Johnston's biography traces the turbulent life of early American writer, Washington Irving, from the tragic death of his first love to his past as the Ambassador to Spain. America's first literary sophisticate, Irving was endowed with a brittle wit, a maddening detachment, a fanciful imagination, and an integrity that would not succumb to flattery or falsehood. He was a true romantic in an America which rewarded and applauded him, but was already too robust to notice the melancholy in his heart.