Irving and the Knickerbocker Group 181
histories and biographies, prolific, original, some based on
careful research, carry the tone of letters rather than pro-
fessional history. Trained historians will doubtless not ad-
mit to their ranks the author of Life and Voyages of Colum-
bus, The Companions of Columbus, The Conquest of
Granada, The Alhambra, Mahomet and His Successors,
Astoria, Captain Bonneville, Oliver Goldsmith, and the Life
of Washington. His state papers dispatched from Madrid,
housed in the Congressional Library, may sometime be
edited by a competent hand, and Irving may then take a
secure place in the history of American diplomacy, for he
was indefatigable in duty, following with high intelligence
what he called “the tortuous course of Spanish politics.”
Irving almost invented the short story in America, but it
is the long short story, in which incident is imbedded in
character-sketch and description. This method was premedi-
tated and rationalized. In the introduction to Tales Of A
Traveller he wrote :
For my part, I consider a story merely as a frame on
which to stretch my materials. It is the play of thought, and
sentiment, and language ; the weaving in of characters, light-
ly, yet expressively delineated; the familiar and faithful
exhibition of scenes in common life; and the half-concealed
vein of humor that is often playing through the whole;—
these are among what I aim at, and upon which I felicitate
myself in proportion as I think I succeed.
A discursive mental habit determined the character of his
writing, part story, part essay. Even The Alhambra is a
series of sketches rather than a structured history.
He loved side lights on history because he was infatuated
with the past. Dutch life and legend appealed to him be-
cause it was picturesque and smelt of antiquity. It was not
ancient when Irving wrote but it was something finished. It
had for him the lure of the antique, that which one who