420 IRVING satisfied at the end of three days that his talent was not for art. He next visited Switzerland, the Netherlands, Paris, and London, and re- turned homo in March, 1806, to resume his law studies ; but he never practised. "With his broth- er William and James K. Paulding he started a serial entitled " Salmagundi, or the AVhim- Whams and Opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, Esq., and others," which appeared at irregular intervals in small 18mo, published by an eccen- tric bookseller named David Longworth. The first number was issued on Jan. 24, 1807. Its local allusions, personal hits, and constant vein of humor gave it immediate success, and it reached the 20th number. It is understood that the poetical epistles were contributed by William Irving, and the prose papers about equally by himself and his two associates. " Salmagundi " found favor also on the other side of the Atlantic. In 1809 appeared "A History of New York, from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, &c., by Diedrich Knickerbocker." This was begun by Peter and Washington Irving as a burlesque on a hand-book of the city of New York which had just been published ; but Peter soon sailed for Europe, and Washington elab- orated the work and extended it to two vol- umes. Previous to its appearance an adver- tisement was inserted in the " Evening Post " inquiring for "a small elderly gentleman dressed in an old black coat and cocked hat, by the name of Knickerbocker," who was said to have disappeared from the Columbian hotel in Mulberry street, and left behind "a very curious kind of a written book." The work was accepted by many respectable but some- what stupid readers as a veritable history, and Goller, a German editor, gravely cites it in illustration of a historical passage. Some of the descendants of the old Dutch families were seriously offended by its burlesque of their an- cestors, and Irving finally found it necessary to insert an apologetic preface. In 1810 he wrote a sketch of Thomas Campbell for a Philadel- phia edition of his poems, and in 1813-'14 edit- ed the " Analectic Magazine " in Philadelphia, to which he contributed several biographies of American naval commanders. In 1814 he be- came aide-de-camp and military secretary to Gov. Tompkins, and in 1815 sailed for Europe, having meanwhile become a silent partner in the mercantile business of two of his brothers. In London he was intimate with many of the literary men of the day, especially Procter and Campbell, and by the latter was introduced to Scott at Abbotsford. Irving's house soon be- came bankrupt, and he was compelled to write for a living. His rambles about England and Scotland had given him much of the material for the " Sketch Book," which was sent home in fragments and published in pamphlet num- bers during 1818. Several of the sketches were copied in the London " Literary Gazette," and Irving offered the work for republication to Murray and Constable, by each of whom it was declined, in spito of Scott's warm recom- mendation. He then put the first volume to press at his own expense (1820), but the fail- ure of the publisher stopped its issue. In this crisis Scott arrived in London and prevailed upon Murray to purchase the manuscript for 200, which price he doubled when the book proved successful. The "Sketch Book" con- tained " Rip Van Winkle " and the " Legend of Sleepy Hollow," which are perhaps the most widely celebrated, and are certainly the most strikingly original, of all his creations. He spent the winter of 1820 in Paris, and in 1821 wrote "Bracebridge Hall, or the Humorists" (2 vols., London, 1822), producing 120 pages of it in ten days. Murray paid 1,000 guineas for the copyright, without seeing the manuscript. Irving passed the next winter in Dresden, re-' turned to Paris in 1823, and in 1824 published his "Tales of a Traveller" (2 vols., London), for which Murray paid 1,500. This work met with severe criticism on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1826 Alexander II. Everett, Uni- ted States minister to Spain, commissioned Ir- ving to translate the documents relative to Columbus which had just been collected by Navarrete. With this material at command he wrote his " History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher "Columbus " (4 vols., London, 1828), for which he received 3,000 guineas from the publisher and one of the 50-guinea gold medals offered by George IV. for histori- cal composition. This history gained imme- diate popularity, and was highly praised by the reviewers, more than restoring the favor which its author seemed to have lost by his preceding work. After a tour in the south of Spain he published his " Chronicles of the Conquest of Granada" (2 vols., London, 1829), for which Murray paid 2,000, losing money by it. The "Voyages of the Companions of Columbus" appeared in 1831, and in 1832 the "Alham- bra " (2 vols., London), a portion of which was written in the old Moorish palace, where Irving spent three months. In July, 1829, he had re- turned to London, having been appointed sec- retary of the American legation there. In 1831 the university of Oxford conferred upon him the degree of LL. D. The recall of the minister deprived him of his office, and in May, 1832, he returned to New York, where a public dinner, at which Chancellor Kent pre- sided, was given in his honor. In the summer of the same year he accompanied Commissioner Ellsworth in the removal of the Indian tribes across the Mississippi, and the result was his "Tour on the Prairies" (1835), which, to- gether with "Abbotsford and Newstead Ab- bey" (1835) and "Legends of the Conquest of Spain " (1835), forms the " Crayon Miscellany." "Astoria" (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1836), which professes to give the early history of the fur station of that name in Oregon, was written from the author's remembrance of visits in his youth to the station of the northwest fur com- pany at Montreal, and from documents fur-
