Editing Washington Irving (section)

==Legacy==

===Literary reputation===
[[File:Washington Irving Memorial Irvington Washington Irving bust.jpg|thumb|upright|Bust of Washington Irving by [[Daniel Chester French]] in [[Irvington, New York]], not far from Sunnyside]]
Irving is largely credited as the first American Man of Letters and the first to earn his living solely by his pen. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow acknowledged Irving's role in promoting American literature in December 1859: "We feel a just pride in his renown as an author, not forgetting that, to his other claims upon our gratitude, he adds also that of having been the first to win for our country an honourable name and position in the History of Letters".<ref>Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. "Address on the Death of Washington Irving", ''Poems and Other Writings'', J.D. McClatchy, editor. (Library of America, 2000).</ref>

Irving perfected the American short story<ref>Leon H. Vincent, ''American Literary Masters'', 1906.</ref> and was the first American writer to set his stories firmly in the United States, even as he poached from German or Dutch folklore. He is also generally credited as one of the first to write in the vernacular and without an obligation to presenting morals or being didactic in his short stories, writing stories simply to entertain rather than to enlighten.<ref>Pattee, Fred Lewis. ''The First Century of American Literature, 1770–1870''. New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1935.</ref> He also encouraged many would-be writers. As [[George William Curtis]] noted, there "is not a young literary aspirant in the country, who, if he ever personally met Irving, did not hear from him the kindest words of sympathy, regard, and encouragement".<ref>Kime, Wayne R. ''Pierre M. Irving and Washington Irving: A Collaboration in Life and Letters''. Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1977: 152. {{ISBN|0-88920-056-4}}</ref>

Edgar Allan Poe, on the other hand, felt that Irving should be given credit for being an innovator but that the writing itself was often unsophisticated. "Irving is much over-rated", Poe wrote in 1838, "and a nice distinction might be drawn between his just and his surreptitious and adventitious reputation—between what is due to the pioneer solely, and what to the writer".<ref>Poe to N.C. Brooks, Philadelphia, September 4, 1838. Cited in Williams 2:101-02.</ref> A critic for the ''New-York Mirror'' wrote: "No man in the Republic of Letters has been more overrated than Mr. Washington Irving".<ref>Jones, 223</ref> Some critics claimed that Irving catered to British sensibilities, and one critic charged that he wrote "''of'' and ''for'' England, rather than his own country".<ref>Jones, 291</ref> For instance, American critic [[John Neal]] in his 1824–25 critical work ''[[American Writers]]'' dismissed Irving as a poor copy of Goldsmith.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Watts | first1 = Edward | last2 = Carlson | first2 = David J. | editor1-last = Watts | editor1-first = Edward | editor2-last = Carlson | editor2-first = David J. | chapter = Introduction | page = xiii | title = John Neal and Nineteenth Century American Literature and Culture | year = 2012 | publisher = Bucknell University Press | location = Lewisburg, Pennsylvania | isbn = 978-1-61148-420-5}}</ref>

Other critics were more supportive of Irving's style. [[William Makepeace Thackeray]] was the first to refer to Irving as the "ambassador whom the New World of Letters sent to the Old",<ref>Thackeray, ''Roundabout Papers'', 1860.</ref> a banner picked up by writers and critics throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. "He is the first of the American humorists, as he is almost the first of the American writers", wrote critic H.R. Hawless in 1881, "yet belonging to the New World, there is a quaint Old World flavor about him".<ref>Hawless, ''American Humorists'', 1881.</ref> Early critics often had difficulty separating Irving the man from Irving the writer. "The life of Washington Irving was one of the brightest ever led by an author", wrote [[Richard Henry Stoddard]], an early Irving biographer.<ref>Stoddard, ''The Life of Washington Irving'', 1883.</ref> Later critics, however, began to review his writings as all style with no substance. "The man had no message", said critic [[Barrett Wendell]].<ref>Wendell, ''A Literary History of America'', 1901.</ref>

As a historian, Irving's reputation had fallen out of favor but then gained a resurgence. "With the advent of 'scientific' history in the generations that followed his, Irving's historical writings lapsed into disregard and disrespect. To late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century historians, including [[J. Franklin Jameson|John Franklin Jameson]], [[George Peabody Gooch|G. P. Gooch]], and others, these works were demiromances, worthy at best of veiled condescension. However, more recently several of Irving's histories and biographies have again won praise for their reliability as well as the literary skill with which they were written. Specifically, ''A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus''; ''Astoria, or Anecdotes of an Enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains''; and ''Life of George Washington'' have earned the respect of scholars whose writings on those topics we consider authoritative in our generation: [[Samuel Eliot Morison]], [[Bernard DeVoto]], [[Douglas Southall Freeman]]".<ref name=DLB>Kime, Wayne R. "Washington Irving (3 April 1783-28 November 1859", in Clyde N. Wilson (ed.), ''American Historians, 1607-1865'', [[Dictionary of Literary Biography]] Vol. 30, Detroit: Gale Research, 1984, 155.</ref>

