Washington Irving (1783-1859) holds a unique place in American literature. A generation younger than, but still contemporary with, the inventor Eli Whitney and the painter Gilbert Stuart, he is considered to be the first American author to become a best-seller in Europe. Not only was his work well-known, but he inspired such 19th-century American greats as Nathaniel Hawthorne (author of "The Scarlet Letter"), Herman Melville ("Moby Dick"), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ("The Song of Hiawatha"), and Edgar Allan Poe (numerous poems and macabre tales).

    Irving's best-known works are stories like "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) about a man who fell asleep in the woods for over 20 years; and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820), about a "Headless Horseman" playing a prank on poor schoolteacher Ichabod Crane.

    Despite the popularity of these tales, Irving was quite a serious author. He drew on local history for these stories, and was in fact as much a historiographer and biographer as he was a storyteller. He wrote biographies of great men like George Washington (in five volumes!) and Muhammad, as well as histories of Spain. (He was in fact U.S. ambassador to Spain between 1842 and 1846.)

    Washington Irving was in the first generation of his family born in America--his parents having come from the British Isles--and the youngest of 11 children (only eight of whom survived to adulthood).

    He was born the week that his fellow-citizens learned the American colonists had defeated the British, so his mother named him after the great hero of that war, George Washington. As the president then lived in New York, where the Irvings also lived, young Washington Irving was able to meet his namesake at age six.

    His writing career began with letters to the local newspaper, written under a pseudonym. His work was good enough to catch the publisher's eye, and he was soon writing as a profession.

    He lived a long and productive life, over 20 years of it in Europe, and at age 76 died of a heart attack at his home named "Sunnyside" in New York State.

    1. person who writes about history

    2. a practical joke

    3. people who settle a new area

    4. with a dark, frightening tone or atmosphere

    5. founder of Islam

    6. a false name, as when Samuel Clemens became known as "Mark Twain"

    7. official representative of one country to another

    8. two people (or things) that share the same name

    1. historiographer 2. prank 3. colonists 4. macabre 5. Muhammad 6. pseudonym 7. ambassador 8. namesake