Born in 1783 and named after George Washington, Washington Irving is widely recognized as the father of American letters. The first American writer to live by his pen and the first to have an international reputation, he gave his fledgling nation her very own distinct literature. Best remembered as the author of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip van Winkle," Irving was a lawyer, diplomat, and presidential confidant. But he was also a fun-loving, effortlessly charming scamp known for his sharp wit and scintillating conversation, especially among the ladies. In this intimate evaluation of a life, Bryan Jay Jones renders Washington Irving in all his flawed splendor -- a hugely successful man who fretted about money and employment, suffered from writer's block and depression, and doggedly cultivated his reputation. At the time, Irving was one of the most famous men in the world. Feted and courted on both sides of the Atlantic, he was a friend of the writers Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, presidents Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, and James Madison, and business tycoon John Jacob Astor. But the sparkling public persona of this gentleman author was only one side of Irving. Jones reveals as never before a very human portrait of the often contrasting public and private lives of this true American original. - Jacket flap.