WASHINGTON IRVING

WASHINGTON IRVING

The year of Washington Irving's birth, 1783, was also the first year that England recognized the United States as a sovereign nation. His generation was left with the task of filling the boots of the larger-than-life hero George Washington. Irving eventually forged himself the title of the "Father of American Literature", but this journey was plagued with despair.

His search for freedom was not from governmental oppression, but what to do with the liberty won by his countrymen, as was the want of his entire generation. For Irving, this search consisted of three distinct phases. The first phase, starting at birth and lasting until age 33, consisted of Irving's well-off family allowing him to ramble from place to place with not many cares of his own.

Even from this relatively young age, Irving could sense an unseen conflict between the New World and Old. The absence of cultural tradition in the New World left a gap that Irving sought to fill. Irving made his literary debut with Letters of Jonathan Oldstyle, Gent. Jonathan being a stage name for a bumptious American and Oldstyle referring to British refinement.

In 1809 Irving fell in love with Matilda Hoffman, the daughter of his employer. While Irving was writing the comical History of New York, Matilda fell ill and died of tuberculosis. Swallowed in grief, he managed to finish his story, written in the voice of Diedrich Knickerbocker.

The second phase of Irving's quest to find himself started when he went to Europe in May 1815. When a business he was a partner of crashed as a result of the end of the War of 1812, he was forced to file bankruptcy. He became very worried about making a living. He set out to writing to solve his fiscal crisis. He ended up with The Sketch Book ...