school by age 14 to attend the theater. 

Irving also championed music and culture through his editorial work, being among the first to reprint Francis Scott Key's poem "Defense of Fort McHenry" — later set as "The Star-Spangled Banner" — when he edited Analectic Magazine. 

The parlor at Sunnyside contained a rosewood piano at which Irving's nieces accompanied him while he played his flute — a detail confirmed by the New York Times description of Sunnyside's preserved interiors. (9)

A letter held in the Atlantic archive also records him playing the flute as a young man while a companion played the harpsichord. Irving also famously used the flute as a personal metaphor for his literary ambitions, writing: "I seek only to blow a flute accompaniment in the national concert, and leave others to play the fiddle and the French horn." (10)

WRITING CAREER If American literature were a dinner party in its early years, it would have consisted largely of nervous colonials trying to sound like their English cousins while hoping no one noticed the accent. Then along came Washington Irving, who not only pulled up a chair but somehow managed to get paid for doing so — which, in the early 19th century, was rather like making a living today by whistling at pigeons. He is generally credited as the first American to earn his keep entirely by writing, and more impressively, to persuade people on both sides of the Atlantic to read it voluntarily.

At a time when the United States was still regarded by Britain as a sort of cultural outbuilding — charming, no doubt, but best not inspected too closely — Irving performed the remarkable trick of making American writing seem not only respectable but positively desirable. His style was genial, unhurried, and faintly amused, as though he had discovered the world to be slightly ridiculous and was too polite to say so outright.

He began, as many great writers do, by gently mocking his neighbours. In 1802, under the alias “Jonathan Oldstyle,” he wrote letters to a New York newspaper teasing the city’s social pretensions — a pastime that has remained popular ever since, though rarely with such good manners. By 1807, he was co-creating a satirical magazine called Salmagundi, which cheerfully skewered local politics and bequeathed to New York the nickname “Gotham,” proving that even insults can have excellent branding potential.

His first major book, A History of New York (1809), published under the splendidly improbable name “Diedrich Knickerbocker,” was a comic history that treated the past with the sort of reverence usually reserved for a slightly unreliable uncle. It brought Irving national attention and, for reasons no one has ever fully explained, helped introduce the word “doughnut” into print — a contribution to civilisation that arguably outweighs many others.

Then came the book that made him unavoidable: The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (1819–1820), a title so leisurely it practically invites you to sit down before finishing it. Inside were “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” stories that have since become fixtures of American folklore, despite owing a good deal to German tales that had simply crossed the Atlantic and taken out new citizenship. In these pieces, Irving more or less perfected the short story as a form designed to entertain rather than improve you, which was a relief to readers everywhere and a cue for writers like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe to get productively gloomy. 

The front page of The Sketch Book (1819)

Having conquered England from the comfort of his writing desk, Irving did what many successful people do: he went to Spain. There, he immersed himself in archives and emerged with biographies of Christopher Columbus and evocative works about the Alhambra, where he even lived for a time — presumably enjoying the rare privilege of calling a medieval palace “home” without having to dust it. His Tales of the Alhambra (1832) remains one of those books that makes you feel you’ve travelled somewhere, without the inconvenience of luggage.

On returning to America, perhaps sensing that people were beginning to suspect him of becoming suspiciously European, he turned his attention westward, writing about prairies, frontiers, and hardy adventurers. This was partly a literary choice and partly, one suspects, a way of saying, “Look, I can do rugged as well as refined.”

In his later years, Irving continued to write industriously, producing biographies of figures as varied as Oliver Goldsmith and the Prophet Muhammad, and eventually embarking on a monumental five-volume life of George Washington — a project so ambitious it sounds faintly exhausting even now. He completed it just months before his death, which suggests a commendable determination to meet deadlines, even at the cosmic level.

Irving’s influence was considerable. Writers such as Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray admired him in Britain, while in America he helped clear a path for Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Poe. By blending the polite essay style of 18th-century Britain with the darker, more imaginative currents of German folklore, he effectively invented a literary voice that felt distinctly American — a voice capable of being humorous, eerie, and quietly self-aware all at once.

In short, Irving didn’t just write stories; he helped create the idea that America might have stories worth telling — and, perhaps more impressively, that people elsewhere might want to read them.

LITERATURE Irving is credited as the first American Man of Letters and the first American writer to earn his living solely by his pen.  He is considered to have perfected the American short story, and his two most famous tales — "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820) — are often called the first great American short stories. 

He encouraged a generation of American writers, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Herman Melville, and Edgar Allan Poe, and was admired in Britain by Lord Byron, Thomas Campbell, Charles Dickens, Mary Shelley, and Walter Scott. 

He wrote in a wide range of forms: short fiction, satire, travel writing, romantic history, and full biography, most notably his five-volume The Life of George Washington (1855–1859), completed just eight months before his death. 

