Washington Irving

(1978 words)
  • Richard Rust (Emeritus, University of North Carolina)

Sketch by Daniel Maclise, c.1830s. Courtesy The Walter Scott Digital Archive, Edinburgh University Library.
Washington Irving is considered by some today to be old-fashioned, a fate he anticipated in his Sketch Book essays, “Westminster Abbey” and “The Mutability of Literature”. Yet Irving believed that imagination of a Shakespearean quality defies mutability – which may well apply to Irving's best work. …
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Citation:
Rust, Richard. "Washington Irving". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 February 2009
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2315, accessed 20 June 2013.]