Washington Irving and the Knickerbocker Group

Irving and the Knickerbocker Group 187
published nothing until The Sketch Book in 1819-1820.
This and Bracebridge Hall, 1822, established his fame on
both sides the Atlantic.

Maugre his formal histories, most of his writings are
sketch books, such as the Crayon Miscellany and Tales of a
Traveller, in which are matters memorable; for instance the
account of Abbotsford and the record of his tour of the
West are in the Crayon Miscellany; The Devil and Tom
Walker is in Tales of a Traveller; but The Sketch Book and
Bracebridge Hall carry more of Irving’s aroma than any
other of his books. He and no other could have written
them, books in which live the England of the earlier nine-
teenth century as in Dickens, the old Dutch life of New
York as in no other book; sentiment without sentimentality,
satire without bitterness.

After the death of Matilda Hoffman Irving might have
assumed the Byronic pose of a blighted life. Not he. His
sorrow was his own, a cross which he bore cheerily. He
wrote the story of A Broken Heart without self-allusion.
Indeed most of his writings are objective.

He cultivated society as a profession. He had no other;
declined to follow his elder brothers to Columbia College,
read law ostensibly, literature omnivorously. He loved
books, men, women, children (devoutly), old scenes, old
histories. He wrote to please himself and others. His
literary purpose is in the genial preface to Bracebridge Hall,

I have always had an opinion that much good might be
done by keeping mankind in good humor with one another.

He practiced in person what he strove for in letters, to
make people happier by his presence. He was lovable be-
cause he loved others, was unselfish without martyrdom,
unaffected, gay in manner, even when a frail constitution
tempted him to melancholy. His handsome, smiling face,

<<   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   >>

More intriguing information