Editing Washington Irving (section)

===Early years===
Washington Irving's parents were William Irving Sr., originally of [[Quholm]], [[Shapinsay]], [[Orkney]], Scotland, and Sarah (née Saunders), originally of [[Falmouth, Cornwall]], England. They married in 1761 while William was serving as a petty officer in the British Navy. They had eleven children, eight of whom survived to adulthood. Their first two sons died in infancy, both named William, as did their fourth child John. Their surviving children were [[William Irving (New York)|William Jr.]] (1766), Ann (1770), [[Peter Irving|Peter]] (1771), Catherine (1774), Ebenezer (1776), John Treat (1778), Sarah (1780), and Washington.<ref name=Burstein7>Burstein, 7.</ref><ref>{{cite news|work=Historic Hudson Valley |title=Home of the Legend: Washington Irving's Sunnyside |date=October 28, 2017 |author=Docent Tour}}</ref>

[[File:Washington Irving's Encounter with George Washington.jpg|thumb|Watercolor of Washington Irving's encounter with George Washington, painted in 1854 by [[George Bernard Butler]] Jr.]]

The Irving family settled in Manhattan, and were part of the city's merchant class. Washington was born on April 3, 1783,<ref name=Burstein7/> the same week that New York City residents learned of the British ceasefire which ended the [[American Revolution]]. Irving's mother named him after George Washington.<ref>Irving, Pierre M. (1862) [https://archive.org/stream/lifelettersofwas01irvi2/lifelettersofwas01irvi2_djvu.txt "The life and letters of Washington Irving"] (Cited herein as PMI), vol. 1:26.</ref> Irving met his namesake at age 6 when George Washington came to New York just before his inauguration as President in 1789. The President blessed young Irving,<ref>PMI, 1:27.</ref> an encounter that Irving had commemorated in a small watercolor painting which continues to hang in his home.<ref>Jones, 5.</ref>

The Irvings lived at 131 William Street at the time of Washington's birth, but they later moved across the street to 128 William Street.<ref>PMI, 1:27</ref>  Several of Irving's brothers became active New York merchants; they encouraged his literary aspirations, often supporting him financially as he pursued his writing career.

Irving was an uninterested student who preferred adventure stories and drama, and he regularly sneaked out of class in the evenings to attend the theater by the time he was 14.<ref>Warner, 27; PMI, 1:36.</ref> An outbreak of [[yellow fever]] in Manhattan in 1798 prompted his family to send him upriver, where he stayed with his friend [[James Kirke Paulding]] in [[Tarrytown, New York]]. It was in Tarrytown where he became familiar with the bucolic beauty of the region with its Dutch customs and local ghost stories.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Mancuso |first=Anne |date=September 28, 2016 |title=Sleepy Hollow: Surrounded by History, and Legends |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/realestate/sleepy-hollow-surrounded-by-history-and-legends.html |access-date=November 24, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Though the town of Sleepy Hollow did not exist in Irving's time (North Tarrytown changed its name to Sleepy Hollow in 1996), the area had been known as Slapershaven or "Sleeper's Haven" by the Dutch.<ref>{{cite book | last=Newton-Matza | first=M. | title=Historic Sites and Landmarks That Shaped America [2 volumes]: From Acoma Pueblo to Ground Zero | publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing | year=2016 | isbn=978-1-61069-750-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h6fOEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA519 | page=519}}</ref> Irving made several other trips up the Hudson as a teenager, including an extended visit to [[Johnstown (city), New York|Johnstown, New York]], where he passed through the [[Catskill Mountains]] region, the setting for "[[Rip Van Winkle]]". "Of all the scenery of the Hudson", Irving wrote, "the Kaatskill Mountains had the most witching effect on my boyish imagination".<ref>PMI, 1:39.</ref>

Irving began writing letters to the New York ''Morning Chronicle'' in 1802 when he was 19, submitting commentaries on the city's social and theater scene under the pseudonym [[Letters of Jonathan Oldstyle, Gent.|Jonathan Oldstyle]]. The name evoked his [[Federalist Party (United States)|Federalist]] leanings<ref>Burstein, 19.</ref> and was the first of many pseudonyms he employed throughout his career. The letters brought Irving some early fame and moderate notoriety. [[Aaron Burr]] was a co-publisher of the ''Chronicle'', and was impressed enough to send clippings of the Oldstyle pieces to his daughter [[Theodosia Burr Alston|Theodosia]]. [[Charles Brockden Brown]] made a trip to New York to try to recruit Oldstyle for a literary magazine he was editing in Philadelphia.<ref>Jones, 36.</ref>

Concerned for his health, Irving's brothers financed an extended tour of Europe from 1804 to 1806. He bypassed most of the sites and locations considered essential for the social development of a young man, to the dismay of his brother William who wrote that he was pleased that his brother's health was improving, but he did not like the choice to "''gallop through Italy''… leaving Florence on your left and Venice on your right".<ref name=Burstein43>Burstein, 43.</ref> Instead, Irving honed the social and conversational skills that eventually made him one of the world's most in-demand guests.<ref>See Jones, 44–70</ref> "I endeavor to take things as they come with cheerfulness", Irving wrote, "and when I cannot get a dinner to suit my taste, I endeavor to get a taste to suit my dinner".<ref>Washington Irving to William Irving Jr., September 20, 1804, ''Works'' 23:90.</ref> While visiting Rome in 1805, Irving struck up a friendship with painter [[Washington Allston]]<ref name=Burstein43/> and was almost persuaded into a career as a painter. "My lot in life, however, was differently cast".<ref>Irving, Washington. "Memoir of Washington Allston", ''Works'' 2:175.</ref>