Four Famous American Writers: Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, James Russell Lowell, Bayard Tayl | Page 2

now stand the City Hall and the Postoffice. Broadway was then a
country road. The Irvings lived at 131 William Street, afterward
moving across to 128. This is now one of the oldest parts of New York.
The streets in that section are narrow, and the buildings, though put up
long after Irving's birth, seem very old.
Here the little boy grew up with his brothers and sisters. At four he
went to school. His first teacher was a lady; but he was soon transferred

to a school kept by an old Revolutionary soldier who became so fond
of the boy that he gave him the pet name of "General." This teacher
liked him because, though often in mischief, he never tried to protect
himself by telling a falsehood, but always confessed the truth.
Washington was not very fond of study, but he was a great reader. At
eleven his favorite stories were "Robinson Crusoe" and "Sindbad the
Sailor." Besides these, he read many books of travel, and soon found
himself wishing that he might go to sea. As he grew up he was able to
gratify his taste for travel, and some of his finest books and stories
relate to his experiences in foreign lands. In the introduction to the
"Sketch Book" he says, "How wistfully would I wander about the
pier-heads in fine weather, and watch the parting ships bound to distant
climes--with what longing eyes would I gaze after their lessening sails,
and waft myself in imagination to the ends of the earth!"

CHAPTER II
IRVING'S FIRST VOYAGE UP THE HUDSON RIVER
Irving's first literary composition seems to have been a play written
when he was thirteen. It was performed at the house of a friend, in the
presence of a famous actress of that day; but in after years Irving had
forgotten even the title.
His schooling was finished when he was sixteen. His elder brothers had
attended college, and he never knew exactly why he did not. But he
was not fond of hard study or hard work. He lived in a sort of dreamy
leisure, which seemed particularly suited to his light, airy genius, so
full of humor, sunshine, and loving-kindness.
After leaving school, he began to study law in the office of a certain
Henry Masterton. This was in the year 1800. He was admitted to the
bar six years later; but he spent a great deal more of the intervening
time in traveling and scribbling than in the study of law. His first
published writing was a series of letters signed "Jonathan Oldstyle,"

printed in his brother's daily paper, "The Morning Chronicle," when the
writer was nineteen years old.
Irving's first journey was made the very year after he left school. It was
a voyage in a sailing boat up the Hudson river to Albany; and a land
journey from there to Johnstown, New York, to visit two married
sisters. In the early days this was on the border of civilization, where
the white traders went to buy furs from the Indians. Steamboats and
railroads had not been invented, and a journey that can now be made in
a few hours, then required several days. Years afterward, Irving
described his first voyage up the Hudson.
"My first voyage up the Hudson," said he, "was made in early boyhood,
in the good old times before steamboats and railroads had annihilated
time and space, and driven all poetry and romance out of travel.... We
enjoyed the beauties of the river in those days.[+]
[Footnote +: Irving was the first to describe the wonderful beauties of
the Hudson river.]
"I was to make the voyage under the protection of a relative of mature
age--one experienced in the river. His first care was to look out for a
favorite sloop and captain, in which there was great choice....
"A sloop was at length chosen; but she had yet to complete her freight
and secure a sufficient number of passengers. Days were consumed in
drumming up a cargo. This was a tormenting delay to me, who was
about to make my first voyage, and who, boy-like, had packed my
trunk on the first mention of the expedition. How often that trunk had
to be unpacked and repacked before we sailed!
"At length the sloop actually got under way. As she worked slowly out
of the dock into the stream, there was a great exchange of last words
between friends on board and friends on shore, and much waving of
handkerchiefs when the sloop was out of hearing.
"... What a time of intense delight was that first sail through the
Highlands! I sat on the deck as we slowly tided along at the foot of

those stern mountains, and gazed with wonder and admiration at cliffs
impending far above