The Project Gutenberg EBook of Washington Irving, by Henry W. Boynton

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Title: Washington Irving

Author: Henry W. Boynton

Release Date: June 26, 2008 [EBook #25908]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WASHINGTON IRVING ***

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The Riverside Biographical Series

NUMBER 11

[Illustration: Washington Irving]

WASHINGTON IRVING

BY

HENRY W. BOYNTON

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY

The Riverside Press, Cambridge

1901

COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY HENRY W. BOYNTON

* * * * *

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. EARLY YEARS AND SURROUNDINGS 1

II. MAN ABOUT TOWN 16

III. MAN OF LETTERS--FIRST PERIOD 35

IV. MAN OF LETTERS--SECOND PERIOD 59

V. A PUBLIC CHARACTER 81

VI. THE MAN HIMSELF 105

* * * * *

WASHINGTON IRVING

I

EARLY YEARS AND SURROUNDINGS

Irving's name stands as the first landmark in American letters. No
other American writer has won the same sort of recognition abroad or
esteem at home as became his early in life. And he has lost very
little ground, so far as we can judge by the appeal to figures. The
copyright on his works ran out long since, and a great many editions
of Irving, cheap and costly, complete and incomplete, have been issued
from many sources. Yet his original publishers are now selling, year
by year, more of his books than ever before. There is little doubt
that his work is still widely read, and read not because it is
prescribed, but because it gi