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{{Short description|Collection of short stories and essays by Washington Irving}}
{{Infobox book| <!-- See Wikipedia:Wiki Project_Novels or Wikipedia:Wiki Project_Books -->
| name = The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.
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| author = [[Washington Irving]]
| illustrator = [[F. O. C. Darley]]
| country = United States
| language = English
| series = The Sketch Book
| genre =
| publisher = [[John Wiley & Sons|C. S. Van Winkle]] (USA)
| release_date = June 23, 1819–July 1820
| english_release_date = June 23, 1819
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'''''The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.''''', commonly referred to as '''''The Sketch Book''''', is a collection of 34 essays and short stories written by the American author [[Washington Irving]]. It was published serially throughout 1819 and 1820. The collection includes two of Irving's best-known stories, attributed to the fictional Dutch historian [[Diedrich Knickerbocker]]: "[[The Legend of Sleepy Hollow]]" and "[[Rip Van Winkle]]". It also marks Irving's first use of the [[pseudonym]] Geoffrey Crayon, which he would continue to employ throughout his literary career.
''The Sketch Book'', along with [[James Fenimore Cooper]]'s ''[[Leatherstocking Tales]]'', was among the first widely read works of American literature in Britain and Europe. It also helped advance the reputation of American writers with an international audience.
==Overview==
Apart from "[[Rip Van Winkle]]" and "[[The Legend of Sleepy Hollow]]"
Stories range from the maudlin (such as "The Wife" and "The Widow and Her Son") to the picaresque ("Little Britain") and the comical ("The Mutability of Literature"), but the common thread running through ''The Sketch Book''
Little more than five of the 33 chapters deal with American subjects: the essays "English Writers on America", "The Traits of Indian Character", "Philip of Pokanoket: An Indian Memoir", and parts of "The Author's Account of Himself" and "The Angler"; and Knickerbocker's short stories "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". Most of the remainder of the book consists of [[vignette (literature)|vignettes]] of English life and landscape, written with the author's characteristic charm while he lived in England. Irving wrote in a preface for a later edition:
{{
==Background==
Irving began writing the tales that would appear in ''The Sketch Book'' shortly after moving to England for the family business, in 1815. When the family business spiraled into [[bankruptcy]] throughout 1816 and 1817
{{
Irving spent late 1818 and the early part of 1819 putting the final touches on the short stories and essays that he would eventually publish as ''The Sketch Book'' through 1819 and 1820.{{
==Contents==
''The Sketch Book'' initially existed in two versions: a seven-part serialized American version in paperback and a two-volume British version in hardback. The British edition contained three essays that were not included in the original American serialized format. Two more essays, "A Sunday in London" and "London Antiques", were added by Irving in 1848 for inclusion in the Author's Revised Edition of ''The Sketch Book'' for publisher [[George Palmer Putnam|George Putnam]]. At that time, Irving reordered the essays. Consequently, modern editions
Modern editions of ''The Sketch Book'' contain all 34 stories, in the order directed by Irving in his Author's Revised Edition, as follows:<ref>"Textual Commentary
{| class="wikitable" align="center" cellpadding="7" style="clear:both;"
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|June 23, 1819
|First American Installment
|Irving's tribute to the English writer and historian [[William Roscoe]], whom Irving had met in
|-valign="top"
|"The Wife"
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|June 23, 1819
|First American Installment
|The tale of a henpecked husband who sleeps away twenty years in the Catskills
|-valign="top"
|"English Writers on America"
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|July 31, 1819
|Second American Installment
|A humorous piece in which literature is created as easily as a cook might make a stew. He specifically discusses how authors go to libraries to research previously written
|-valign="top"
|"A Royal Poet"
|September 13, 1819
|Third American Installment
|A romanticized description of the literary [[James I of Scotland|King James I of Scotland]] and his writing a poem for his beloved, Lady Jane Beaufort.
|-valign="top"
|"The Country Church"
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|September 13, 1819
|Third American Installment
|A detective story of sorts, in which Crayon attempts to locate the real-life tavern of [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]
|-valign="top"
|"The Mutability of Literature"
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|November 10, 1819
|Fourth American Installment
|A description of the kind of hospitality visitors to the Netherlands can expect. One of the visitors staying in the same Inn as Geoffrey Crayon relays the subsequent tale, "The Spectre Bridegroom
|-valign="top"
|"The Spectre Bridegroom"
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|July 1820
|English Edition, Volume 2
|A contemplative tour of [[Westminster Abbey
|-valign="top"
|"Christmas"
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|January 1, 1820
|Fifth American Installment
|Christmas festivities
|-valign="top"
|"Christmas Dinner"
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|1848
|Author's Revised Edition
|Prowling London for antiques, Crayon instead stumbles upon the [[London Charterhouse|Charter House]], home of "superannuated tradesmen and decayed householders
|-valign="top"
|"Little Britain"
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|July 1820
|English Edition, Volume 2
|A heroic portrait of [[Metacomet|the Indian
|-valign="top"
|"John Bull"
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|March 15, 1820
|Sixth American Installment
|
|-valign="top"
|"L'Envoy"
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===American editions===
A single-volume hardcover version, reprinting the two English volumes, was published in the United States by Van Winkle in 1824.
