Washington Irving was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat who lived from April 3, 1783, to November 28, 1859. Rip Van Winkle (1819) and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820), both of which are found in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent, are two of his best-known short stories. His historical writings include biographies of George Washington, Muhammad, and Oliver Goldsmith in addition to various histories of Spain in the fifteenth century that cover topics like the Alhambra, Christopher Columbus, and the Moors. In the 1840s, Irving represented America as ambassador to Spain. Irving made his literary debut in 1802 with a collection of observant letters to the Morning Chronicle, penned under the alias Jonathan Oldstyle. Irving was born and raised in Manhattan to a family of merchants. He temporarily relocated to England in 1815 for the family business, and it was there that he shot to popularity with the 1819-1820 serial publication of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. He continued to publish often throughout his life, and eight months before his passing in Tarrytown, New York, at age 76, he finished a five-volume biography of George Washington.
