Washington Irving Society

Wednesday, October 4, 2023

BY KAITLYN HANSON

The writer, the poet, the biographer, the historian, the diplomat, the essayist, the lawyer, and the ambassador are all titles that have been used to describe Washington Irving. During his seventy six years on this Earth, he was able to accomplish more than the average person could ever imagine, even if granted a longer lifespan than his.

Today’s generation knows him as the man who wrote the short stories “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and it is assumed because of their popularity that those were his first published works. And while those are two excellent stories of his, Washington Irving has a vast variety of published works under his belt, with the first being writings for The Morning Chronicle, a local newspaper.

However, the people of the 1800s at first would not know it because Irving wrote under the pseudonym, Jonathan Oldstyle. This may be the first time he published under a false name, but it is definitely not the last time this tendency is seen from Irving. Throughout his life Washington Irving, in addition to his own name, publishes under such names as the famous Diedrich Knickerbocker and the less famous Geoffrey Crayon.

One story included in The Tales of a Traveller is “The Devil and Tom Walker.” It is said that Washington Irving wrote this entire piece in just one morning (Bowden). But do not let this small time frame give you the impression that this publication could be of lesser quality. While short, in the few pages of this text Irving is able to touch on a huge variety of themes and ideas. He mainly focuses, however, on the average person’s relationship with the devil and how easy it is to fall into temptation.

The story surrounds the idea of a trapped man who is offered the chance of a lifetime. Of course, as it is known, a deal with the devil is not cheap to come by. Through the decision making of none other than Tom Walker, the reader is granted a view into the world of a colonist during this time. Themes of power, greed, and hopelessness are all touched on through the words in this piece. Not only is Irving telling the story of Tom Walker, but he is also allowing access points for readers to learn about the histories of their people, including the wrong doings that often get left out of the history books.

Irving includes references to major historical events that affected the colonists of New England. Among other themes and topics involve the Native American people who originally lived on the land. While this is a story of fiction, not every reference and event that takes place within its pages are imaginary.

Tales of a Traveller may have not been the public’s favorite, but it is still an incredible work done by possibly one of the greatest American Literature authors of all time. He had no one area of expertise and was clearly not afraid to branch out and try new writing styles, or did he care if people had a negative review of either himself or of his publications.

At the end of the day, he knew that if he kept publishing there would be someone out there who would want to read what he has done, and considering he is the topic of an entire course, I would say that he was correct. He was not a man who was afraid of a little public crucifixion and in fact at times he seemed to thrive off of just that. There have been instances that Irving published under a mysterious pseudonym just to stir up a bit of drama in order to draw people to his work.

Bowden, Edwin T., et. al. The Complete Works of Washington Irving. Twayne, 1989.

This blog was written for the Washington Irving Society website in Fall 2022 during Dr. Tracy Hoffman’s English 4382 Major Authors class at Baylor University.