ABSTRACT
Washington Irving was born on April 3, 1783, in New York City. After his wife sudden death in April 1807, he abandoned thoughts of matrimony and devoted his full energy and financial resources to travel and writing. Irving's first literary effort was a series of essays published in his brother Peter's short-lived newspaper, the Morning Chronicle, under the pen name "Jonathan Oldstyle, Gent". Irving achieved national acclaim with his first book, Diedrich Knickerbocker's History of New York, which he originally planned as a parody of Samuel Mitchell's overblown travel guide The Picture of New York, America's first professional man of letters and international literary celebrity Washington Irving is best remembered for two immortal short stories Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, both of which appeared in his 1819 collection The Sketch Book. During his last years, Irving wrote mostly biographies, producing Oliver Goldsmith, Mahomet and His Successors, and the five-volume George Washington.
