The creator of Rip van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow , Washington Irving was America\'s first literary writer, and one of its greatest.
His life has been the subject of several comprehensive biographies, but this is the first publication to be devoted solely to his Scottish ancestry, from the youngest son of a lowly crofter in a small island in Orkney, through the largest landowner in the Orkney Islands.
He was also a well-travelled diplomat and a popular raconteur.
The creator of Rip van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow , Washington Irving was America\'s first literary writer, and one of its greatest