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Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Henry Walcott Boynton, Reader's History of American Literature, Chapter 4: the New York period (search)
, have now become a wholly secondary fact as regards the basis of his fame. They obtained for him his degree at Oxford, but Mr. Warner has well pointed out that the students were more far-seeing when they shouted, by way of applause, on that occasion, the names of Rip Van Winkle and Ichabod Crane. It is after all, in Edmund Quincy's phrase, not specific gravity, but specific levity which often serves to keep a reputation afloat. When Irving came back to New York he might be seen, as George Curtis describes him, about 1850, on an autumnal afternoon, tripping with an elastic step along Broadway, with low-quartered shoes neatly tied, and a Talma cloak — a short garment that hung from the shoulders like the cape of a coat. There was a chirping, cheery, oldschool air in his appearance which was undeniably Dutch, and most harmonious with the associations of his writings. My only personal observation of Washington Irving was too much like his description of his only glimpse of the St