Washington Irving is one of the handful of great American originals and the first internationally-acclaimed American author, who commanded not only robust wealth but ebullient crowds on his European literary tours. He was a rough contemporary of the magnificent and likewise prolific British author, Sir Walter Scott, with whom he maintained a lifelong friendship.

Born in Manhanttan, Washington Irving is best known to posterity for his imaginative, often spooky or comical tales about his native New York, the most famous of which are Halloween-season favorite, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” and the folksy Catskill fable, “Rip Van Winkle.” Besides these delightful and visually arresting stories are endless colorful, moral, and comical sketches about life, religion, marriage, Europe, and his home city of New York.

Washington Irving died in 1859 at the age of seventy-six, his wonderful body of work having entered into the pantheon of American letters, and his characters having become central components in the American imagination, where they continue to haunt and beguile us. He was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.