Washington Irving
- Pages
- about 219
- Category
- History
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 4 h at 250 wpm
From the opening
WASHINGTON IRVING, the first biography published in the American Men
of Letters Series, came out in December, 1881. It was an expansion of a
biographical and critical sketch prefixed to the first volume of a new
edition of Irving's works which began to appear in 1880. It was entitled
the Geoffrey Crayon edition, and was in twenty-seven volumes, which
were brought out, in most cases, in successive months. The first volume
appeared in April. The essay was subsequently published during the same
year in a volume entitled “Studies of Irving,” which contained also
Bryant's oration and George P. Putnam's personal reminiscences.
“The Work of Washington Irving” was published early in August, 1893.
Originally it was delivered as a lecture to the Brooklyn Institute
of Arts and Sciences on April 3, 1893, the one hundred and tenth
anniversary of Irving's birth.
It is over twenty years since the death of Washington Irving removed
that personal presence which is always a powerful, and sometimes the
sole, stimulus to the sale of an author's books, and which strongly
affects the contemporary judgment of their merits. It is nearly a
century since his birth, which was almost coeval with that of the
Republic, for it took place the year the British troops evacuated
the city of New York, and only a few months before General Washington
marched in at the head of the Continental army and took possession
of the metropolis. For fifty years Irving charmed and instructed the
American people, and was the author who held, on the whole, the
first place in their affections. As he was the first to lift American
literature into the popular respect of Europe, so for a long time he was
the chief representative of the American name in the world of letters.
During this period probably no citizen of the Republic, except the
Father of his Country, had so wide a reputation as his namesake,
Washington Irving.
A short sample. Read the whole book
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