Biographical Notice.
[figure description] Page iii.[end figure description]
When a writer has acquired great renown by
his productions, and has established his reputation
as a man of genius, we naturally feel a curiosity
to become acquainted not only with his personal
but his intellectual history. We like to trace up
the current of his mind to its first tricklings, as it
were, and to listen to its prattlings among the
pebbles, as it is hurrying along to its broader and
bolder channel.
The author of the Sketch Book has become
more distinguished than perhaps any other American
writer; and even England has been constrained
to acknowledge that his productions are
among the most elegant specimens of English
composition.
In the year 1802, Mr. Irving first attracted public
notice by publishing in the Morning Chronicle
a series of sportive pieces under the signature of
Jonathan Oldstyle. To the new generation of
readers produced by the lapse of twenty-two
-- iv --
[figure description] Page iv.[end figure description]
years, we trust that their republication will be
peculiarly acceptable.
It is in these specimens that we may perceive
the germ of that genius which soon after blossomed
in Salmagundi, shot forth in wild luxuriance
in Knickerbocker, and finally displayed its rich
fruit in the Sketch Book, and Bracebridge Hall.
A brief account of the life and writings of Mr.
Irving will, perhaps, not be deemed superfluous
by the readers of this little publication.
The city of New-York has the honour of being
the birth place of this distinguished author, who
has given such eclat to the literary reputation of
our country. He was a student in Columbia
College, in the year 1800, but by reason of his
infirm health, was under the necessity of relinquishing
his classical studies, and of devoting his
attention to pursuits less compulsory and severe.
By way of recreation, he was advised to take lessons
in drawing; and for this purpose, he put
himself under the tuition of a gentleman, whose
Drawing Academy still maintains a high reputation
in our city. What proficiency he made in
this art, we have not the means of ascertaining.
It is presumable, however, that this kind of sketching
was not that which best accorded with his
genius, nor probably consisted with his health;
-- v --
[figure description] Page v.[end figure description]
for he soon afterwards began to turn his thoughts
to travel, and a voyage across the Atlantic was
recommended by his physician, and encouraged
by his kindred and friends. In the interim, however,
and indeed before this determination had
been taken, his elder brother, now in England,
was editing a newspaper in this city; and although
a political paper, and devoted to the views and
interests of a party, yet some portions of its columns
were occasionally embellished “by hands
unseen,” with the flowers of poetry and literature,
and sometimes enlivened by flashes of wit and
humour. An inviting opportunity here presented
itself, for trying the scarcely fledged wings of our
juvenile author: and a two-fold benefit could be conferred—
credit to himself, and relief to the care-worn
and harassed editor, whose political conflicts did
not allow him leisure to woo the muses to his aid;
and he knew, that without some contributions
from the Pierian district, his paper, even in this
“bank-note-world,” would soon decline, for the
want of contributions of a more substantial
quality.
It was at this period, that the light pieces now
republished, first made their appearance. They
attracted a good deal of notice, and the Morning
Chronicle was eagerly sought for by the lovers
-- vi --
[figure description] Page vi.[end figure description]
of genuine native humour. Mr. Irving then embarked
for France, from whence he proceeded to
Italy, and went as far as Rome and Naples. His
travels and residence abroad, enabled him to entertain
his friends at home with the most amusing
accounts of his various adventures, and the most
picturesque descriptions of every thing that presented
itself to his ready and lively apprehension.
His letters are, no doubt, yet to be found within
the circle of his relatives and correspondents, and
the hope may be indulged, that they will not suffer
them to be lost.
Our author returned to America, we believe,
some time in the year 1805 or 1806; and his health
being much improved, he commenced the study
of the law, in the office of an eminent counsellor
in New-York. Coke, however, “delighted him
not—nor Blackstone neither.” What progress
he made in his juridical pursuits, we know not;
but that he read more than he understood, and
understood more than he remembered, there can
be but little doubt.
In the year 1807, he amused the town with his
Salmagundi, which was published in numbers,
commencing in January, and continuing till the
beginning of the next year. Several of the numbers
are ascribed to a gentleman who has since
-- vii --
[figure description] Page vii.[end figure description]
distinguished himself both in poetry and prose,
and whose copious, chaste, and vigorous style, as
well as his satirical wit, sarcastic humour, and
biting irony, render all his attempts at concealment
unavailing. The poetical pieces which embellish
Salmagundi, are well known to be the
production of the eldest brother of our author,
and who is since deceased. Salmagundi is now
publishing in London, as Knickerbocker's History
has already been; for such is Mr. Irving's
reputation and popularity in England, that John
Bull is now quite willing to ask for, and to read,
an American book; though, according to a learned
coxcomb, (critic, we meant to say,) in the Edinburgh
Review a few years ago, such a thing was
then never thought of.