===Impact on American culture===
[[File:John Quidor - Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane - Smithsonian.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|right|[[John Quidor]]'s 1858 painting ''[[The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane]]'', inspired by Washington Irving's work]]
Irving popularized the nickname "[[Nicknames of New York City|Gotham]]" for New York City,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Migro|first1=Carmen|title=So, Why Do We Call It Gotham, Anyway?|url=https://www.nypl.org/blog/2011/01/25/so-why-do-we-call-it-gotham-anyway|website=NYPL.org|publisher=New York Public Library|access-date=October 27, 2017}}</ref> and he is credited with inventing the expression "the almighty dollar". The surname of his fictional Dutch historian Diedrich Knickerbocker is generally associated with New York and New Yorkers, as found in New York's professional [[basketball]] team The [[New York Knicks|New York Knickerbockers]].

One of Irving's most lasting contributions to American culture is in the way that Americans celebrate Christmas. In his 1812 revisions to ''A History of New York'', he inserted a dream sequence featuring [[St. Nicholas]] soaring over treetops in a flying wagon, an invention which others dressed up as Santa Claus. In his five Christmas stories in ''The Sketch Book'', Irving portrayed an idealized celebration of old-fashioned Christmas customs at a quaint English manor which depicted English Christmas festivities that he experienced while staying in England, which had largely been abandoned.<ref>Kelly, Richard Michael (ed.) (2003), A Christmas Carol. p.20. Broadview Literary Texts, New York: Broadview Press, {{ISBN|1-55111-476-3}}</ref> He used text from ''The Vindication of Christmas'' (London 1652) of old English Christmas traditions,<ref name=BTR>{{Cite book |author=Restad, Penne L. |year=1995 |title=Christmas in America: a History |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-510980-5 }}</ref> and the book contributed to the revival and reinterpretation of the Christmas holiday in the United States.<ref>See Stephen Nissebaum, ''The Battle for Christmas'' (Vintage, 1997)</ref>

Irving introduced the erroneous idea that Europeans believed the world to be flat prior to the discovery of the New World in his biography of Christopher Columbus,<ref>See Irving, 1829, Chapter VII: "Columbus before the council at Salamanca", pp. 40–47, especially p. 43.</ref> yet the [[Myth of the flat Earth|flat-Earth myth]] has been taught in schools as fact to many generations of Americans.<ref>Grant (Edward), 2001, "God and Reason in the Middle Ages",  p. 342.</ref><ref>Grant (John), 2006, p. 32, in the subsection "The Earth – Flat or Hollow?" beginning at p. 30, within Chapter 1 "Worlds in Upheaval".</ref> American painter [[John Quidor]] based many of his paintings on scenes from the works of Irving about Dutch New York, including such paintings as ''Ichabod Crane Flying from the Headless Horseman'' (1828), ''The Return of Rip Van Winkle'' (1849), and ''[[The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane]]'' (1858).<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Caldwell | first1 = John| last2 = Rodriguez Roque| first2 = Oswaldo| editor = Kathleen Luhrs| others = Dale T. Johnson, Carrie Rebora, Patricia R. Windels| title = American Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art| volume = I: a Catalogue of Works by Artists Born By 1815| year = 1994 | publisher = The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press | pages = 479–482}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | editor = Roger Panetta|title = Dutch New York: the roots of Hudson Valley culture | year = 2009 | publisher = Hudson River Museum | isbn = 978-0-8232-3039-6| pages = 223–235}}</ref>

