Washington Irving.—Washington Irving (1783–1859), the first essayist of importance in the National Period of American Literature, was born in New York City. Unable on account of ill-health to continue his education, Irving went abroad in 1804. Returning two years later, he was admitted to the bar, but he never engaged in the actual practice of law. In 1815 Irving again went to Europe, this time upon matters connected with the cutlery business in which, as silent partner, he was engaged with his brothers. It was seventeen years before he again set foot upon his native soil, but when he did come back, he was widely known, both for his writings and for his diplomatic service as member of the American legations, first at Madrid (1826–1829) and later at London (1829–1831). During the next decade, Irving was in this country, living quietly at Sunnyside, as he called his home at Tarrytown-on-the-Hudson. In 1842, accepting an appointment as Minister to Spain, he went to Europe for a third time and remained abroad four years. Upon his return home, he gave himself up entirely to writing, finishing his monumental work upon Washington but a short time before his death. He is buried in the Tarrytown Sleepy-Hollow Cemetery—within sight of the road down which one of his characters, Ichabod Crane, made his precipitous flight in mad endeavour to escape the headless horseman.
Irving’s first book, “A History of New York,” published as from the pen of “Diedrich Knickerbocker,” appeared in 1809. It attracted immediate attention and established its author’s reputation as a humourist; but unfortunately its fun at the expense of the ancestors of certain American families roused not a little rancour. Irving’s next work, “The Sketch Book,” was published, first in parts in 1819, and then in two volumes in the following year. This book and “Bracebridge Hall, or The Humourists” (1822), “Tales of a Traveller” (1824), “The Alhambra” (1832), and “Wolfert’s Roost” (1855), are all miscellaneous collections of sketches, short stories, and character studies, of which one volume is not inferior to another. The first of them received cordial recognition from Scott, who arranged for its publication in London; and the last had a wide circulation both in America and in England.
During Irving’s first visit to Spain, he became interested in certain biographical and historical material there easily accessible, and put it to use when he was writing “The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus” (1828), “The Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada” (1829), “The Voyages of the Companions of Columbus” (1831), “The Alhambra,” already mentioned, and “The Life of Mahomet” (1849). Upon Irving’s return to America his interest in the same kind of material continued, and led him to publish “The Life of Goldsmith” (1849), and “The Life of Washington” in six volumes (1855–1859). Irving’s other works are “A Tour on the Prairies” (1835), “Astoria” (1836), and “The Adventures of Captain Bonneville” (1837).
Irving was the first American writer to gain literary reputation abroad; nor was the interest which he awakened there merely that of curiosity wondering what would come out of a wilderness. It may be that the great bulk of his work is not widely read at present, but such stories as “Rip Van Winkle,” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” such sketches as “The Stout Gentleman” and “Moonlight on the Alhambra” are perennial. Irving was hardly skilful in his use of pathos, degenerating not infrequently into the sentimental and even into the maudlin; yet the buoyancy of his fascinating and delicate humour has seldom been matched by any other American writer. His graceful, almost faultless style is akin to that of the writers of The Spectator, although it savours now and then of Goldsmith, and has, according to Scott, a dash of Swift. Perhaps Lowell best summed up the matter of Irving and his style in “A Fable for Critics”:
“To a true poet-heart add the fun of Dick Steele,
Throw in all of Addison, minus the chill,
* * * * *
Sweeten just to your own private liking, then strain,
That only the finest and clearest remain,
* * * * *
And you’ll find a choice nature, not wholly deserving
A name either English or Yankee,—just Irving.”
Bryant and Others.—William Cullen Bryant (1794–1878) is generally thought of as a poet, but his prose was not inconsiderable either in amount or in value. During his long connection with the New York Evening Post, from 1826 until the end of his life, he wrote daily editorials of high literary quality, contributed to many other journals, and delivered frequent orations upon various subjects. A collection of Bryant’s prose works in two volumes was published in 1894: one who reads them is convinced that their author was possessed of a clear, smooth style, an accurate, careful judgment, and good common sense. Whittier (1807–1892) and Longfellow (1807–1882) may not improperly be mentioned here, although, like Bryant, they also are best known as poets. Whittier was closely associated with William Lloyd Garrison in the Abolition movement and contributed much to its literature. Controversial writing, however, seldom lives, and Whittier’s has not proved an exception to the rule. In addition to one or two attempts at novel-writing, Whittier published “Supernaturalism in New England” (1847), “Old Portraits and Modern Sketches” (1850), and “Literary Recreations” (1854); but these works are not important in style or in matter. The demands of metre and rhyme upon Whittier seem to have prevented the appearance, in his poetry, of certain crudities which sadly mar his prose. Longfellow’s prose, on the other hand, is more important. It is marked by a delicacy and refinement which would go far towards keeping it well known, if the author’s greater fame as a poet did not eclipse his renown as a prose writer. In addition to two romances, he published “Outre Mer” (1825), a volume in aim and content somewhat like Irving’s “Sketch Book”; and under the title of “Drift Wood” he included in the first edition of his “Complete Prose Works” (1857) a collection of stray essays and book reviews originally contributed to various periodicals.