Washington Irving

Washington Irving, who lived from 1783 to 1859, was an American writer, essayist, biographer, historian and diplomat of the early nineteenth century. He is best remembered for the short stories Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, both gathered in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., which was serialized between 1819 and 1820 while he was living in England for the family business. His historical and biographical works include lives of Oliver Goldsmith, of the prophet Muhammad and of George Washington, along with histories of fifteenth-century Spain that treat the Alhambra, Christopher Columbus and the Reconquista. Born into a Manhattan merchant family, he made his debut in 1802 under the pseudonym Jonathan Oldstyle, served as American ambassador to Spain in the 1840s and was among the first American writers to win acclaim in Europe, encouraging Longfellow and Poe.