Editing Washington Irving (section)

===Final years and death===
[[File:Washington Irving's headstone Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.jpg|thumb|Washington Irving's headstone, [[Sleepy Hollow Cemetery]], [[Sleepy Hollow, New York]]]]
{{anchor|Wolfert's Roost}}Irving returned from Spain in September 1846, took up residence at Sunnyside, and began work on an "Author's Revised Edition" of his works for publisher [[George Palmer Putnam]]. For its publication, Irving had made a deal which guaranteed him 12 percent of the retail price of all copies sold, an agreement that was unprecedented at that time.<ref>Jones, 464.</ref> As he revised his older works for Putnam, he continued to write regularly, publishing biographies of [[Oliver Goldsmith]] in 1849 and Islamic prophet [[Muhammad]] in 1850. In 1855, he produced ''Wolfert's Roost'', a collection of stories and essays that he had written for ''The Knickerbocker'' and other publications,<ref name=Williams208209>Williams, 2:208–209.</ref> and he began publishing a biography of his namesake [[George Washington]] which he expected to be his masterpiece. Five volumes of the biography were published between 1855 and 1859.<ref>Bryan, William Alfred. ''George Washington in American Literature 1775–1865''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1952: 103.</ref>

Irving traveled regularly to [[Mount Vernon]] and Washington, D.C., for his research, and struck up friendships with Presidents [[Millard Fillmore]] and [[Franklin Pierce]].<ref name=Williams208209/> He was elected an Associate Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1855.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter I|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterI.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=September 9, 2016}}</ref> He was hired as an executor of John Jacob Astor's estate in 1848 and appointed by Astor's will as first chairman of the [[Astor Library]], a forerunner to the [[New York Public Library]].<ref>Hellman, 235.</ref>

Irving continued to socialize and keep up with his correspondence well into his seventies, and his fame and popularity continued to soar. "I don't believe that any man, in any country, has ever had a more affectionate admiration for him than that given to you in America", wrote Senator [[William C. Preston]] in a letter to Irving. "I believe that we have had but one man who is so much in the popular heart".<ref>William C. Preston to Washington Irving, Charlottesville, May 11, 1859, PMI, 4:286.</ref> By 1859, author [[Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.]] noted that Sunnyside had become "next to Mount Vernon, the best known and most cherished of all the dwellings in our land".<ref>Kime, Wayne R. ''Pierre M. Irving and Washington Irving: A Collaboration in Life and Letters''. Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1977: 151. {{ISBN|0-88920-056-4}}</ref>

Irving died of a heart attack in his bedroom at Sunnyside on November 28, 1859, age 76—only eight months after completing the final volume of his Washington biography. Legend has it that his last words were: "Well, I must arrange my pillows for another night. When will this end?"<ref>Nelson, Randy F. ''The Almanac of American Letters''. Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann, Inc., 1981: 179. {{ISBN|0-86576-008-X}}</ref> He was buried under a simple headstone at Sleepy Hollow cemetery on December 1, 1859.<ref>PMI, 4:328.</ref> Irving and his grave were commemorated by [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]] in his 1876 poem "In the Churchyard at Tarrytown", which concludes with:

{{poemquote|How sweet a life was his; how sweet a death!
Living, to wing with mirth the weary hours,
Or with romantic tales the heart to cheer;
Dying, to leave a memory like the breath
Of summers full of sunshine and of showers,
A grief and gladness in the atmosphere.<ref>Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. "In The Churchyard at Tarrytown", quoted in Burstein, 330.</ref>}}