The most popular American author of the pre-Civil War era. Irving was born in New
York City, the son of a Scottish father and an English mother. As a youth, he was an avid
reader and a competent writer. Indeed, he was so skilled that he of ten wrote compositions for his classmates in exchange for their help in solving his
arithmetic problems, the latter a task that he detested. He was an adventurous youth, at
fifteen exploring the Sleepy Hollow region that became the scene of one of his bestknown stories. Two years later, he sailed up the Hudson River on his own voyage of
discovery Irving studied law in college, although he never seriously practiced that
profession. At age nineteen, using the pen name Jonathan Oldstyle, he began wrting
newspaper letters, and two years later, in ill health, he began a two-year trip to Europe.
After his return, with his brother William Irving and James Kirke Paulding, Irving started
the periodical Salmagundi, modeled after Addison and Steele’s Spectator and ten wrote compositions for his classmates in exchange for their help in solving his
arithmetic problems, the latter a task that he detested. He was an adventurous youth, at
fifteen exploring the Sleepy Hollow region that became the scene of one of his bestknown stories. Two years later, he sailed up the Hudson River on his own voyage of
discovery Irving studied law in college, although he never seriously practiced that
profession. At age nineteen, using the pen name Jonathan Oldstyle, he began wrting
newspaper letters, and two years later, in ill health, he began a two-year trip to Europe.
After his return, with his brother William Irving and James Kirke Paulding, Irving started
the periodical Salmagundi, modeled after Addison and Steele’s Spectator and