Washinton's Health and Gateways

One thing about Washington Irving that a lot of people do not know about would be his many health problems.  Unlike like most when you have health problems some people let them either get the best of them and stop what they were doing or they live and push through it.  Washington chose to push through it and it created a great gateway and opened many doors along his journey. Washington was the only child out of all 11 of his siblings that was born sickly. So his disease was not one that was acquired throughout his lifetime he was born with it and it gradually got worse.  He did not let it stop him though.  In 1804 he set sail to get treatment for his disease from his town in New York to Bordeaux, France.  While in France he worked on his French skills, his health, and his knowledge of other subjects such as art, theater, and opera.  He also traveled to other countries such as The Netherlands, Spain, Scotland, Wales, and England.  After returning to an emasculate state in health he returned to New York because he was called to the bar in 1806.  Instead he decided to start writing papers for a periodical with his brother and that led to his writings of stories like the Salmagundi Papers and the Whim-Whams and opinions of Laucelot Langstaff in 1809.  In 1815 he returned to England to work with his brother who truly pushed him with his writing style and between 1819-1820 he wrote the famous books The Crayon Papers and the even more famous The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon. Also Rip Van Winkle and Sleepy Hollow which are even bigger books.  After publishing these works he got a lot of great reviews from famous people such as Charles Dickens and Samuel Taylor Coloridge. After seeming to get so far ahead in life Washington's health struck him tragically again as well.  This time it hit him so hard that he could not walk.  He then moved back to Spain for more rehab.  Even after this he wrote 5 more books and one which he considered his finest work Tales of a traveler (1824).  He then moved back to America in 1832 and bought a farm close to the Hudson River in Tarrytown, New York very secluded with a lake as well.  He also continued to write many other books such as Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey (1835) and finished his long awaited project the Life of George Washington (1859).  Washington died on September 28, 1859, his body rests in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery which overlooks Tarrytown, New York.

Links!!!!

Different Lung Diseases http://www.lung.org/lung-disease/?gclid=CO2q-9m4hbQCFQ2znQodOWQARw

Washington's many works http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/wirving/bl-wirving-collected.htm

Washington's biography on his 225th birthday! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZH6JJw6ngY

Pictures of Washington Irving! https://www.google.com/search?q=Washington+irving+picture&hl=en&tbo=u&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=RmPAUO3UNoLa8ATD84DIAg&ved=0CC4QsAQ&biw=1280&bih=869


Justin Kennedy