Washington Irving, still struggling with writer's block, had traveled to Germany, settling in Dresden in the winter of 1822.

Here he had dazzled the royal family and attached himself to Mrs. Amelia Foster, an American living in Dresden with her five children.

Irving was particularly attracted to Mrs. Foster's eighteen-year-old daughter Emily, and vied in frustration for her hand.

Emily finally had refused his offer of marriage in the spring of 1823.

He had returned to Paris and begun collaborating with playwright John Howard Payne on translations of French plays for the English stage, with little success.

He had also learned through Payne that the novelist Mary Shelley is romantically interested in him, though Irving never pursues the relationship.

In August 1824, Irving publishes another lighthearted collection of essays, Tales of a Traveller—including the short story "The Devil and Tom Walker"—under his Geoffrey Crayon persona.

While the book sells respectably, Traveller largely bombs with critics, who pan both Traveller and its author.