30/05/2008 Archived Article: "WASHINGTON Irving, the famous American author who wrote The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle, and Tales of the Alhambra, stayed in Gaucín in 1828."
 Irving had a stopover in the town while he was on a trip from Madrid to Gibraltar via Córdoba, Granada, the Alpujarras, and the southern coast. He recorded his experiences in a personal travel journal that has remained unnoticed by local historians and modern tourism authorities in Spain.
The discovery provides a new promotional tool for Gaucín’s tourist industry, said British journalist and publisher Rob Stokes, who discovered the links in an obscure 1937 edition of Irving’s journal of the 1828 journey. “I have stayed in Gaucin myself and know that it is one of the most dramatic and beautiful pueblos in Andalucia,” said Mr Stokes. “It certainly made a big impression on Washington Irving.”
Mr Stokes, who lives in Nerja east of Málaga, is sending details to town halls and to the Junta de Andalucía. He hopes that politicians will consider extending the popular Ruta de Washington Irving, a tourism trail that runs 250-kilometres from Sevilla to Granada.
The Ruta de Washington Irving is based on the author’s better-known 1829 visit and on locations that were important in the Christian reconquista of the Moorish kingdom of Granada. Irving included these in his history, Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada.
Mr Stokes said he could see no reason why the western end of the Ruta could not be easily extended from Sevilla to Ronda, Gaucín and other towns through which Irving passed on his way to Gibraltar. “Even if the Ruta is not extended, many new locations including Gaucín can now boast ‘Washington Irving estuvo aquí’ in their promotional literature, websites, plaques and monuments,” said Mr Stokes.
Irving is a major name in the history of American and world literature. He is regarded as one of the first truly American authors to emerge after the United States won independence from Great Britain. He was the first American author to gain an international reputation. Generations of American have come to love his stories and he is still read in schools in the USA.
His best-known books remain in print and widely read. Tales of the Alhambra is popular with extranjeros and Spaniards, inspiring them to visit Granada. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow became a Hollywood blockbuster film in 1999, starring Johnny Depp.
“Any new marketing edge would clearly be beneficial in the long-term for these places with Irving connections. For example, it would be another reason for bestselling guide books to feature the towns,” said Mr Stokes, who has written extensively about tourism issues in the United Kingdom.
“For example, he arrived at Gaucín on April 5, 1828, and stayed at an inn called the Posada del Sol, and they mention the landlady’s daughter by name” said Mr Stokes.
“It would be wonderful if some local people remember a family legend about an American writer and his Russian diplomat companions staying with their ancestors nearly two centuries ago,” said Mr Stokes.
“I imagine that everyone will now remember such a story in their families!” he joked. “I expect will see Washington Irving cafés, restaurants, hostals and bars springing up all over town.”
Excerpts from the journal, and a complete list of places mentioned by Irving, will be available from May 29 as free downloads from booksaboutspain.es, the website of the English language bookshop in Nerja which found the first edition of the 1937 version of the journal.
Irving was in Spain from 1826 to 29, and was the USA’s Minister to Spain from 1842 to 1846, during which time he was involved in negotiating American trade deals with Cuba and monitoring Spanish debate on the slave trade.
But his diary for the journey of March 1 to April 7, 1828, was effectively ‘lost’ in a private collection until literary researchers found it and had it published in America in 1937 as a limited edition for academics. It went out of print quickly.
Although print-on-demand versions have been advertised by an English language publisher in recent years, the journal has remained neglected. No-one has highlighted the local connections or their significance until now.
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