The Art of Bookmaking: From their pens to your ears, genius in every story

Washington Irving was born on 3rd April, 1783, the youngest of 11, in New York.

Irving found his real interests away from school in literature and the theatre. An outbreak of yellow fever at 15 moved him away from Manhattan and into the surrounding countryside providing valuable settings for later works such as `The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'.

By 19 Irving was writing regularly to the New York Morning Chronicle, commenting on the theatrical and social scenes. When his health began to fail, he ...