NATURE The Hudson River Valley landscape had a profound influence on Irving's imagination from boyhood. "Of all the scenery of the Hudson," he wrote, "the Kaatskill Mountains had the most witching effect on my boyish imagination." The Catskill Mountains became the setting for "Rip Van Winkle," and the area around Tarrytown — including the region the Dutch settlers had called "Slapershaven" (Sleeper's Haven) — inspired "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." 

His home Sunnyside, purchased in 1835 on the banks of the Hudson River, was described as sitting on 10 acres with carefully orchestrated views that reflected Irving's own tastes, vision, and personality. (6) 

HOBBIES AND SPORTS Irving was a passionate theatregoer from boyhood, and the theater remained a lifelong interest. 

He was also an enthusiastic traveler throughout his life, journeying extensively through Europe, the American West, and the Spanish interior. (2) 

At Sunnyside, he enjoyed the pleasures of rural domesticity — socializing with his nieces, entertaining visitors, and corresponding with a vast network of literary and political friends. (6)

SCIENCE AND MATHS Irving's relationship with science was, if anything, one of mischief rather than inquiry. His 1828 biography A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus is the source of one of the most persistent scientific myths in history: the idea that medieval Europeans believed the Earth was flat, and that Columbus courageously proved otherwise. In reality, educated Europeans had known the Earth was round since antiquity; the debate at the time of Columbus was about the size of the Earth, not its shape. Irving appears to have invented the flat-Earth myth to make Columbus a more dramatic hero — and it has been taught as fact in American schools ever since. (8) 

PHILOSOPHY & THEOLOGY Irving's family were of the merchant class, and his upbringing appears to have been conventionally Protestant. 

His 1850 biography Mahomet and His Successors showed a willingness to engage with Islamic history and theology with some seriousness, though it was written in the romantic history style rather than as a work of religious scholarship. 

A minor theological controversy arose when a Catholic bishop objected to a passage in Irving's The Crayon Miscellany that appeared to misrepresent a medieval Catholic document; Irving responded promptly and offered to correct the passage in future editions. 

In old age, the cynicism bred by his years in Spanish politics left him with a briefly darkened view of humanity, though he appears to have recovered his characteristic good humor. 

POLITICS In 1789, when Irving was six years old, he was spotted by his Scottish nurse Lizzie in a shop in New York City, where President-elect George Washington was also present, shortly after his inauguration. Lizzie — recognising the connection between the boy's name and the great man — introduced young Washington Irving to his namesake. Washington placed his hand on the boy's head and gave him his blessing. The Washington Irving Society has suggested the encounter was a defining moment in Irving's life — the seed that eventually grew into his final and most ambitious work, the five-volume Life of George Washington (1855–1859), completed just eight months before his death. As the Society put it: "The Father of America met the Father of American Literature." (11)

Washington Irving's encounter with George Washington, painted in 1854 by George Bernard Butler Jr.

Irving's politics were shaped by his New York Federalist background, though he was not a strongly partisan figure. He served as a lobbyist for his brothers' hardware-importing firm in Washington, D.C., in 1811. (2) 

He served as United States Minister (Ambassador) to Spain from 1842 to 1846, appointed by President John Tyler. During his tenure in Madrid, he was required to monitor Spanish domestic politics, the fate of the 12-year-old Queen Isabella II, American trade interests in Cuba, and Anglo-American negotiations over the Oregon border — a remarkably broad diplomatic remit. (

He correctly predicted that the Senate's partisan refusal to confirm Martin Van Buren as Minister to Britain would backfire and help elevate Van Buren to the presidency. 

SCANDAL Irving's literary hoax surrounding the publication of A History of New York (1809) — in which he placed fake newspaper notices about a missing historian, "Diedrich Knickerbocker," causing genuine public concern — might be considered a minor scandal, though it was also celebrated as a comic masterstroke. 

MILITARY RECORD Irving initially opposed the War of 1812, like many New York merchants. However, the British burning of Washington in 1814 convinced him to enlist. He served on the staff of Daniel D. Tompkins, Governor of New York and commander of the New York State Militia, but saw no real action apart from a reconnaissance mission in the Great Lakes region. 

HEALTH AND PHYSICAL FITNESS Irving suffered health problems from a young age — his brothers financed his European tour of 1804–1806 specifically out of concern for his health. 

As a young man he suffered from a condition serious enough to prompt his extended recuperation. While serving as Minister to Spain in the 1840s, he was afflicted by a "crippling skin condition" that added to his general exhaustion. 

He was also prone throughout his life to episodes of depression and writer's block, particularly following the death of Matilda Hoffman in 1809 and after the critical panning of Tales of a Traveller in 1824. 

