Washington Irving was born in New York City on April 3, 1783. Irving’s background as a native New Yorker helped him write A History of New York about Dutch immigrants living in early New York. Not only were his stories centralized in New York City, Many stories were set outside the city in the upstate parts of New York State. The story of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” was portrayed in the lower Hudson river valley. Irving felt that the area was a very beautiful and wild place, perfect for a story with the kind of mysticism that was in “T

While living in Europe, Irving wrote many stories that combined a sense of European legend with a purely American form. His use of European legend demonstrates the strong influence of the old world on his work. Irving got the idea for one of his most famous short stories, “Rip Van Winkle” from a German folklore about a boy who falls asleep for fifty-seven years while looking for his sheep. “Rip Van Winkle” is about a lazy man, Rip Van Winkle, that goes into the Catskill mountains to hunt. Rip meets a small man who takes him far into the mountains where he drinks some liquor. Rip falls into a deep sleep and awakens twenty years later thinking he had slept one night. When Rip goes home, he finds out that he has missed the entire American revolution. This story is very typical of Washington Irving because it combines the mystery of nature with a piece of American history. It also provides romantic humor and irony to the reader. Some of Irving’s fellow writers felt that he was sometimes too romantic. James Fennimore Cooper claimed that Irving dealt with ludicrous subjects that did not consist with American life. Irving, however, praised such writers as William Cullen Bryant for his European romantic view of America. This style of writing is very unique to Washington Irving. It has been one of the many reasons Irving’s literature is so widely celebrated throughout the world.

“From an opening between the trees he could overlook all the lower country for many a mile of rich woodland. He saw a

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