WASHINGTON IRVING: As Others Saw Him

Sanderlin's biographical sketch of Irving, essentially a chronological summary with no useful insights or perspective, falls somewhere short of the standards set by Cliff or Monarch notes; and the critical snippets that follow (from Lord Byron, William Hazlitt, Dickens, Poe and other lesser known or anonymous commentators), though of possible use in steering students already into Irving to the sources, are unlikely as amassed here to give a youngster any help in appreciating the writer or any motivation to make his acquaintance. As with his Benjamin Franklin: As Others Saw Him (KR, 1971), Sanderlin himself contributes little more than an undiscriminating dipping service.