===Memorials===
[[File:Washington Irving2 1940 Issue-1c.jpg|thumb|Washington Irving, [[Postage stamps and postal history of the United States#Famous Americans Series of 1940|postage stamp]], 1940|132x132px]]
[[File:WASHINGTON-IRVING-ALHAMBRA-0.jpg|thumb|178x178px|Statue in Granada, Spain]]
The village of Dearman, New York, changed its name to "[[Irvington, New York|Irvington]]" in 1854 to honor Washington Irving, who was living in nearby [[Sunnyside (Tarrytown, New York)|Sunnyside]], which is preserved as a museum.<ref>Sunnyside was considered to be part of Irvington (or Dearman) at the time; the neighboring village of Tarrytown incorporated in 1870, two years before Irvington. The estate ended up in Tarrytown rather than Irvington after the boundaries were drawn.</ref> Influential residents of the village prevailed upon the [[Hudson River Railroad]], which had reached the village by 1849,<ref name=foundation>Dodsworth (1995)</ref> to change the name of the train station to "Irvington", and the village incorporated as Irvington on April 16, 1872.<ref name="scharf">{{cite book| last=Scharf| title=History of Westchester County| year=1886| volume=2| page=190| chapter=II| url=http://www.rootsweb.com/~nywestch/towns/irvingtn.htm}}</ref><ref name="chamber">{{cite web|url=http://www.irvingtonnychamber.com/about_irvington_NY.html |title=About Irvington, NY |year=2007 |publisher=Village of Irvington Chamber of Commerce |access-date=May 14, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081206091628/http://www.irvingtonnychamber.com/about_irvington_NY.html |archive-date=December 6, 2008 }}</ref><ref name="living1992">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/19/realestate/if-you-re-thinking-of-living-in-irvington.html| title= If You're Thinking of Living in: Irvington| last=Vizard| first=Mary McAleer| date=April 19, 1992| work=New York Times| access-date=May 14, 2009}}</ref>

The town of [[Knickerbocker, Texas]], was founded by two of Irving's nephews, who named it in honor of their uncle's literary pseudonym.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://irvingtx.net/common/irving-history.html|website=IrvingTX.net|title=Irving History|access-date=March 28, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110818163830/http://irvingtx.net/common/irving-history.html|archive-date=August 18, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> The city of [[Irving, Texas]], states that it is named for Washington Irving.<ref>{{cite web|title=Declaration that Irving, TX is named for Washington Irving.|url=http://cityofirving.org/documentcenter/view/6461|access-date=September 26, 2014}}</ref>

[[Irvington, New Jersey]] is also named after Irving. It was incorporated on March 27, 1874, from parts of Clinton Township (Clinton Township is now part of [[Newark, New Jersey]] since 1902).

Irving Street in [[San Francisco]] is named after him.<ref>''The Chronicle'' April 12, 1987, p.6</ref>

The [[Irving Park, Chicago|Irving Park]] neighborhood in Chicago are named for him as well, though the original name of the subdivision was Irvington and then later Irving Park before annexation to Chicago.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/655.html|title=Irving Park|website=www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org}}</ref> The major Chicago thoroughfare [[Illinois Route 19]] is also named Irving Park Road.

[[Honesdale Star Park|Gibbons Memorial Park]], located in [[Honesdale, Pennsylvania]], is located on Irving Cliff, which was named after him.<ref>"[http://www.waynehistorypa.org/page/irving-cliff Washington Irving, Irving Cliff and the Ill-fated Irving Cliff Hotel]", Wayne County Historical Society ({{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191119063959/http://www.waynehistorypa.org/page/irving-cliff |date=November 19, 2019 }})</ref>

The [[Irvington Historic District (Indianapolis)|Irvington]] neighborhood in Indianapolis is also one of the many communities named after him.<ref>[https://irvingtondevelopment.org/why-we-do/about-irvington/ Irvington Development Organization]</ref>

Irving College (1838–1890) in [[Irving College, Tennessee]], was named for Irving.<ref>Larry Miller, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=zOzPQYkkbaAC&vq Tennessee Place Names]'' (Indiana University Press, 2001), p. 107.</ref>

There is a statue of Irving in Granada, Spain.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.alhambra-patronato.es/edificios-lugares/monumento-a-washington-irving|title=Monumento a Washington Irving|website=Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife|access-date=January 24, 2024|language=es}}</ref>

The Village of North Tarrytown, New York, changed its name to Sleepy Hollow in 1996 to honor Washington Irving and capitalize on the popularity of the story "The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Feloni |first=Richard |title=How the 'Legend of Sleepy Hollow' saved a tiny industrial town in New York |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/how-sleepy-hollow-saved-north-tarrytown-2015-10 |access-date=January 16, 2024 |website=Business Insider |language=en-US}}</ref>

[[Washington Irving Memorial Park and Arboretum]], located in [[Bixby, Oklahoma]], is named in honor of Washington Irving and features an amphitheater stage with a replica façade of his Sunnyside home. The home includes a statue of Irving seated on the porch of the home. Among the tributes to Irving are memorials to the victims of the Oklahoma City Bombing and the World Trade Center attacks, with a steel beam from the towers on display. The park is also the site of local community events, including the annual Bixby BBQ and Blues festival.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.travelok.com/listings/view.profile/id.23900 | title=Washington Irving Memorial Park & Arboretum }}</ref>