On this episode of Our American Stories, in the early years of the United States, Washington Irving became one of the first writers to achieve both national and international fame. His stories, including Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, helped define early American literature and introduced elements of Gothic fiction and Romanticism to a wider audience. He also helped reshape Christmas; a holiday once associated more with rowdy and drunken celebration than with time-honored traditions and family.

Brian Jay Jones, author of Washington Irving: An American Original, shares how Irving built a lasting reputation through storytelling and became America’s first true literary celebrity.

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