devil and tom walker
Washington Irving was the first native American to succeed as a professional writer. He remains important as a pioneer in American humor and the development of the short story. Irving was greatly admired and imitated in the 19th century. Toward the end of his career, his reputation declined due to the sentimentality and excessive gentility of much of his work ("Irving" 479). Washington Irving's time spent in the Hudson Valley and abroad contributed to his writing of The Devil and Tom Walker, The Legend of Irving was born in New York City on April 3, 1783, the youngest of eleven children in a merchant family. Unlike his brothers, Irving did not attend nearby Columbia College, instead he was apprenticed in 1801 to a lawyer. In 1806, he passed the bar examination, but remained financially dependent on his family until the publication of The Sketch Book. In the meantime, Irving did odd jobs for the family as agent and lobbyist. It seems like he worked as little as possible, and for years pursued an amateur or semiprofessional interest in literature ("Irving" 479). In his free time, he read avidly and wandered when he could in the misty, rolling Hudson River
The lively story of "The Devil and Tom Walker" is the story of Tom Walker, his termagant wife, and their separate confrontations with the devil. In conclusion, Washington Irving's time spent studying local folklore made his short stories seem more realistic to readers of all kinds. Other than the revision of his works for uniform edition published in 1848-1850 his most notable work in his later years was the 5- volume Life of George Washington. Irving began writing satirical letters under the pseudonym "Jonathan Oldstyle. He had rebuilt an old Dutch house near Sleepy Hollow and he named it Sunnyside. We feel more at home in it with the author, than in any of this collection" (4). His first book, Salmagundi, was a collaboration with another brother, William and their friend James Kirke Paulding. In three distinct ways, Irving shows his knowledge of folklore. This book satirized early New York theater and poked fun at the political, social, and cultural life of the city. Another tale from The Sketch Book, "Rip Van Winkle" is an American version of an ancient folk tale in which Irving keeps very close to the folk version and with which he makes his greatest contribution to and use of American folklore. First, there is his portrayal of ghosts; second, his accounts of the elaborate rules surrounding the successful discovery of buried treasure and third, his use of local legends as basis for the tales (Rodes 247). In the folktale of German origin Irving has once again transplanted the story to take places in the Hudson Valley of New York and achieved something more than the routine tale of suspense or the bizarre anecdote ("Irving" 480).
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Acceptance Essays
