Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Select American Classics: Being Selections From Irving's Sketch Book, Webster's Orations and Emerson's Essays as Published in the Eclectic English Classics
Washington irving, the eighth and youngest son Of William and Sarah Irving, was born in a house on William Street, in New York City, April 3, I783. His father was a descendant Of an Old Orkney family, and his mother was a native Of Falmouth, England. Young Washington began his school days at the age Of four. At the age Of sixteen his school days were over, and he began the study Of law. Though his education was Of a rudimentary and incomplete character, consisting Of a smatter ing Of Latin, music, and the ordinary English branches, he gave early signs Of a natural avidity for reading, and Of a power Of rap idly assimilating what he read. Sinbad, Robinson Crusoe, and Gulliver made a deep impression on his young mind. His early fondness for romance showed itself in many ways, and the theater in John Street possessed for him a seductive Charm, to which he succumbed as Often as he could steal away from home; for his father, Of the stern ways and habits Of the Scotch Cove nanter, looked upon theaters with hearty disfavor. In I8oz he entered the law office Of Josiah Ogden Hoffman, and, together with his Blackstone, he read general literature voraciously. About this time his health began to fail, and he made frequent tn'ps up the Hudson and the Mohawk, to Ogdensburg, Montreal.
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