Washingtom Irving Case
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Washington Irving was born on April 3, 1783 in Tarrytown New York City to William and Sarah Irving. Washington is known as “The Father of American Literature” (Terry 1206). Some of Washingtons most famous novels are: Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. “Washington had developed a huge part of Literature” (Edward). After school he had become a lawyer (Terry 1206).
“Washington Irving was an American original. His life story is the kind in which America was built and thrives: a likeable, average man does something no one has ever done before and becomes very, very famous. So famous that the women swoon over him and adoring fans hang his picture on their walls. Newspapers track his every move. Politicians want to be associated with him. Its a story you might think youve read and heard countless times before, but this one is different-because its the first”.
While Washington was in school he was an indifferent student and had often day dreamed. He had showed a strong interest in English, literature, and the fine arts but he was uninterested in sciences and math. “His favorite writers were Joseph Addison, Oliver Goldsmith, Samuel Johnson, Miguel de Cervantes, Henry Fielding, and Fancois Rabelais. “Irving and his relatives published the Salmagundi papers from 1807 to 1808” (Terry 1206). “The sensational success of Old Sal made Irving realize that he could make a living as a writer” (Terry 1206). In 1809 Washington had published his first story, A History of New York, From the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty. Washington was the first American to earn a living by his pen and was the first bona fide best-selling author. Washington did not have any family wealth help him he wrote for joy, but he needed it for an income. Although the public saw him as a rich single man, his private life would have been considered a disaster financially. Because of family members who had lost his hard earned money on poor investments and schemes.
The book “Rip Van Winkle” is one of Washingtons most popular books and is known widely around America. “Rip Van Winkle is an American masterpiece of short story” (Terry 1209). In the story Rip Van Winkle a villager walks into the woods and falls asleep for 20 straight years and when he is awoken he comes to notice that his world that he was familiar with had changed “Irving reportedly wrote in one night in England, in June, 1818, after having spent the whole day talking with relatives about the happy times spent in Sleepy Hollow” (Terry 1209). “The author drew on his memories and experiences of the Hudson River Valley and blended them with Old World contributions” (Terry 1209).
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow represents Irvings second comic masterpiece, a ghostly tale about things that go bump in the night” (Terry 1210). In the story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow a horseman had lost his head in battle and roams the country side every night in search of his beloved head. “Irving had put much detail in both nature and in characteristics” (Terry 1210). “He then introduces Ichabod who is a poor Connecticut Yankee who is very interested in marrying the wealthy, lovely, and flirtatious Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter of the richest man in the area”(Terry 1210). Ichabod is trying to win Katrina over to acquire her