1. Washington Irving

2. Early Life Irving was born in New York City
His mother named him after George Washington; Irving was born the same week as the ceasefire, which ended the American Revolution
His parents had 11 children, eight of whom survived into adulthood
There was a yellow fever outbreak in 1789 in New York City that led his family to send him away with another family in Tarrytown New York.
He eventually would make the settings of his more famous works, these more rural areas of New York, along the Hudson River or in the Catskill Mountains.

3. Writing Career
He is known as an author, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat
For his first major book A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, by Diedrich Knickerbocker, a satire, he created a hoax that claimed the author had gone missing.
Within The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. he published short stories that are a part of our national fabric like “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
He wrote many histories and biographies, including one about Christopher Columbus and also one about George Washington.

4. Lasting Impact
He was the first successful American writer that could earn a living solely through writing.
He along with James Fennimore Cooper (Last of the Mohicans) were the first two American writers to be accepted and admired internationally.
Irving fought to protect writers because he himself was victim to plagiarism.
He helped guide and support young American writers, including Edgar Allan Poe, who sought Irving’s advice on his “Fall of the House of Usher”

5. Lasting Impact Irving’s works have added to our cultural vocabulary:
He was the first to use the name “Gotham” to describe New York City
His pseudonym Knickerbocker has also become synonymous with residents of New York City (The New York Knicks)
His history of Christopher Columbus, which often mixed fact with fiction, is the reason why we assume most of the word thought the planet was flat, which is not true.
Longfellow said of Irving: "We feel a just pride in his renown as an author, not forgetting that, to his other claims upon our gratitude, he adds also that of having been the first to win for our country an honorable name and position in the History of Letters".