Talks about authors and their work . life as he had observed it in histravels, especially of the Christmas customs andmerry-making. Murray gave him a thousanddollars, which helped him to make a new begin-ning in life, and so successful was the book thathe afterward gave him more money for it andpaid him seventy-five hundred dollars for hisTales of a Traveller before he had read themanuscript. He traveled much in Spain, living there at onetime—while writing The Alhambra and TheSpanish Papers. It is said that he wrote hisstory of the Alhambra inside the walls of thebeautiful palace, spending who
Talks about authors and their work . life as he had observed it in histravels, especially of the Christmas customs andmerry-making. Murray gave him a thousanddollars, which helped him to make a new begin-ning in life, and so successful was the book thathe afterward gave him more money for it andpaid him seventy-five hundred dollars for hisTales of a Traveller before he had read themanuscript. He traveled much in Spain, living there at onetime—while writing The Alhambra and TheSpanish Papers. It is said that he wrote hisstory of the Alhambra inside the walls of thebeautiful palace, spending whole days there. Hereceived political honors during his life, being atone time minister to Spain, at another time sec-retary of the American Legation in last years of his life were spent near theenchanted region of his fancy. TALKS ABOUT AUTHORS. 33 His home, called Sunnyside, was built nearTarrytown. Here he lived with his nieces, forhe never married. He was remarkably strong,and was busy with his mental work to the end. IRVINGS home—SUNNYSIDE. of his life, writing his wonderful Life of Wash-ington, when he was in his eightieth books were read by many people, all over theworld. One edition of fifteen volumes reacheda sale of two hundred and fifty thousand. One 34 TALKS ABOUT AUTHORS. story ill the Sketch Book will be rememberedand loved more than any of the others. It isthat of Rip Van Winkle. No one can everforget the little men who lived in the Kaatskillmountains, and the story of the young man whowandered off one day with his dog and his gunfor a rest from the sharp tongue of his wife,Gretchen, and Ij^ing down on the mountain tosleep, somehow fell under the bewitching in-fluence of the little men of the mountain, andslept for twenty years; his amazement on wakingto find an old rust}^ fire-lock by his side insteadof his own well-oiled gun, his dog, Wolf, gone,and a flowing white beard on his face; his exper-iences on going back to the village and findi
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