Washington Irving, C Blocker?

Rebecca Gratz

Claire Salisbury — who's doing terrific work bringing to light the life and letters of the 19th century philanthropist Rebecca Gratz over on her blog,  Rebecca Gratz and 19th Century America — has two fun entries this week on a a good friend of Rebecca's . . . an aspiring young writer named Washington Irving.

Irving and Gratz had an interesting and decidedly non-romantic relationship — one based on mutual respect, good conversation, and similar senses of humor.  In fact, there...