Celebrating Washington Irving: A Glimpse into His Life and Letters on His 242nd Birthday

April 3, 2025, is Washington Irving’s 242^nd birthday. The works of America’s first author to earn his living entirely by his writing have never been out of print since his first successes in the early 19th century. Irving, however, was not only a writer. A trained lawyer and also the United States envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Spain from 1842 to 1846, he spent several birthdays away from family and friends during this time. Writing lively, engaging letters home from Madrid, he described the court of the young Spanish queen, Isabella II, the political situations and the social life enjoyed by Irving and his American staff.

Letters from home, however, were more concerned with Irving’s lodgings and comfort. One of the American Legation secretaries, young Carson Brevoort, painted two charming watercolor pictures* on paper of Irving’s rental lodgings in the “great house belonging to…the Marqui de Mos.” Measuring only 3” x 2”, the double-sided images show the floor plan of Irving’s rooms and on the reverse, a view of the pink sitting room or salon. A dark-haired man sits with his back to the viewer – we like to think that it is Washington Irving and can only imagine the comments of the family in New York when they received these pictures and the accompanying letter from Irving. At least they could imagine where he was on the several birthdays he did not get to celebrate with them at Sunnyside.