Washington Irving Biography

I finished reading Brian Jay Jones' biography of Washington Irving. I bought the book this past year on a whim, and was thoroughly delighted with nearly every line written. Irving was a rare person whose path crossed those of so many other famous Americans including George Washington, Dolly Madison, Martin Van Buren and six other Presidents, Edgar Allen Poe, John Astor, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, George Fenimore Cooper, George Bancroft, and ..... He was the first great American author (among the first political satirists, Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle, the definitive biographies of Christopher Columbus, George Washington, fictions and true tales of Europe, the American West...... He was instrumental in politics as an Assistant Secretary of the Navy, served as Ambassador to Spain, and helped with delicate negotiations between the U.S. and Britain over the final northern border for the Oregon Territory (49th parallel) which helped avoid another war.

This past week I participated in a conference in the Hudson Valley about local and regional food systems research. This is the land of Hiawatha, the Headless Horseman, and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Being from the West, the hardwood forests of the East are a novelty, along with the shallow mountain soils that were scrubbed by glaciers. I had read all but the last 80 pages of the biography, so took it along in honor of the man and the place. My journey by rental car with GPS from Stewart Airport in New Windsor, to West Point, to the Hudson Valley Lodge in Kerhonkson, and back to the airport was much easier than the journey by carriage over rough roads in the early 1800's, but new to me now as it was to him in his time. There was no rolling thunder across the valleys and mountains while I was there, but one could imagine images of little bearded men being all about - perhaps bowling a few nine pins in anticipation of the next storm.