【正确答案】正确答案：Washington Irving was the central figure in the American literary world between 1809 and the Civil War. He was a good example of an American romantic. He proved that authorship was a possible profession in the new country as he was the first American man of letters to support himself as a professional writer. In his Sketch Book appeared the first modern American short stories and first great American juvenile literature. Irving was the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame. So Washington Irving is often considered as "The Father of American Literature" or "The Father of American Letters".