The vast prairie is populated with lively people and wonderful things take place everyday there, but meanwhile menace lurks everywhere. There people will get enough of exciting adventures. But indeed it was part of its charm. America’s first internationally acclaimed author, Washington Irving, was also one of the first to write about its then far-western frontier. After seventeen years in Europe, the famous author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow returned to America and undertook an extensive three-month journey through present-day Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Describing scenery and inhabitants with an eye to romantic sublimity and celebrating the frontiersman’s secret of personal freedom, Irving published his account of that journey in 1835 as A Tour on the Prairies, an early and distinctly American depiction of the young nation’s borderland and its native inhabitants.

America’s first internationally acclaimed author, Washington Irving, was also one of the first to write about its then far-western frontier. After seventeen years in Europe, the famous author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow returned to America and undertook an extensive three-month journey through present-day Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. Describing scenery and inhabitants with an eye to romantic sublimity and celebrating the frontiersman’s secret of personal freedom, Irving published his account of that journey in 1835 as A Tour on the Prairies, an early and distinctly American depiction of the young nation’s borderland and its native inhabitants.

Washington Irving (April 3, 1783—November 28, 1859) was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle, both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent, commonly referred to as The Sketch Book, is a collection of 34 essays and short stories written by American author Washington Irving. His historical works include biographies of George Washington, Oliver Goldsmith and Muhammad, and several histories of 15th-century Spain dealing with subjects such as Christopher Columbus, the Moors, and the Alhambra.

America's first genuine internationally best-selling author

Irving is largely credited as the first American Man of Letters.

His friend, the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, acknowledged Irving's role in promoting American literature: "We feel a just pride in his renown as an author, not forgetting that, to his other claims upon our gratitude, he adds also that of having been the first to win for our country an honorable name and position in the History of Letters".

Irving, along with James Fenimore Cooper, was among the first American writers to earn acclaim in Europe, and Irving encouraged American authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Edgar Allan Poe. Irving was also admired by some European writers, including Sir Walter Scott, Lord Byron, Thomas Campbell, Francis Jeffrey, and Charles Dickens.