In the decade prior to Washington Irving’s return to America in 1832 to receive his public welcome as his country’s first man of letters, he travelled widely in England, France, Germany, Austria, and Spain. During these wanderings he regarded the Paris fireside of the Storrow family, next to his sister’s house in Birmingham, as his European home. To the Storrow children he wrote of the legends of Germany; to Mrs Storrow, of his travels; to Thomas Wentworth Storrow, his capable and cultivated friend, of his disappointments and of his literary projects, notably The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. This group of personal letters, no one of which has previously been published, gives a singularly illuminating record of Irving's discouragements as he attempted to sustain his fame as the author of The Sketch Book.