WASHINGTON IRVING (1783-1859)

Washington Irving was as much a writer of the Age of Reason as of Romanticism. He never surrendered his cheerful criticism, and his romance is at the same time a satirical pamphlet. Irving was the first great prose stylist. He introduced Romanticism as a literary trend in America pointing out the way for Cooper and later Longfellow.
LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING
Washington Irving was born in the city of New York. His father was a prosperous merchant, who had come to America from Scotland. Washington, the youngest of eleven children, being sickly in childhood, was not sent to school. His English-born mother had him educated at home. He was well read in Chaucer and Spenser, and the 18th century English literature. His favourite author was Oliver Goldsmith. So, amid New-World surroundings he developed a natural talent for writing in Old-World ways.
Washington was fond of wandering around the country-side. On the outskirts of his native city he made himself familiar with places famous in history and legends. He knew every spot where a robbery had been committed or ghosts were supposed to have been seen. When he grew older, he longed to travel. Tales of voyages became his passion, and he would spend hours at the port watching departing ships with longing eyes.
At fifteen he tried his hand at writing. Some little satires on New York life were even printed in his brother's magazine. Writing became his hobby, but his father wanted him to be a lawyer, and at seventeen he was set to studying law. In 1804, a journey to Europe undertaken for the sake of his health, stimulated his interest in foreign culture. In England he loved to wander among ruined castles and old abbeys. In London, at the library of the British Museum, he turned over worm-eaten volumes, reading whatever pleased him. In Paris he studied science at the university. Later he also visited Sweden, Holland and Italy.