Hudson Valley folklore, village rivalries, ghosts, and comic narrators.
Washington Irving (1783–1859) was an American writer of stories, essays, histories, and biographies. Born in New York, he studied law and began his literary career with satire and sketches. He was living in England when The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. was published in 1819–1820. The collection includes “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”
His Hudson Valley stories describe village gossip, local customs, and rivalries within Dutch American communities. “Rip Van Winkle” follows a villager who returns to a community changed by the American Revolution. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” concerns a schoolteacher, a romantic rival, and a local ghost story. Irving's narrators repeat hearsay and offer competing explanations without always settling which account is true.
From a quick encounter to a longer story.
A gangly schoolmaster courts a farmer’s daughter in a drowsy Hudson Valley town haunted by a headless horseman.
