These are the notebooks of Washington Irving, containing the jottings made by Irving during his travels in Europe between 1815 and 1830. These journals have been kept in the Irving family until within the last few years of the 19th century. The number of people who think they could write is larger than most of us suspect; it is pleasantly larger than the number who think they can write. There is not one of the former but will be eager to read Irving's notebooks. For they are the genuine backstage of literature. They are real notebooks: they are not journals, written with an eye on the public, as are most of the notebooks that push into print. They are not a collection of Irving's profound thoughts. Neither are they commentaries; Waterloo was but just over, but you will find in these pages few choice bits of gossip concerning the men and affairs of that momentous period. Obeying the strange impulse which seems to be common to all of us, big and little, Irving did set down each day the state of the weather and if he slept well. But this is about as far as the journalizing goes: the rest is observations, character sketches, scraps of sentences, skeleton plots—these three volumes should help to dispel the notion that writers "make up" their books; only the poor writers invent anything, for they write for the sake of writing; fellows like Irving write for the sake of life, straining to catch and fix some of its overwhelming stream of pictures and passions.

The first English edition was issued simultaneously with the American. John Jacob Astor persuaded Irving to undertake this story of his ill-fated enterprise at the mouth of the Columbia River in 1834. Irving had the use of all of Astor's notes and manuscripts, as well as the original journals of such key participants as Robert Stuart, Wilson Price Hunt, and Ramsey Crooks. The resulting work is a classic - an indispensable resource for students of the American West. It is considered to be the "classic account of the first American attempt at settlement on the Pacific coast,1811--initial action towards substantiating our claim to Oregon--including the earliest extended relation of Wilson P. Hunt's overland expedition from St. Louis to that settlement." Howes.

Best known for his short stories, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip van Winkle, Washington Irving was a prolific essayist, biographer, and historian, as well as a member of the American diplomatic staff. The three volumes of his Journals provide detailed accounts of Irving's travels, experiences, and observations, creating an enlightening backdrop to both his literary and historical works. Noteworthy for his descriptions of his travels in Europe, of particular interest is Irving's perspective on 19th century American culture and politics, including his beloved New York, as well as his commentary on the treatment of Native Americans and their culture. vol. 1 of 3

In the Fall of 1832 Washington Irving took part in what he called "a month foray beyond the outposts of human habitation, into the wilderness of the Far West." As was his habit, Irving kept a memorandum book, which he later expanded into A Tour on the Prairies, a real-life Western adventure in the third decade of the nineteenth century. His account is fresh and clear. He saw and makes his readers see the frontiersmen, the trappers, the Indians, and the troopers as they actually were in the 1830s.