Henry Irving

Considered the first professional, distinguished author in the United States, Washington Irving helped gain international respect for American literature through his short stories, biographies, and histories. During the 19th century, he undertook the persona of Geoffrey Crayon and published a collection of 34 pieces of writing titled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon. One of the most popular short stories amongst this collection, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, is noted for its action, adventure,…

Bald Eagle Times #58 Music in WWII To the faithful readers of the Bald Eagles Times: In contrast to the other recently published articles, this is not your typical war story. In fact, it is not even directly related to the war. It is actually a story of the evolution of music leading up to and even throughout the war. Music, it is safe to say, is what kept the nation together. It gave us a fallback which we could all enjoy, regardless of our situation in life, race, or economical status. In…

Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Washington Irving was born to a Scottish immigrant family on April 3, 1783, in New York City. Later that year, The Treaty of Paris was signed,…

“Rip Van Winkle” was an iconic short story that was written by Washington Irving, in June, 1818. It was so well-known that almost every child in the United States has read it or heard about it once in their lifetime. Irving creates a simple-minded and easygoing character named Rip Van Winkle. He was cherished by the community, but his wife henpecks him day and night because of his carefree attitude. However, Irving’s illustration of Rip does not encompass the true reality of the “American Dream”…

Washington Irving creates this social conflict between the characters Ichabod Crane and Katrina Van Tassel in, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Ichabod Crane, a strict school teacher and singing instructor, represents the lower-class in this short story and Katrina,…

While verse was economically marginal in the early nineteenth century, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) became the first American poet who could live off his royalties (Gioia 74). He was also the first poet of the New World to achieve an international fame; his reputation reached Europe and even Latin America (64). Devoted to the creation of a native literature, Longfellow committed himself to developing an American poetic diction. In “Our Native Writers” (1825), his graduation address,…

When hearing the words trickster tales, one may assume it to be a fictional story. But the narrative that is about to unfold before you is veracious. The Native American trickster tale “Ikto Conquers Iya, the Eater” is an unusual, enthralling piece of literature. A trickster is known by definition as a “a deceiver; cheat; fraud” (Dictionary), but this tale is more about using wit in a comical way. There’s a deeper message within the text. “Ikto Conquers Iya, the Eater” seems silly throughout it…

Not only was Irving able to manipulate the concept of cognitive authority in his two books, but Holocaust revisionists in general have been able to manipulate cognitive authority of historians in other ways. Deborah Lipstadt, in her book Denying the Holocaust, offers a great insight on just how Irving and other revisionists have been able to become so prominent. She says that revisionists have been able to gain some amount of authority by “camouflaging their goals” (Lipstadt 1993). They hide…

There are plenty of ways to pass time. If you’re taking the bus home after a long night at work and waiting for your stop to come, play a quick game on your phone or listen to music, maybe chat with someone sitting next to you. If you’re waiting in the long lines at Disneyland, take a minute to pay attention to accents and other languages that you might hear, or watch the faces of the people just getting off the ride. If you’re waiting for your nagging shrewish wife to finally stop pestering and…

will focus on include, setting the story in the past, filled with exaggerated characters, and features magical events with their consequences. How do these traits affect the story? And how do readers feel because of these traits? Now, Irving uses the setting to add a mythological characteristic to “Rip Van Winkle”. The years after the American Revolution used as the setting further the plot. When we first meet Rip Van Winkle he was living in a “village” which “was yet…