1. Washington Irving

2. Washington Irving was an American writer. He was born in 1783 and died in 1859. He was from New York and his parents were British. His mother named him after George Washington.

3. Irving’s first works were published anonymously, in a newspaper called “Morning Chronicle,” when he was 19 years old. Afterward, in 1815, he moved to England to help with his family’s business.

4. While he lived in England, he published a book of short stories called “The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.” This book contained his two most famous short stories, “The Legend of Sleep Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle.” This book made Irving internationally famous.

5. Irving was America’s first internationally famous writer. He influenced other American writers, like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allen Poe. He also influenced important British writers, like Charles Dickens. Dickens said that he based “A Christmas Carol” off of images of Christmas from some of Irving’s stories.

6. Irving loved to study history, and many of his works, such as Tales from the Alhambra, mixed fiction and history.

7. Irving first moved to Spain, from England, in 1826 to study in Madrid. He wrote several books about Columbus’ conquest of America. These books also mixed history and fiction.

8. In 1829, Irving moved to Granada and lived in the Alhambra. He loved Granada and was inspired by the Alhambra. He wanted to write about the Alhambra and the Moorish influence in Andalusia, but before he could write much, he moved back to England to accept an offical position in London.

9. Irving returned to the US in 1832 and became involved with politics. But he continued to write. He published “Tales of the Alhambra” in the same year. In 1842, Irving returned to Spain and served as the US Minister to Spain from 1842 until 1846.

10. Irving returned to New York in 1846. He continued to write until he died in 1859. He mostly wrote biographies, such as a biography of George Washington and one of Muhammad, the Islamic prophet. He was buried in Sleepy Hollow, New York.

11. Washington Irving had a great impact on American culture. He invented the word “Gotham,” which is now used in the Batman comics and movies.

12. He also used the word “Knickerbocker” to refer to New Yorkers, which inspired the name of the basketball team the New York Knicks. He also made British Christmas traditions famous and popular in America.

13. Washington Irving is famous in Spain, too. There is a statue of him at the Alhambra and you can follow a route between Granada and Seville of places he visited when he lived in Spain in 1829.