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Washington Irving Chronicler of old New York and his legacy.(BOOKS)

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From: The Washington Times
Date: 20070304
Author:

Byline: Jack Matthews, SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES

It is a genial irony that the man who created such legendary characters as Rip Van Winkle and Ichabod Crane was profoundly insecure about his place in the history of letters. He was afraid that, like most writers, he was destined "to be lost, even to remembrance."

From an Olympian perspective his fears were justified, of course, but to have his stories still read today, almost two centuries after Rip awakened, is a literary version of immortality. Indeed, the story of Rip Van Winkle has risen above the narrower ...

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