WASHINGTON IRVING Choices Individualism & Integrity Unit
Sophomore English
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The Beginning of American Romanticism In the four corners of
the globe, who reads an American book? --Sydney Smith Edinburgh
Review 1820
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Just a few months before Smiths question, an American writer
named Washington Irving began publishing a series of essays and
tales called The Sketch Book. The Beginning of American
Romanticism
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First True American Writer The Sketch Book made Washington
Irving the first American writer to achieve international
fame.
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Sought to Entertain Washington Irving was the first American
writer who sought to entertain his readers.
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Washington Irving 1783-1859 born in New York City (near
present-day Wall St.) youngest of 11 children Parents were
Scottish- English immigrants.
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Biographical Information His parents greatly admired General
George Washington (hence his name). His father became a wealthy
merchant. He trained as a lawyer but practiced only briefly. He
showed literary promise early in his life.
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Home of Washington Irving, New York
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Writing Career Begins 1802-3 published a series of newspaper
articles. 1807-8 published the Salmagundi papers. 1809 published 1
st major work A History of New York. It was supposedly written by
Deidrich Knickerbocker, an old, eccentric historian.
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Writing Career A critical figure in the development of an
American literary consciousness. The first to find a literary
identity in a country without its own cultural heritage.
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Writing Career A man of his time rather than for all times,
describing and recording his world The first American professional
writer The first writer who wrote biographies and history for
entertainment.
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Writing Career He popularized the short story and improved it
with his own peculiar emphasis on setting, tone, and finish. He has
always been praised for his style, for few have achieved such a
high finish. His style is usually urbane, charming, graceful,
witty, and melodious.
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Writing Career & Life This work marked Irvings future
course. It was designed solely for entertainment. It taught no
serious moral lessons. His fiance died in 1809 never married nor
had kids. That accounts for melancholic cast over rest of his life
and work.
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Career Shifts to Europe in 1815 He sailed for England to take
charge of family business in Liverpool. When it bankrupted, he
concentrated on literary career. He traveled throughout England,
France, Spain, Germany, and Switzerland. He wrote history of
Christopher Columbus.
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Literary Career Continues 1819 - 1820 published The Sketch-Book
of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. It included Rip Van Winkle and The Legend
of Sleepy Hollow.
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Irvings Literary Pseudonyms Dietrich Knickerbocker Jonathan
Oldstyle Geoffrey Crayon
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Irving Widely Recognized By the late 1820s, Irving had gained a
reputation throughout Europe and America as a great writer and
thinker.
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Returns to America in 1832 He returned from Europe to New York.
He established his home Sunnyside in Tarrytown. For next 25 years,
he shared Sunnyside with his brother Ebenezer and Ebenezer's 5
daughters.
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Sunnyside, Home of Irving
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Facts About Sunnyside located on Hudson River in Tarrytown,
N.Y. purchased by Irving in 835 for $1,800 originally a two-room
Dutch farm house over 15 years, artist friend George Harvey helped
Irving redesign & add to the original house
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Close-Up of Sunnyside Irving outfitted his home with the most
advanced technology of the period, such as a refrigerator (ice
box), a cast iron stove, and indoor plumbing.
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More Facts About Sunnyside Sunnyside was visited by many
artists, politicians, writers, and other influential people.
Irving's home was publicized throughout the world in lithographs,
magazines, and tourists maps. Images of Sunnyside could even be
found on cigar boxes, sheet music, and ceramic pitchers.
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First Genuine American Stories Rip Van Winkle The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow contained distinctive American settings and
characters incorporated German folktales and legends
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Rip Van Winkle Irving's best-known story based on a German
folktale set in the Dutch culture of Pre-Revolutionary War in New
York State
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Rip Van Winkle Rip, the eternal boy-man never grows up to
accept adult responsibilities is a compelling character type in
American fiction Joe Jefferson as Rip Van Winkle
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Pressure It was not easy to be the first professional American
writer. There were no clear literary and cultural identities in the
new world then. Men were judged by the gun, and the axe, and women
by the lipsticks. Literature was made for the people who had time
and money, so was the profession of a writer.
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Father of American Literature Back to US in 1832, famous and
honored, began to study the new America. Recognized as Father of
American Literature, and upon his death, anyone who read English,
read him.
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Irvings Grave On November 28, 1859, on the eve of the Civil
War, Washington Irving died at Sunnyside surrounded by his
family.
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Old Dutch Church in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. He was buried in the
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery at the Old Dutch Church.
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Genius he had, the nature and the faculty of an imaginative
writer; what he needed was not power but opportunity; and at every
new chance of life he answered to the time and place and succeeded.
George E. Woodberry On Irving