Long Branch Plantation will begin its first ever Book Club next Tuesday. While the historic residents and guests of Long Branch undoubtedly discussed books much in the same manner that we will next week, there is one guest above all that stands out in regards to literature. Back in 1853, Washington Irving, author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and Rip Van Winkle, visited Long Branch.
Irving was the first American international literary star. At a time when American literature was still developing, it was Irving, along with several other authors who brought in the “American Renaissance” literary surge. While many of his fictional works fit within the Romantic literary style, he also wrote biographies, histories, and essays. He helped to encourage other Americans to become authors, such as Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, advocating for writing to become a legitimate acknowledged profession. He also advocated for stronger copyright laws in America to help protect writers from infringement, because he had had problems with people infringing on his own writings earlier in his career.
Having travelled internationally, it was upon his return to America in 1832, that he met politician and writer, John Pendleton Kennedy, a mutual friend of Hugh Nelson, Jr. , the owner of Long Branch. It was during his touring around of the United States, writing histories and novels as he went, that he came to Virginia. It was 1853, and Irving was working on researching and writing a biography on George Washington. He travelled regularly to Mount Vernon and to Washington, D.C. for research. Having spent the day researching in Clarke County, his friends Andrew Kennedy and John Pendleton Kennedy, suggested that they spend the night at their friend Hugh Nelson, Jr.’s home. Nelson, a scholarly man who greatly enjoyed reading, was delighted with his unexpected guests, and welcomed them, having actually arrived at Long Branch after them. He even arranged a dinner for Irving and the Kennedys to meet some of the local gentlemen the next day. Irving wrote of Long Branch in a letter to his niece,
The road gradually wound up to the house, as we approached, the moon, rising above a skirt of forest trees, lit up the scene, and we saw a noble mansion crowning a rising ground, with grand portico and columns and wings surmounted with battlements…We had glorious quarters that night.1
As we begin our book club, we invite you to follow in the footsteps of author Washington Irving – visit the Long Branch home and stay awhile – enjoy good books, good company, and good discussion!
For more information regarding the LBP Book Club: https://www.visitlongbranch.org/join-us-nov-4-for-book-club/
– Michelle Bondesen, Long Branch Plantation Intern
1. Letter, Washington Irving to Sarah Irving, Oct.21, 1853, Letters of Washington Irving (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982), Vol.4, p.447-9.