Despite all this, he lived to the age of 76 — well above average for his era — and continued socializing and corresponding actively into his final years. 

HOMES Irving was born and raised at the family home on William Street, Manhattan. 

For much of his adult life, during his 17 years in Europe (1815–1832), he lived in hotels, rented apartments, or as the guest in other people's homes — in England, Paris, Dresden, Madrid, and London.  In 1835, at the age of 52, he finally purchased his own property: a neglected cottage in Tarrytown, New York, which he named Sunnyside in 1841. (6) 

Situated on 10 acres on the east bank of the Hudson River, Sunnyside reflected a mixture of architectural styles — he later added a "Spanish Tower" in 1847, influenced by the Alhambra in Granada. 

It required constant repair and renovation, the costs of which compelled him to take on regular magazine writing. 

Sunnyside by en:User:Daderot- Wikipedia

TRAVEL Irving was one of the great literary travelers of his era. He made his first extended European trip from 1804 to 1806, touring France, Italy, and Sicily, though he preferred honing his social skills to following the conventional Grand Tour itinerary. 

From 1815 to 1832 he lived in England, France, Germany, and Spain. His Spanish years were especially productive: he worked in the archives of Madrid, stayed at the palace of the Duke of Gor, and famously lived for a period in the ancient palace of the Alhambra in Granada. 

After returning to America in 1832, he immediately set off on a frontier expedition into Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), later described in A Tour on the Prairies. 

He returned to Spain as U.S. Minister from 1842 to 1846, making his final return to America in September 1846. 

In later life, he traveled regularly to Mount Vernon and Washington, D.C., for his research on the George Washington biography. 

DEATH Irving died of a heart attack in his bedroom at Sunnyside on November 28, 1859, at the age of 76 — only eight months after completing the final volume of his biography of George Washington.  His last words were reportedly: "Well, I must arrange my pillows for another night. When will this end?" 

His funeral on December 1, 1859, was a massive national event: the crowd at Christ Episcopal Church in Tarrytown was so large that the floors were feared to be in danger of collapse, and thousands lined the streets. Flags were held at half-mast across the nation. 

Despite his immense fame, Irving chose a remarkably simple headstone with no epitaph, engraved only with his name and dates, in the family plot at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery — a name the cemetery adopted posthumously in honor of his request. 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow commemorated him in his 1876 poem "In the Churchyard at Tarrytown." 

APPEARANCES IN MEDIA Irving's stories have had a long and rich afterlife in popular culture. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" was memorably adapted by Tim Burton as the film Sleepy Hollow (1999), starring Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane. The TV series Sleepy Hollow (Fox, 2013–2017) was also inspired by the story. 

Irving's fictional creation Diedrich Knickerbocker gave his name to the New York Knickerbockers basketball team (the New York Knicks), and his nickname "Gotham" for New York was adopted by the Batman franchise. (8)

In 1940, Washington Irving became the very first author to be honored on a U.S. postage stamp, the 1-cent stamp in the "American Authors" series. 

The village of Irvington, New York, was renamed in his honor in 1872, and his home Sunnyside is now preserved as a museum. 

ACHIEVEMENTS First professional American author and the first American writer to earn international literary acclaim. 

Wrote "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820), widely called the first great American short stories. 

Coined the nickname "Gotham" for New York City (1807), the phrase "the almighty dollar" (1837), and helped create the word "knickers" via his fictional character Diedrich Knickerbocker. 

First introduced the word "doughnut" into print in A History of New York (1809). 

Helped shape the modern image of Santa Claus through his 1812 description of St. Nicholas flying over rooftops in a wagon — an important precursor to the 1823 poem "'Twas the Night Before Christmas." 

Helped revive Christmas traditions in America through his five Christmas stories in The Sketch Book, directly influencing Charles Dickens. 

Advocated for copyright protection for American authors, paving the way for stronger intellectual property laws. 

Served as United States Minister to Spain (1842–1846) and as first chairman of the Astor Library, a forerunner of the New York Public Library.

Elected to the American Philosophical Society (1829), the National Academy of Design (1841), and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1855).

Awarded a medal by the Royal Society of Literature (1830) and an honorary doctorate of civil law from Oxford University (1831). 

First author honored on a U.S. postage stamp, in 1940. 

Sources: (1) Wikipedia — Washington Irving (2) Britannica — Washington Irving (3) Excellence in Literature — Washington Irving Biography (4) Kiddle — Washington Irving (5) Women History Blog — Matilda Hoffman (6) Sleepy Hollow Country — Sunnyside (7) EBSCO Research Starters — Washington Irving (8) Interesting Literature — Nine Facts About Washington Irving (9) New York Times — The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 150 Years Later (10) American Heritage — The Sunny Master of Sunnyside (11) Washington Irving Society — Founding Fathers: George Washington and Washington Irving