Join us for one of the earliest classic American short stories, a story both humorous and haunting. When Ichabod Crane, a Connecticut school teacher, comes to a small town in the Catskills of New York, he begins to compete for the affections of Katrina, the daughter of a wealthy farmer and contend with local hero Brom Bones. Crane hears the legend of "The Headless Horseman," a Hessian soldier who was decapitated during the Revolutionary War by a cannonball and roams the night in search of a head. Then, his journey home one evening, turns into a night of terror, when he is met on the path by the horseman himself.
About the Author: Washington Irving was born on April 3, 1783, in New York City, one of eleven children, the same week the Revolutionary War ended, hence Irving being named after George Washington, who he actually met when he was six. Washington wasn't interested in school, only adventure stories, and he snuck out of class frequently to attend the theater. In 1798, during a yellow fever epidemic, his family sent him to Tarrytown, New York, which was near the town of Sleepy Hollow, and the Catskills which became the setting for "Rip Van Winkle." When he was nineteen, Irving began writing commentaries for a New York newspaper under the name Jonathan Oldstyle. From 1804 to 1806, he went on a tour of Europe, skipping the boring parts and nearly becoming a painter. In 1806, he returned to New York and passed the bar. Instead of practicing law however, he and a group of friends began a literary magazine that made fun of the New York culture and politics. He even coined the name "Gotham," meaning "Goat's Town." In 1809, Matilda Hoffman, his seventeen year old fiancé died and he completed his first major book. Creating a clever advertising campaign, he placed a series of missing person notices in New York newspapers, allegedly searching for Diedrick Knickerbocker (the name he used to author the book), promising to publish a manuscript the man had left behind if he was not found. It was a huge success. After that, Irving became editor of a magazine and was one of the first people to reprint Francis Scott Key's "Defense of Fort McHenry," which went on to become "The Star Spangled Banner." Irving opposed the War of 1812, but after the British attacked Washington, D. C., he enlisted in the New York State Militia. After the war, he traveled to England, where he stayed for seventeen years. In 1818, he visited Walter Scott, beginning a life-long friendship, and writing "Rip Van Winkle." It was a huge success. In 1821, his brother died and he began suffering from writer's block, so he traveled to Germany, then Paris, where he became involved with Mary Shelley. Returning to the United States in 1846, he went on a survey of Indian Territory and was approached by Edgar Allan Poe for advice on two of his stories and became friends with Charles Dickens. He died of a heart attack on November 28, 1859, at the age of 76, in Tarrytown, New York, and is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.