File:Library of the world's best literature, ancient and modern (1902) (14784147793).jpg

Identifier: libraryofworldsbv14warn (find matches)
Title: Library of the world's best literature, ancient and modern
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors: Warner, Charles Dudley, 1829-1900 Mabie, Hamilton Wright, 1846-1916 Runkle, Lucia Isabella (Gilbert), 1844-
Subjects: Literature Literature
Publisher: New York : J.A. Hill & Company
Contributing Library: Brigham Young University Hawaii, Joseph F. Smith Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Consortium of Church Libraries and Archives

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Text Appearing Before Image:
. While he was in
Madrid he was planning and arranging the material for the early
volumes of his ‹ Life of Washington ›; the first volume of which did
not appear, however, until 1855. His ‹ Life of Goldsmith › was pub-
lished in 1849, ‹ Mahomet and his Successors › in the winter of the
same year, ‹ Wolfert's Roost › in 1854, and the fifth and final volume
of his ‹ Washington › only a short time before his death at Sunnyside
on November 28th, 1859.
Irving's literary activity thus extended over exactly half a century.
The books which he published in that period fall naturally into
four groups, each of which reflects his explorations, observations,
and meditations in some special field. The first of these groups is
made up of the experimental Salmagundi papers, the Knickerbocker
‹ History,› the ‹ Sketch Book,› ‹ Bracebridge Hall,› and ‹ Tales of a
Traveller›; all of which were published while the author was between
twenty-six and forty-one years of age. They were the fruit of his

Text Appearing After Image:
IRVING'S HOME


WASHINGTON IRVING 7997

interest, first in the Dutch history and legends that gave a quaint
charm to Old New York, and to the customs and manners of the
early settlers in the valley of the Hudson; and second in the roman-
tic and picturesque aspects of foreign life which had stirred his
fancy and imagination during his two sojourns abroad. Although
they were not published in book form until many years later, the
sketches and tales gathered under the title of ‹ Wolfert's Roost › be
long to the same time and to the same group. The second group
consists of the volumes which were the outgrowth of Irving's resi-
dence in Spain, and of his admiration for the daring and adventurous
life of the early Spanish voyagers, and for the splendid story, so
brilliant with Oriental pageantry and with barbaric color, of the
Moorish invasion and occupancy of Spain. The third group includes
the three books in which Irving pictured with a vivid realism, with
an accurate knowledge, and with a narrative style that gave to two
at least of these volumes the fascination of romance, the perils and
hardships which the explorers, fur-traders, hunters, and trappers of
the Northwest endured in the early years of the present century.

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