Washington Irving in Spain

After some early success with his writing, Washington Irving, best know for his stories 'Rip Van Winkle' and 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow', traveled to Europe to experience life--I really love that idea--why weren't my parents more 19th century in their views?  His plan was to travel, and through the experiences gained  he would generate ideas and reinvigorate his spirit, and then write again, renewed by what had happened.

While I was en route to the Alhambra in Granada, we came upon a statue of this well remembered American author--I have never read any of his travel tales of Spain, but I did download them onto my Kindle while I was there--more on that once I have read them.  I was surprised to see him there, which made me curious about what the story behind that was--well, Mr. Irving actually lived in the Alhambra for a period of time in 1829.

Washington Irving first came to Spain in 1826, when he was lured by the Spanish government making documents about Columbus and the discovery of the New World were made available--it was a discovery that markedly changed the world at that time, and Spain realized that they needed to keep all the paperwork on such a remarkable period of time in their history.  Irving came to Madrid (the documents were subsequently sent to Sevilla) and he spent a number of years writing about what he found.  These books enjoyed popularity and he wanted to remain in Spain--but that was not to be his fate.  He took a diplomatic position in England and his relationship with Spain came to an end.  But it was nice to see his statue in Granada (the above photo was taken after we had spent a day climbing arounf the Alhambra--we looked markedly perkier on the way up the hill!).