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Washington Irving's West.(literature based on American West (Historical region))

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From: The Historian
Date: 20040922
Author:Ronda, James P.

FOR MOST READERS the name Washington Irving summons up images of places like Sleepy Hollow and the Hudson River Valley. Sometimes known as the "Sage of Sunnyside," Irving filled his stories with characters like Rip Van Winkle and Ichabod Crane. Even his popular biographies of Christopher Columbus and George Washington fit neatly into the structure of urbane, civilized storytelling Irving sought to promote as the centerpiece of a new American literature. But for a brief time in the 1830s he abandoned those genteel narratives to write three important books about the American West. ...

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