Washington Irving (April 3, 1783–November 28, 1859) was 
an American author of the early 19th century.

He was born in New York City.

A lawyer, he served as American ambassador to Britain and later to 
Spain. He spoke Spanish. He was a prolific essayist who wrote widely 
respected biographies of George Washington and Muhammad as well 
as other historical figures. He also wrote books on 15th Century 
Spain dealing with subjects such as Columbus, the Moors, and the 
Alhambra.

He is said to have simply invented the idea that everyone before 
Columbus thought the earth was flat.

Irving traveled on the Western frontier in the 1830s and recorded 
his glimpses of western tribes in A Tour on the Prairies (1835) 
and was one of the few 19th Century figures to speak out against 
the mishandling of relations with the Native American tribes by 
Europeans:

    It has been the lot of the unfortunate aborigines of America, 
    in the early periods of colonization, to be doubly wronged by 
    the white men. They have been dispossessed of their hereditary 
    possessions by mercenary and frequently wanton warfare, and 
    their characters have been traduced by bigoted and interested 
    writers.

Washington Irving was the first "literary lion" in the United States. 
He is said to have mentored authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, 
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Edgar Allan Poe.

His first book was A History of New-York from the Beginning of the 
World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, by Dietrich Knickerbocker 
(1809), a sly satire on self-important local history that brought 
"Knickerbocker" into the American lexicon, and then wider English 
usage.


In 1819-1820 he published The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, which 
included his best known stories, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" 
and "Rip van Winkle".

Rip Van Winkle is a man who sleeps for twenty years and wakes in 
a world he cannot recognize. The name "Rip van Winkle" has gone 
into the language to describe people who awake and cannot recognize 
their surroundings. The story was written overnight, while staying 
with his sister, her husband, Henry van Wart, and their two sons 
and two daughters, one of whom was his godchild, in Birmingham, 
England - a place which also inspired some of his other works. 
Bracebridge Hall or The Humorists, A Medley is based on Aston 
Hall, there.

One of the van Wart's children would later name his first-born 
Washington Irving Van Wart (b. 1836), whose niece in turn was 
called Rosalinda Irving Van Wart (b. 1874).

It is believed that the city of Irving, Texas was named after 
him, as are Washington Street and Irving Street in Birmingham. 
His book Bracebridge Hall was the inspiration for the naming 
of the town of Bracebridge, Ontario.

He lived in his famous home of Sunnyside, which is still standing 
just south of the Tappan Zee Bridge. The property and the 
original house called "Wolfert's Roost" were originally owned 
by Wolfert Acker, about which he wrote the short story Wolfert's 
Roost.

Biography

    * The Life of Washington Irving, by Stanley T. Williams, 
    1935.