Five Fun Facts About Washington Irving

Washington Irving is probably best remembered for his wonderful short stories The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle.  Born in The United States in 1783 he was a short story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat who became one of the first Americans to find acclaim within the European literary sphere after moving with his family to England in 1815.

Here we have gathered together Five Fun Facts about Washington Irving that might just surprise you.

Irving was named after the the first official president of the United States George Washington. The more astute of you will be questioning how this could be when he was born in 1783 and George Washington wasn’t inaugurated until 1789? While he may not yet have been president he was already well known and highly thought of as an important founding father of the newly independent United States.

Washington gave us the word knickers, the fictional author of his novel Knickerbocker’s History of New York the name first became synonymous with New Yorkers and within fifty years was being used to describe ‘loose-fitting breeches, gathered in at the knee, and worn by boys, sportsmen, and others who require a freer use of their limbs.’ Why? The OED thinks it may have something to do with the illustrated representation of Irving’s Knickerbocker wearing knee length breeches and so the two becoming forever associated with one another.
Over the years both the word and the garment have become much shortened with ladies underwear now being called knickers here in the United Kingdom.

Irving is also responsible for the ‘Flat Earth’ myth; Irving’s 1828 book A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus cemented the myth that medieval people thought the world was flat, whereas Columbus believed it was round.
Why did Irving invent the story? It appears he did it to make Columbus look even more of a man ahead of his time than he was; how fortunate for Columbus.

Irving also gave us Gotham; it was he who was the first person to refer to New York as Gotham City. Used for the first time in his 1807 satirical periodical Salmagundi. Irving had taken the name from a Nottinghamshire village in England, which was reputedly inhabited by fools. (but that’s another story).
So perhaps Batman’s real identity is that of an English Gentleman.

Irving is believed to be the true proponent of the idea of modern Christmas celebrations. It may not in fact be Dickens’ A Christmas Carol that made Goose and gifts and days of rest the norm at Christmas time as several years before, Irving had already pushed the idea of the family Christmas, Saint Nicholas and many other customs that had fallen out of favour when writing several Christmas stories which he had added to his revised version of Knickerbocker’s History of New York. So next Christmas raise a glass to Mr Washington Irving and thank him kindly for Christmas Day.

How amazing is it that we owe so many things to this one man. He also gave us the Knickerbocker Glory and for that one thing alone he has gone straight to the top of my list of favourite authors.