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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: INV-JED |
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IRVING, WASHINGTON (1783-18J9) , American man of letters, was born at New York
Paulding
York
burlesque a pretentious disquisition on the history of the city in a guide-book by Dr Samuel Mitchell. The idea expanded as Irving proceeded, and lie ended by not merely satirizing the pedantry of local antiquaries, but by creating a distinct literary type out of the solid Dutch burgher whose phlegm had long been an object of ridicule to the mercurial Americans. Though far from the most finished of Irving's productions, " Knickerbocker "manifests the most original power, and is the most genuinely national in its quaintness and drollery. The very tardiness and prolixity of the story are skilfully made to heighten the humorous effect.Upon the death of his father, Irving had become a sleeping partner in his brother's commercial house, a branch of which was established at Liverpool. This, combined with the restoration of peace, induced him to visit England in 1815, when he found the stability of the firm seriously compromised. After some years of ineffectual struggle it became bankrupt. This misfortune compelled Irving to resume his pen as a means of subsistence. His reputation had preceded him to England, and the curiosity naturally excited by the then unwonted apparition of a successful American author procured him admission into the highest literary circles, where his popularity was ensured by his amiable temper and polished manners. As an American, moreover, he stood aloof from the political and literary disputes which then divided England. Campbell, Jeffrey, Moore, Scott, were counted among his friends, and the last-named zealously recommended him to the publisher Murray, who, after at first refusing, consented (182o) to bring out The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (7 pts., New York, 1819182o). The most interesting part of this work is the description of an English Christmas, which displays a delicate humour not unworthy of the writer's evident model Addison
Hall
Returning to the United States.in 1832, after seventeen years' absence, he found his name a household word, and himself universally honoured as the first American who had won for his country recognition on equal terms in the literary republic. After the rush of fetes and public compliments had subsided; he undertook a tour in the western prairies, and returning to the neighbourhood of New York built for himself a delightful retreat on the Hudson, to which he gave the name of " Sunnyside." His acquaintance with the New York millionaire John Jacob Astor prompted his next important workAstoria (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1836), a history of the fur-trading settlement founded by Astor in Oregon, deduced with singular literary ability from dry commercial records, and, without laboured attempts at word-painting, evincing a remarkable faculty for bringing scenes and incidents vividly before the eye. The Adventures of Captain Bonneville (London and Philadelphia, 1837), based upon the unpublished memoirs of a veteran explorer, was another work of the same class. In 1842 Irving was appointed ambassador to Spain. He spent four years in the country, without this time turning his residence to literary account; and it was not until two years after his return that Forster's life of Goldsmith, by reminding him of a slight essay of hi'7 own which he now thought too imperfect by comparison to be included among his collected writings, stimulated him to the production of his Life of Oliver Goldsmith, with Selections from his Writings (2 vols., New York, 1849). Without pretensions to original research, the book displays an admirable talent for employing existing material to the best effect. The same may be said of The Lives of Mahomet and his Successors (New York, 2 vols., 1849-185o). Here as elsewhere Irving correctly discriminated the biographer's province from the historian's, and leaving the philosophical investigation of cause and effect to writers of Gibbon's calibre, applied himself to represent the picturesque features of the age as embodied in the actions and utterances of its most characteristic representatives. His last days were devoted to his Life of George Washington (5 vols., 1855-185Q, New York and London), undertaken in an enthusiastic spirit, but which the author found exhausting and his readers tame. His genius required a more poetical theme, and indeed the biographer of Washington must be at least a potential soldier and statesman. Irving just lived to complete this work, dying of heart disease at Sunnyside, on the 28th of November 18J9. Although one of the chief
The principal edition of Irving's works is the "Geoffrey Crayon," published at New York in 188o in 26 vols. His Life and Letters was published by his nephew Pierre M. Irving (London. 1862--1864, 4 vols. ; German abridgment by Adolf Latin, Berlin, 187o, 2 vols.) There is a good deal of miscellaneous information in a compilation entitled Irvingiana (New York, 186o); and W. C. Bryant's memorial oration, though somewhat too uniformly laudatory, may be consulted with advantage. It was republished in Studies of Irving (188o) along with C. Dudley Warner's introduction to the " Geoffrey Crayon " edition, and Mr G. P. Putnam's personal reminiscences of Irving, which originally appeared in the :atlantic Monthly. See also Washington Irving (1881), by C. D. Warner, in the " American Men of Letters " series; H. R. Haweis, American Humourists (London, 1883). (R. G.)farms here. Irvington was settled near the close of the 17th century, and was called Camptown until 1852, when the present name was adopted in honour of Washington Irving. It was incorporated as a village
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