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'''First installment''' (June 23, 1819)
*"[[The
*"[[The Voyage (Irving)|The Voyage]]"
*"[[Roscoe (Irving)|Roscoe]]"
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*"[[A Royal Poet]]"
*"[[The Country Church]]"
*"[[The
*"[[The Widow and Her Son]]"
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===English edition===
Portions of ''The Sketch Book'' were almost immediately reprinted in British literary magazines
[[File:Sir Henry Raeburn - Portrait of Sir Walter Scott.jpg|thumb|An early admirer of Irving and his work, [[Sir Walter Scott]] encouraged his own publisher, John Murray, to take up ''The Sketch Book''.]] The first four American installments were collected into a single volume and self-published by Irving in London, under John
Searching for another publisher, Irving appealed to his friend and mentor, [[Sir Walter Scott]], for assistance. Scott approached his own publisher, London powerhouse [[John Murray (publisher, born 1778
In July 1820, Murray published the second volume of ''The Sketch Book'', including all the pieces from the final three American installments, plus three additional essays: the American Indian sketches "Philip of Pokanoket" and "Traits of Indian Character
Given Irving's additions, the English version of ''The Sketch Book'' contained thirty-two pieces, while its American counterpart contained only twenty-nine.
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===Author's revised edition===
In 1848, as part of the Author's Revised Edition he was completing for publisher [[George Palmer Putnam|George Putnam]], Irving added two new stories to ''The Sketch Book''
==Public and critical response==
The first American reviews were the result of well-placed advance publicity, performed on
{{
Outside
{{
Two of the book's early admirers were [[Sir Walter Scott]] (who called it "positively beautiful")<ref>Letter quoted by Irving in the preface to the revised edition of ''The Sketch Book''.</ref> and [[Lord Byron]] (who said of the book, "I know it by heart").<ref>{{cite book | first = Charles Dudley
| last = Warner | title = Washington Irving
Apart from "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
In Britain, the book did much to promote Americans as legitimate writers, and their work as legitimate literature
Even Irving admitted that he was pleased to have stunned the skeptical English critics. When one English admirer asked Irving to confirm that he was really an American, Irving responded enthusiastically: "The doubts which her ladyship has heard on the subject seem to have arisen from the old notion that it is impossible for an ''American to write decent English.''"<ref>Irving to Richard Rush, Paris, 28 October 1820. Emphasis in original.</ref>
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The book is compared favourably with [[William Pinnock]]'s English educational texts in [[George Eliot]]'s novel ''[[The Mill on the Floss]]'' (1860): Maggie, talking about her 'gloomy fancy' to her cousin Lucy says:
''
''The Sketch Book'' cemented
==Influence on American culture==
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One of the most significant influences of ''The Sketch Book'' came from its cycle of five [[Christmas]] stories, portraying an idealized and old-fashioned Yule celebration at an English country manor. Irving's stories depicted harmonious warm-hearted English Christmas customs he observed while staying in [[Aston Hall]], Birmingham, England, that had largely been abandoned,<ref>Kelly, Richard Michael (ed.) (2003), A Christmas Carol. p.20. Broadview Literary Texts, New York: Broadview Press, {{ISBN|1-55111-476-3}}</ref> and he used the tract ''Vindication of Christmas'' (London 1652) of Old English Christmas traditions, that he had transcribed into his journal as a format for his stories.<ref name=BTR>
{{citation |author=Restad, Penne L. |year=1995 |title=Christmas in America: a History |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-510980-5}}
</ref> Except [[Pennsylvania German]] Settlers, who were enthusiastic celebrators of Christmas, Irving contributed to a revival of customs in
The [[U.S. Postal Service]] issued a [[Legend of Sleepy Hollow]] postage stamp for use with the 1974 Halloween mail.
{{Gallery
|width=250 |height=250 |
|align=center
|File:Irving Christmas Dinner.jpeg|alt2=Old-fashioned Yule celebration at an English country manor|"The Christmas Dinner" illustrated by [[Randolph Caldecott]]
|File:Legend_of_Sleepy_Hollow_U.S._Stamp.jpg|alt1=Commemorative 1974 10¢ Legend of Sleepy Hollow U.S. stamp|Legend of Sleepy Hollow U.S. postage stamp issued October 12, 1974, depicting the [[Headless Horseman]] and [[Ichabod Crane]].
}}
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==Bibliography==
*{{cite book|author=Burstein, Andrew|title=The Original Knickerbocker: The Life of Washington Irving
*{{cite book|author=Irving, Pierre|title=The Life and Letters of Washington Irving|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeandlettersw06irvigoog|location=New York |publisher=G. P. Putnam |date=1862}}(4 vols. Cited herein as PMI.)
*{{cite news|
▲*{{cite news|authors=Irving, Washington & Springer, Haskell (Editor)|title=The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent|volume= 8 |work=The Complete Works of Washington Irving|location=Boston |publisher=Twayne|date= 1978}}
* {{cite book|author=Jones, Brian Jay|title=Washington Irving: An American Original|location=New York|publisher= Arcade|date=2008|isbn=978-1-55970-836-4}}
==External links==
{{wikisource|The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon|''The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon''}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/washington-irving/the-sketch-book-of-geoffrey-crayon-gent}}
* [https://
* [https://archive.org/search.php?query=title%3ASketch%20creator%3Airving%20AND%20mediatype%3Atexts ''The Sketch Book''] at [[Internet Archive]]
* {{librivox book | title=The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. | author=Washington Irving}}
* [http://www.loa.org/volume.jsp?RequestID=54§ion=notes Publishing history of ''The Sketch Book'']
* [http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761556395_2/Children?%
* {{isfdb series|9391|The Sketch Book}}
{{Washington Irving}}
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