Washington Irving Biography | Author of Rip Van Winkle

Rip Van Winkle Author Biography

Washington Irving was born in New York City on April 3, 1783, the year the American Revolution formally ended. Irving's parents named the youngest of their eleven children "Washington" after a prominent military figure from the war, General George Washington. Irving's family was wealthy, his father a successful merchant, so after a relatively lackluster performance as a student and as a law apprentice, Irving was able to devote himself to a youth of reading and writing and wandering without worrying about having to earn a living.

When he was nineteen and still a law clerk, Irving published his first pieces of writing, a series of satirical letters to the Morning Chronicle, a newspaper owned by one of his brothers. These letters, published under the pen name "Jonathan Oldstyle, Gent.," became very popular. Irving also used a pseudonym for his first book, Salmagundi: or, The Whim-Whams and Opinions of Launcelot...
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