Washington Irving was born of Scottish-English Immigrants. He was the youngest of eleven children however two of his siblings died as children. He was born on April 3, 1783 in Manhattan, New York. Since his father was a wealthy merchant Irving went to school to become a lawyer. Irving did not pursue law as a career because he was not passionate about it.
During this time most Americans read British literature. Irving began writing and wrote under many pseudonyms such as Diedrich Knickerbocker, Jonathan Oldstyle, and Geoffrey Crayon to name a few. He became one of the first Americans to make a career of writing.
Irving enjoyed traveling and spent a large portion of his life in Europe. He visited places like England, Spain, Germany, and France. His stories we mainly American folklore, however he did write about many of the places he traveled to.
His best-known book was “The Sketch Book” published in 1819. In this book are the famous stories, “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. He became famous as an American writer not only in America but in Spain and Europe as well.
In 1846 Irving moved to Sunnyside, a cottage he purchased and named a few years before. The cottage overlooked the Hudson River in New York. This is where he lived and worked revising his writings until his death in 1859. It is believed he died of a heart attack on November 28, 1859. He was buried at the Sleepy Hollow cemetery a few days later.