Born almost at the same time that the United States was born, and named for the hero of the Revolution who became The Father of His Country, Washington Irving was a young New York dandy who became a cosmopolitan bachelor.

He was an almost English country gentleman who rode and camped out with troopers and trappers in the Far West. He was a romantic idler in castles in Spain and a hard-working diplomat in London and Madrid. He was the intimate of royal families in Europe and of Rip Van Winkle in the Catskills and of Ichabod Crane and Brom Bones in Sleepy Hollow.

Washington Irving called the home he built on the Hudson River just below Tarryton "Sunnyside," but the name means more than that in connection with Washington Irving. It was the sunny side of life he sought and found. It was the sunny side of life he presented in his sketches, legends, stories, histories, and biographies.

What his life was actually like and what he was like you will find in the pages of Sunnyside. 

From the book