IRVING, MINNA

(Mrs. Harry Michener), writer; b. at Tarry town, New York. Educated by private tutors; studied music in Rome. Author of Songs of a Haunted Heart; A Cunning Culprt: Marriage of the Future; writes verse for magazines and newspapers; sketches and stories of the sea; 1899, presented with gold medal by survivors of the battleship Maine for her writings on its destruction. IRVING,. WASHINGTON (17831859), American author; 6. in New York, April 3, 1783; d. at Tarry town, New York, November 28, 1859. The s. of an English mother and a Scotch father, he was educated at small schools and entered a law office at 16, In 1802, he was a clerk for Josiah Ogden Hoffman, for whose dau. Mathilda he cherished 3 lasting affection, and her death, in 1809, left a memory never effaced. Before he was 20, he was writing for his bro.’s paper the Morning Chronicle, under the penname of ‘Jonathan Oldstyle.’ In 1804, he went to Europe for his health, spending over two years in travel, and meeting many notable people. Returning to]and America, 1806, he was admitted to the bar, in | but his chief interest lay in liter a-|1914; ture. With his bre. William and James | Salmagundi, modeled after The Specta-| i is fame at home and abroad| among all cla es of readers, In the fol-|b. lowing year he gave up law and was partner with his brothers, who had estab-| lished a commercial house in Liverpool. | He went to England, in 1315, in the | interests of the busine , which failed in |] 1818. He now devoted himself entirely | to literature, and wrote The Sketch Book, | 1819-1820; Brace bridge Hall, 1822; Tales|She of a Traveller, 1824; diplomatic service in | Spain, 1826, 1829; Life and Voyages of | Columbus, 1828; Secretary of Legation | in London, 1829-1832; an extensive tour | through the W. resulted in A Tour of the|some Prairies, 1835. Having bought an old | Dutch house near the scene cf Sleepy | Hollow, at Tarry town-on-the~Hudson (part of it became Irvington), he named} it ‘Sunny side,’ and made his home there. He was U.S. Minister to Spain, 18421846, and made a study of Arabian history, producing Mahomet and his Succe ors, 1849-1850. His other works are: Conquest of Granada, 1829; Voyages of the Companions of Columbus, 1831; The Alhambra, 1832; Legends of the Conquest | of Spain, 1835; Recollections of Abbots-| ford and New stead Abbey, 1835; Astoria, | 1836; Adventures of Captain Bonneville, | 1837; Wolfert’s Roost, 1855; Life of George | Washington, 1855-1859; and Biogra-|1904; phies of Goldsmith, 1849; and Margaret | Miller Davidson, 1841. j