In 1804 Irving’s failing health compelled him to abandon his legal studies and he went abroad, spending two years in European travel, and gathering a stock of material for his future writings. In 1806 he returned to New York, took up again the study of law and was admitted to the bar, but never practised the profession. The next year, with his brother and James K. Paulding, he started the “Salmagundi; or, Whim-Whams and Opinions of [♦]Launcelot Langstaff, Esq.,” which was published fortnightly and ran through twenty numbers. This humorous magazine, intended by its authors only to “hit off” the gossip of that day, has now become an amusing history of society events a century ago, and is still widely read. The next two years were occupied in writing his “Knickerbocker’s History of New York,” which was published in December, 1809. This was to have been the joint work of Washington Irving and his brother, Peter, but the latter was called away to Europe, and Washington did it alone. To introduce this book, Irving, with genuine Yankee shrewdness, advertised in the newspapers some months in advance of its publication for an old gentleman by the name of Knickerbocker, who had suddenly disappeared, leaving behind him the manuscript of a book and his board bill unpaid. It was finally announced that his landlord had decided to publish the book in the hope of realizing enough profit to satisfy his claim for board against the author. It proved to be the most readable book which had yet appeared in America and was received with enthusiasm by the public. Abroad it created almost as great a sensation. Sir Walter Scott read it aloud to his family, and it first revealed to the critics of the Old World that America was to have a literature of its own. This book quickly brought its author both reputation and money, and with bright hopes he entered the business firm of his brother as a silent partner.
[♦] ‘Lancelot’ replaced with ‘Launcelot’
During the War of 1812 Irving was editorially connected with the “Analectic Magazine” in Philadelphia, for which he wrote a number of articles. He was stanchly patriotic throughout the war, though he deplored its existence. In 1815, after peace was proclaimed, he made a second voyage across the Atlantic, intending to remain only a short while, but the failure of his brother’s firm blasted his business hopes and necessitated his return to literature. He, therefore, remained abroad for seventeen years, and it was in the Old Country that he wrote his famous “Sketch Book,” published in parts in New York in 1819, and in book form in London in 1820, the author receiving for the copyright four hundred pounds (nearly $2,000). In 1822 he published “Bracebridge Hall, or, The Humorist;” and in 1824 the “Tales of the Traveler.” From 1826 to 1829 Irving spent much time in Spain, where he gathered material for the “Life of Christopher Columbus” (1828); “Chronicles of the Conquest of Granada,” and “The Alhambra, or, The New Sketch Book,” which appeared in 1832.
SUNNYSIDE, THE HOME OF WASHINGTON IRVING.
During the last two years of Irving’s stay abroad he was Secretary of the United States Legation at London, and on his return to America in 1832 was received with great public honor. His books now brought him an adequate income, and he built for himself a handsome villa at Irvington, New York—which he named “Sunnyside”—where he continued to reside until his death, with the exception of four years (1842–46), during which time he represented the United States at the Court of Madrid. While residing at Sunnyside he wrote the “Tours of the Prairies” (1835); “Astoria” (1836); “Adventures of Captain Bonneville” (1837). After his return from the Court of Spain he edited a new edition of his complete works, issued in 1850. He also published in 1849 and 1850 “Oliver Goldsmith: a Biography,” and “Mahomet and His Successors.” From 1850 to 1859 he published only two books, namely, “[♦]Wolfert’s Roost and Other Papers” and the “Life of George Washington;” the latter issued just before his death, which occurred at Sunnyside, November 28, 1859. His nephew, P. H. Irving, afterwards prepared the “Life and Letters of Washington Irving” (1863), and also edited and published his “Spanish Papers and Other Miscellanies” (1866.)
[♦] “Wolfret’s” replaced with “Wolfert’s”
That Irving never married may be attributed to the fact that his fiancé, Miss Matilda Hoffman, a charming and beautiful girl, to whom he was devotedly attached, died suddenly soon after they were engaged. Irving, then twenty-six, bore the blow like a man, but he carried the scar through life.
The fame of Irving becomes the more resplendent when we remember that he was the first great pioneer in American letters. Franklin was the only man of any note who had preceded him, and his writings were confined to a much smaller scope. It was while Bryon and Scott were leaders of English letters that Irving, without the advantage of a college education, went to England and met and associated with the greatest of English authors, issued several of his books and made good his own title to an honorable position in literature among them, not only leaving his impress upon English society but he created an illustrious following among her authors that any man should be proud of; for it is from Irving’s “Sketch Book” that the revival of Christmas feasts was inaugurated, which Dickens afterwards took up and pursued to further lengths, making Irving his model in more ways than is generally supposed. Sir Walter Scott and Thackeray were his friends and admirers. The latter calls Irving the “first ambassador whom the new world of letters sent to the old.” At home Irving’s influence was even greater. His tales like “Rip Van Winkle” and its fellows became the first fruits of an abundant harvest, rich in local flavor, which later American story-tellers like Hawthorne, Poe, Bret Harte and Cable, all in their own way, following in his footsteps, have gathered after him.
The genius of Irving was not of that stalwart, rugged character which conquered by admiration. It rather won its way softly and by the aid of genial sentiment, human sympathy and pungent humor. His heart was quick to catch the sentiment, and his imagination as quick to follow the thread of an incident to its most charming conclusion. He it was who peopled the green nooks of “Sleepy Hollow” and the rocky crags of the Catskills, describing landscape and character with a charm which no later American writer has surpassed; and it was his delicate subtlety and keen insight which called into being in his “Knickerbocker’s History” a civilization, giving to the legend the substance of truth, and presenting a fiction so that it passed for a fact. This is a feat which very few authors have accomplished.