DISTINGUISHED ESSAYISTS AND LITERARY CRITICS.
CHAS. DUDLEY WARNER
WASHINGTON IRVING • THOS. WENTWORTH HIGGINSON
HAMILTON W. MABIE
IK MARVEL • EDMUND C. STEDMAN
WASHINGTON IRVING.
THE FIRST AMERICAN AUTHOR OF RENOWN.
“The Cervantes of the New World.”
HE first American who openly adopted literature as a calling and successfully relied upon his pen for support was Washington Irving, and the abiding popularity of this author is the best guarantee of his permanent place in the world of letters. Since 1802, when Irving begun to write, empires have arisen and passed away; new arts have been invented and adopted, and have pushed the old out of use; the household economy of mankind has undergone a revolution; science has learned a new dialect and forgotten the old; but the words of this charming writer are still as bright and even more read by men and women to-day than when they came fresh from his pen and their brilliant author was not only the literary lion of America, but was a shining light in the circles of the old World. The pages of Irving are a striking illustration of the fact that the language of the heart never becomes obsolete, that Truth, and Good, and Beauty, the offspring of God, are not subject to the changes which beset the empire of man, and we feel sure that Washington Irving, whose works were the delight of our grandparents and parents, and are now contributing to our own happiness, will also be read with the same eager pleasure by those who come after us.
It was on the 3rd of April, 1783, when the British were in possession of New York City and George Washington was exerting his forces to drive them away, that young Irving was born. Like Benjamin Franklin, he was the youngest of many sons. His father was a Scotchman and his mother an Englishwoman, who emigrated to America soon after their marriage and settled in New York about the year 1770. The Irvings were staunch patriots and did what they could to relieve the sufferings of American prisoners while the British held the city, and their son was not christened until the English evacuated the town and George Washington came in and took possession. In her exultation over this event Mrs. Irving exclaimed: “Washington’s work is ended and this child shall be named after him.” Six years later, in 1789, George Washington took the oath of office as the first President of the United States, in New York, which was then the capital of the country. Shortly after this the Scotch servant girl with little Irving in charge, seeing the President on the street called out: “Please, your honor, here’s a bairn was named after you.” Washington bade her bring the boy to him, and placing his hands on his head gave him his blessing.
As a boy Irving was playful rather than studious. His delicate health prevented his entering college, and the educational training which he received was at sundry small schools, and this ceased at the age of sixteen, at which time he began to study law. Irving’s opportunity came in 1802, when his brother, Dr. Peter Irving, established a daily paper, to which Washington, then only nineteen, contributed a series of essays under the signature of “Jonathan Oldstyle.” They were written in a humorous vein and met an instant success, being quoted and copied as far and wide as the sayings of Benjamin Franklin’s “Poor Richard” had been fifty years before.