American Men of Letters : Washington Irving. By Charles Dudley
Warner. (Sampson Low and Co.)—Washington Irving was certainly the first American man of letters to make a distinct impression upon the Old World. He was known in this country sixty years ago, before even Cooper and Bryant, who were respectively the first novelist and the first poet whose fame crossed the Atlantic. Hence the special interest of this biography. Irving, too, though he was a genuinely American writer, had a peculiar liking for this country. " Knickerboc'ker's History of New York" is, of course, his greatest work ; but he is never so pleasing as when he is describing scenes of old English life. This choice of a subject ensured that the good-feel- ing between the author and the country described remained without interruption. The present is always dangerous ground, whether for satire or praise. The "reminiscent tone," Mr. Warner very well says, "is quite characteristic of nearly everything he wrote about England. He was always a little in the past tense." And then, besides these claims that Irving possesses on the interest of English readers, he had good, we may say great, qualities, which few of those who admire his literary work are thoroughly aware of. No purer or more genuine soul ever devoted itself to the labour of the pen. As a man of letters, he was without littleness or jealousy ; and there was nothing in his life, nothing infra parietes, which was not suited to the ideals that he set forth abroad. Mr. Warner has done his task excel- lently. His criticism of the literary value of Irving's work is discri- minating and just, and his picture of the man full of sympathy. There are some interesting particulars, which it is curious to compare with present facts in literary history, about the remuneration which Irving received. For the "Life of Columbus," be was paid £3,150 by Mr. Murray. This was for the English copyright. In fact, it was his English copyright, for the most part, that remunerated him.
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