Washington Irving

Washington Irving laid the foundations for American Literature. He often referred to as: 

"The father of American literature"









1783-1859
Washington Irving

Pen Name:
Diedrich Knickerbocker
Jonathan Oldstyle
Geoffrey Crayon

Some of Irving's important contributions include:

• The Sketch Book~ 1819

• Salmagundi~ 1808

• Dietrich Knickerbocker's History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty ~1809

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Writing Style

Washington Irving wrote with a humor and wit that you do not see in authors before him. Irving was going down a path that few people had traveled. He wrote using the emotions associated with every day life. He once said "Some minds corrode and grow inactive under the loss of personal liberty; others grow morbid and irritable; but it is the nature of the poet to become tender and imaginative in the loneliness of confinement. He banquets upon the honey of his own thoughts, and, like the captive bird, pours forth his soul in melody" (The Sketch Book) Irving invented a new style of writing that was unique and distinct from all of his predecessors. In a sense he commenced the American style of writing.

Washington Irving was a person who could write very eloquently, and in a way that was  aesthetically pleasing. He also mastered the arts of sarcasm and humor.

“There is certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse! As I have often found in traveling in a stagecoach, that it is often a comfort to shift one's position, and be bruised in a new place”

Irving's wisdom was infused with humor making it more receptive to the general public.

 

 

His Writings

Washington Irving is most commonly known for his collection entitled The Sketch Book, which is a compilation of thirty-four essays which include Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. These provide a depiction of the early life in American. They are also examples of Irving's pioneering of the American Short Story. He was a clever man and often wrote about the issues at hand. In the stories of Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Washington Irving writes with the power of his personality and a mastery of the English language that was unique to his writings.
 
The story of Rip Van Winkle talks about the change in America, during the twenty year period that Rip Van Winkle sleeps. When Rip wakes he finds that along with the people that died, America has left the control of England and become an independent country.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was a different piece than what was normal at the time. The story was written about one man trying to get into better circumstances. Even though, Mr. Crane never succeeds before the headless horseman comes and gets him, the story is an example of people trying to change their social classes that they were born into. That is most definitely not an idea that came From Europe.






The examples of Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow provide us with a glimpse of the American life and culture caught and distilled into two novellas that draw you into themselves, and make you feel as though you are attached to these characters and living their story in your own. These stories are like time capsules that instead of preserving the items of an age in history they preserve the emotions, culture, and the tribulations. The stories that Washington Irving wrote nearly two centuries ago are still popular today because they appeal to the same desires and anxieties of the human heart and even though many thing change through the years are humanity and emotions stay constant.