Happy Birthday, Washington Irving

Born April 3, 1783, New York, NY | Died November 28, 1859, Tarrytown, NY

Today, the Best American Essays newsletter celebrates author Washington Irving on the 166th anniversary of his birth. Irving, most famous for tales such as “Rip Van Winkle” (1819) and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1820), made a lasting impact on the American literary scene. His biographical, historical, and satirical writings were some of the first works to be set firmly within the United States. He is remembered as one of the first professional American writers, able to make a living by writing alone.

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Portrait of Washington Irving by John Wesley Jarvis, 1809.

“Others may write from the head, but he writes from the heart, and the heart will always understand him.”

Washington Irving and his Literary Friends at Sunnyside, Christian Schussele, 1864. From left to right: Henry T. Tuckerman (1813-1871), Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894), William Gilmore Simms (1806-1870), Fitz-Greene Halleck (1790-1867), Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806-1867), William H. Prescott (1796-1859), Washington Irving, James Kirke Paulding (1778-1860), Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878), John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870), James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851), and George Bancroft (1800-1891).

“The scholar only knows how dear these silent, yet eloquent, companions of pure thoughts and innocent hours become in the season of adversity. When all that is worldly turns to dross around us, these only retain their steady value.”

Salmagundi was a satirical periodical published between 1807-1808 by Irving, his older brother William Irving, and James Kirke Paulding. A History of New York, written under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker, was Irving’s first full length satirical work. The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., (1819-1820) was Irving’s first use of his recurring pseudonym Geoffrey Crayon, and contained his famous stories “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”.

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First published essay:

• “Letters of Jonathan Oldstyle, Gent.,” Morning Chronicle, 1802.

Select nonfiction bibliography:

• Washington Irving: Three Western Narratives, edited by James P. Ronda (Library of America, 2004).

• Washington Irving: Bracebridge Hall, Tales of a Traveller, The Alhambra, edited by Andrew Myers (Library of America, 1991).

• Washington Irving: History, Tales & Sketches, edited by James Tuttleton (Library of America, 1983).

See also:

Visit the online New York Public Library Archives and Manuscripts to view pages of Irving’s journals.

Visit the Washington Irving Society.

Listen to the podcast episode “Washington Irving, The Man” by The Ordinary, Extraordinary Cemetery, 2022.

Read “Washington Irving Was the Original City Slicker. Here's What Happened When He Went West” by Danny Heitman, Humanities, 2014.

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