TWO WASHINGTON IRVING STORIES

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33601, 1 August 1974, Page 4

TWO WASHINGTON IRVING STORIES

The first of two animated stories by Washington Irving screens late next Sunday afternoon. It is “Rip Van Winkle.”

Washington Irving was an alert, ingenuous man, who stretched his small talent to become a much-admired literary figure. He was bom in April, 1783, the youngest member of a large family, the father of whom had migrated from Scotland 20 years earlier and established a flourishing hardware 'and agency business in New York.

Beginning his career some 15 years after the American revolution, Washington Irving’s placid approach and adaptability produced pleasant, imaginative stories which contrasted sharoly with his brash politicallyminded contemporaries. At this time America had the reputation for giving commerce the highest priority and its literature was held in low regard by the rest of the world. With the publication of the “Sketch Book,” Irving restored the literary reputation of America in the eyes of the world, and laid a solid foundation for American literature. Good at characterisation, he pricked the pride of republican pretensions, thus giving himself the reputation as an arbiter of young America. He was a spoiled, precocious, moody, sensitive and imaginative child, but suffered from severe bronchitis. He studied law inter-

mittently and passed the bar examination in 1806. From the time he left school at the age of 15 he travelled a good deal, at first wandering the countryside and New York, mainly seeking improved health, and later went on to Europe. He had several pseudonyms — Diedrich Knickerbocker, characterised as a vigorous, out-spoken, roughmannered man, and Geoffrey Crayon, who spoke as one superbly well-mannered and decorous. Irving died in 1859, and his grave is still tended in the Sleepy Hollow cemetery. “Rip Van Winkle,” was published under the name of Diedrich Knickerbocker. At the time the story was written, Rip symbolised the way a great deal of the world pictured the American man. He was considered likeable enough, but essentially immature, self-centred and naive — perpetually one of the boys. Irving used this character and the story to symbolise waste of time. In spite of the tragedy of life slept away, and the symbolism used, Rip became a loveable figure and his story a fantasy, known to almost every child. The second of the series is “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” It screens on August 11.