In the year 1810, an edition of Campbell's
Poems being about to be published in Philadelphia,
Mr. Irving was applied to for a biographical
sketch of that sweet and sublime bard. This task
he executed in a most masterly manner; and the
forty pages of which it consists, form, in our humble
opinion, the most beautiful and finished piece
of serious composition that ever came from his
pen. In point of style, refined sentiment, and
generous and spirited effusion, we venture to
-- viii --
[figure description] Page viii.[end figure description]
assert, that it is not surpassed by any piece of
prose in the English language.
The History of New-York, by Deidrich
Knickerbocker, was his next production; and in
this he seems to have exerted all his powers of
good-natured burlesque, playful wit, and facetious
fancy. He prepared himself for this work by a
course of diligent research into the antiquities of
New Amsterdam; and the libraries of New-York
and Philadelphia were ransacked for materials, or
rather subjects, for his wizard pencil. It is a
broad caricature from beginning to end; and, like
a magic lantern, exhibits the most fantastic combinations,
the most ludicrous distortions, and unlicensed
exaggerations, that a mirthful fancy can
create. Though sport to many, it was not so to
all; and some of the descendants of our Dutch
aborigines were not a little offended at the liberty
which the author has taken with the names and
manners of those whom they had been accustomed
to remember with reverence and respect. A gentleman
whose name bespeaks his Dutch lineage,
and whose talents entitle his observations to very
high regard, in his Discourse before the New-York
Historical Society in 1818, makes the following
animadversions on the subject, with peculiar elegance
and feeling:
-- ix --
[figure description] Page ix.[end figure description]
“It is more `in sorrow than in anger,' that I
feel myself compelled to add to these gross instances
of national injustice, a recent work of a
writer of our own, who is justly considered one of
the brightest ornaments of American literature.
I allude to the burlesque history of New-York, in
which it is painful to see a mind, as admirable for
its exquisite perception of the beautiful, as it is
for its quick sense of the ridiculous, wasting the
riches of its fancy on an ungrateful theme, and its
exuberant humour in a coarse caricature.
“This writer has not yet fulfilled all the promise
he has given to his country. It is his duty,
because it is in his power, to brush away the pretenders
who may at any time infest her society,
her science, or her politics; or if he aspires, as I
trust that he does, to strains of a higher mood, the
deeds of his countrymen, and the undescribed
beauties of his native land, afford him many a rich
subject, and he may deck the altar of his country's
glory with the garlands of his taste and fancy.
“How dangerous a gift is the power of ridicule!
it is potent to unmask the pretender, and to brand
the hypocrite; yet how often has it dissipated
those gay illusions which beguile the rough path
of life—how often has it chilled the glow of genius
and invention—how often, at its dread presence,
-- x --
[figure description] Page x.[end figure description]
have the honest boasts of patriotism, the warm
expression of piety, the generous purpose of
beneficence, faltered on the lips, and died away
in the heart.”
About the year 1812, Mr. Irving went to England,
and became a partner in a commercial concern,
of which two of his brothers were also
partners, and one of whom remained in this country.
The correspondence department, which was
extensive, was allotted to the literary member of
the house; and the business of the establishment
had become so profitable, that each one, soon after
the peace of 1815, had a prospect of sharing a
handsome dividend. Our author enjoyed the
expectation of retiring from the irksome drudgery
of the counting house to the sweets of literary
leisure, with a competence for life, when the
failure of a commercial adventure, in a moment
convinced him of the vanity and delusiveness of
human anticipations, and reduced him to a state
of almost life-loathing despondency. What a
trial for a sensitive mind—and yet for his credit
and his fame what a fortunate reverse! His
pen and his ledger are exchanged for his pencil
and his sketch book; and Geoffrey's drafts are
more highly honoured, than those of any merchant
in the land.
Irving, Washington, 1783-1859 [1824], Letters of Jonathan Oldstyle, gent. [Pseud] (William H, Clayton, New York) [word count] [eaf216].
