Part 1 (1/2)

Four Famous American Writers: Was.h.i.+ngton Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, James Russell Lowell, Bayard Taylor.

by Sherwin Cody.

THE STORY OF WAs.h.i.+NGTON IRVING

[Ill.u.s.tration: _WAs.h.i.+NGTON IRVING._]

WAs.h.i.+NGTON IRVING

CHAPTER I

HIS CHILDHOOD

The Revolutionary War was over. The British soldiers were preparing to embark on their s.h.i.+ps and sail back over the ocean, and General Was.h.i.+ngton would soon enter New York city at the head of the American army. While all true patriots were rejoicing at this happy turn of affairs, a little boy was born who was destined to be the first great American author.

William Irving, the father of this little boy, had been a merchant in New York city. He had been very prosperous until the war broke out.

After the battle of Long Island, the British then occupying the city, he had taken his family to New Jersey. But later, although he was a loyal American, he went back to the city to attend to his business.

There he helped the American cause by doing everything he could for the American prisoners whom the British held. His wife, especially, had a happy way of persuading Sir Henry Clinton, and when the British general saw her coming, he prepared himself to grant any request about the prisoners which she might make. Often she sent them food from her own table, and cared for them when they were sick.

When their last son, the eleventh child, was born, on April 3, 1783, the parents showed their loyalty by naming him Was.h.i.+ngton, after the beloved Father of his Country.

Six years after this, George Was.h.i.+ngton was elected president, and went to New York to live. The Scotch maid who took care of little Was.h.i.+ngton Irving made up her mind to introduce the boy to his great namesake. So one day she followed the general into a shop, and, pointing to the lad, said, ”Please, your honor, here's a bairn was named after you.” Was.h.i.+ngton turned around, smiled, and placing his hand on the boy's head, gave him his blessing. Little did General Was.h.i.+ngton suspect that in later years this boy, grown to manhood and become famous, would write his biography.

In those days New York was only a small town at the south end of Manhattan Island. It extended barely as far north as the place where now stand the City Hall and the Postoffice. Broadway was then a country road. The Irvings lived at 131 William Street, afterward moving across to 128. This is now one of the oldest parts of New York.

The streets in that section are narrow, and the buildings, though put up long after Irving's birth, seem very old.

Here the little boy grew up with his brothers and sisters. At four he went to school. His first teacher was a lady; but he was soon transferred to a school kept by an old Revolutionary soldier who became so fond of the boy that he gave him the pet name of ”General.”

This teacher liked him because, though often in mischief, he never tried to protect himself by telling a falsehood, but always confessed the truth.

Was.h.i.+ngton was not very fond of study, but he was a great reader. At eleven his favorite stories were ”Robinson Crusoe” and ”Sindbad the Sailor.” Besides these, he read many books of travel, and soon found himself wis.h.i.+ng that he might go to sea. As he grew up he was able to gratify his taste for travel, and some of his finest books and stories relate to his experiences in foreign lands. In the introduction to the ”Sketch Book” he says, ”How wistfully would I wander about the pier-heads in fine weather, and watch the parting s.h.i.+ps bound to distant climes--with what longing eyes would I gaze after their lessening sails, and waft myself in imagination to the ends of the earth!”

CHAPTER II

IRVING'S FIRST VOYAGE UP THE HUDSON RIVER

Irving's first literary composition seems to have been a play written when he was thirteen. It was performed at the house of a friend, in the presence of a famous actress of that day; but in after years Irving had forgotten even the t.i.tle.

His schooling was finished when he was sixteen. His elder brothers had attended college, and he never knew exactly why he did not. But he was not fond of hard study or hard work. He lived in a sort of dreamy leisure, which seemed particularly suited to his light, airy genius, so full of humor, suns.h.i.+ne, and loving-kindness.

After leaving school, he began to study law in the office of a certain Henry Masterton. This was in the year 1800. He was admitted to the bar six years later; but he spent a great deal more of the intervening time in traveling and scribbling than in the study of law. His first published writing was a series of letters signed ”Jonathan Oldstyle,”

printed in his brother's daily paper, ”The Morning Chronicle,” when the writer was nineteen years old.