Author; born in New York City, April 3, 1783.
His father was a Scotchman, his mother an English-
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woman.
He engaged in literature while yet a youth, and was in
Europe for his health in 1804-06.
In 1807 he published,
in connection with his brother Peter and
James K. Paulding,
Salmagundi, and in 1808, his
Knickerbocker's history of New York.
After editing a magazine during the
War of 1812-15, he went to
Europe, where he resided seventeen years; when, after the failure of a mercantile house in New York with which he was connected, he was left to rely on his literary labors for support.
He spent his time partly in
England,
France,
Germany, and
Spain, and published his
Life of Columbus in 1828, which was followed by the
Conquest of Granada and the
Alhambra.
From 1829 to 1831 he was secretary of the
American legation in
London, and received from George IV.
the fifty-guinea gold medal awarded for eminence in historical composition.
He returned to New York in 1832, and prepared and published several works; and from 1839 to 1841 contributed to the
Knickerbocker magazine.
From 1842 to 1846 he was minister to
Spain, and on his return to New York he published a revised edition of all his works in 15 volumes, which had a
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very large sale.
His last work was a
Life of Washington, in 5 volumes, completed a few months before his death.
Mr. Irving never married.
The honorary degree of Ll.D. was conferred upon him by Harvard College, Oxford University, in
England, and Columbia College, in New York.
His remains rest near the summit of a gentle slope in the cemetery attached to the ancient Dutch church at the entrance to “
Sleepy hollow,” near
Tarrytown, N. Y. They lie by the side of those of his mother.
In a row lie the remains of his father, mother, brothers, and sisters.
The old church, which he made famous by the story of
Ichabod Crane (a leader in the psalm-singing there on Sundays) in his
Legend of Sleepy hollow, remains the same as when it was built in 1669, and is the oldest church edifice in the
State of New York.
Over the
Sleepy Hollow brook, near it, is the bridge where Brom Bones, the supposed “headless horseman,” hurled the pumpkin at the frightened
Ichabod, and drove him from the neighborhood and
Katrina van Tassell forever.
Mr. Irving died in
Irvington, N. Y., Nov. 28, 1859.
