Washington Irving was born in New York in 1783 to a family of Scottish origin. Irving was the youngest of 11 children, only eight of which survived to reach adulthood. Also a historian and a biographer, Irving became one of the first American writers to be widely accepted in Europe as an American author. Irving is thought to have been the first American author whose stories take place in the United States. Irving died at the age of 76 in Tarrytown, New York, where Sunnyside, his homestead, has become a tourist attraction.
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