Washington Irving was America's first successful professional man of letters, a gifted teller of tales, especially as a native humorist, a romantic historian, and an influential prose stylist. As a writer by profession, with The Sketch Book (1819-1820) in particular, he achieved both critical and financial success on both sides of the Atlantic, an exceptional thing this early in our cultural history. A small domestic publishing industry was just struggling into life while overseas the absence of international copyright protection jeopardized necessary income. Indeed to many biased Europeans the very idea of an "American author" seemed a contradiction in terms. Nevertheless Irving, both by his gifts of pen and personality, won widespread popularity and encouraging respectability. Never a major writer, he still remains significant for his best pieces and for landmark gains as a pioneering professional. Even in childhood Irving often found himself in the right place at the right time to witness historic events and to associate with distinguished men and women.
