Table of Contents
From the Pages of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Writings
Title Page
Copyright Page
Washington Irving
The World of Washington Irving and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
The First American Man of Letters
A Note on the Text
SELECTIONS FROM - LETTERS OF JONATHAN OLDSTYLE, GENT.
Letter I
Letter II
SELECTIONS FROM - SALMAGUNDI
No. I.-Saturday, January 24, 1807
No. III.—Friday, February 13, 1807
FROM MY ELBOW-CHAIR
LETTER FROM MUSTAPHA RUB-A-DUB KELI KHAN, - CAPTAIN OF A KETCH, TO ASEM ...
No. VII.—Saturday, April 4, 1807 - LETTER FROM MUSTAPHA RUB-A-DUB KELI KHAN, TO ...
No. XI.—Tuesday, June 2, 1807
LETTER FROM MUSTAPHA RUB-A-DUB KELI KHAN, - CAPTAIN OF A KETCH, TO ASEM ...
No. XX.—Monday, January 25, 1808 - FROM MY ELBOW-CHAIR (A SELECTION)
SELECTIONS FROM - THE SKETCH-BOOK
The Author’s Account of Himself
The Voyage
Roscoe
The Wife
Rip Van Winkle - A POSTHUMOUS WRITING OF DIEDRICH KNICKERBOCKER.
English Writers On America
The Art of Book-Making
The Mutability of Literature - A COLLOQUY IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY
The Inn Kitchen
The Spectre Bridegroom - A TRAVELLER’S TALE
Traits of Indian Character
Philip of Pokanoket - AN INDIAN MEMOIR
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - FOUND AMONG THE PAPERS OF THE LATE DIEDRICH KNICKERBOCKER
L’ ENVOY
SELECTIONS FROM - BRACEBRIDGE HALL
The Hall
Story-Telling
The Stout Gentleman - A STAGE-COACH ROMANCE
The Historian
The Haunted House - FROM THE MSS. OF THE LATE DIEDRICH KNICKERBOCKER
Dolph Heyliger
The Storm-Ship
The Author’s Farewell
To the Reader
PART FIRST - STRANGE STORIES
The Great Unknown
The Hunting-Dinner
Adventure of the German Student
Adventure of the Mysterious Picture
Adventure of the Mysterious Stranger
The Story of the Young Italian
PART FOURTH - THE MONEY-DIGGERS
Hell-Gate
Kidd the Pirate
The Devil and Tom Walker
SELECTIONS FROM - A HISTORY OF NEW YORK [1844 revised edition]
The Author’s Apology
Notices - WHICH APPEARED IN THE NEWSPAPERS PREVIOUS TO THE PUBLICATION OF THIS WORK
Account of the Author
To the Public
BOOK II - TREATING OF THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF THE PROVINCE OF NIEUW NEDERLANDTS
Chapter I - IN WHICH ARE CONTAINED DIVERS REASONS WHY A MAN SHOULD NOT WRITE ...
Chapter II - CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF A MIGHTY ARK WHICH FLOATED, UNDER THE ...
Chapter VII - HOW THE PEOPLE OF PAVONIA MIGRATED FROM COMMUNIPAW TO THE ISLAND ...
Chapter IX - HOW THE CITY OF NEW AMSTERDAM WAXED GREAT UNDER THE PROTECTION OF ...
BOOK III - IN WHICH IS RECORDED THE GOLDEN REIGN OF WOUTER VAN TWILLER
Chapter I - OF THE RENOWNED WOUTER VAN TWILLER, HIS UNPARALLELED VIRTUES—AS ...
Chapter IV - CONTAINING FURTHER PARTICULARS OF THE GOLDEN AGE, AND WHAT ...
BOOK IV - CONTAINING THE CHRONICLES OF THE REIGN OF WILLIAM THE TESTY
Chapter I - SHOWING THE NATURE OF HISTORY IN GENERAL; CONTAINING FARTHERMORE ...
Chapter II - HOW WILLIAM THE TESTY UNDERTOOK TO CONQUER BY PROCLAMATION—HOW HE ...
Chapter III - IN WHICH ARE RECORDED THE SAGE PROJECTS OF A RULER OF UNIVERSAL ...
Chapter IV - CONTAINING THE FEARFUL WRATH OF WILLIAM THE TESTY, AND THE ALARM ...
Chapter VII - GROWING DISCONTENTS OF NEW AMSTERDAM UNDER THE GOVERNMENT OF ...
Chapter VIII - OF THE EDICT OF WILLIAM THE TESTY AGAINST TOBACCO—OF THE ...
BOOK V - CONTAINING THE FIRST PART OF THE REIGN OF PETER STUYVESANT, AND HIS ...
Chapter I - IN WHICH THE DEATH OF A GREAT MAN IS SHOWN TO BE NO VERY ...
BOOK VII - CONTAINING THE THIRD PART OF THE REIGN OF PETER THE HEADSTRONG—HIS ...
Chapter XI - HOW PETER STUYVESANT DEFENDED THE CITY OF NEW AMSTERDAM FOR ...
Chapter XII - CONTAINING THE DIGNIFIED RETIREMENT, AND MORTAL SURRENDER OF ...
Endnotes
Inspired by Washington Irving
Comments & Questions
For Further Reading
From the Pages of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Writings
From the moment you lose sight of the land you have left all is vacancy until you step on the opposite shore, and are launched at once into the bustle and novelties of another world.
(from “The Voyage,” page 52)
“There is in every true woman’s heart a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity; but which kindles up, and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity. No man knows what the wife of his bosom is—no man knows what a ministering angel she is—until he has gone with her through the fiery trials of this world.”
(from “The Wife,” page 68)
A tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.
(from “Rip Van Winkle,” page 77)
“Surely,” thought Rip, “I have not slept here all night.”
(from “Rip Van Winkle,” page 81)
There are certain half-dreaming moods of mind, in which we naturally steal away from noise and glare, and seek some quiet haunt, where we may indulge our reveries and build our air castles undisturbed.
(from “The Mutability of Literature,” page 107)
There is no duenna so rigidly prudent, and inexorably decorous, as a superannuated coquette.
(from “The Spectre Bridegroom,” page 121)
The spectre is known, at all the country firesides, by the name of the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow.
(from “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” page 164)
In this by-place of nature, there abode, in a remote period of American history, that is to say, some thirty years since, a worthy wight of the name of Ichabod Crane; who sojourned, or, as he expressed it, “tarried,” in Sleepy Hollow, for the purpose of instructing the children of the vicinity.
(from “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” pages 164-165)
On mounting a rising ground, which brought the figure of his fellow-traveller in relief against the sky, gigantic in height, and muffled in a cloak, Ichabod was horror-struck, on perceiving that he was headless!—but his horror was still more increased, on observing that the head, which should have rested on his shoulders, was carried before him on the pommel of the saddle.
(from “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” pages 187-188)
“It may be one of the royal family for aught I know, for they are all stout gentlemen!”
(from “The Stout Gentleman,” page 210)
“A man is never a man till he can defy wind and weather, range woods and wilds, sleep under a tree, and live on bass-wood leaves!”
(from “Dolph Heyliger,” page 251)
I am always at a loss to know how much to believe of my own stories.
(fro
m “To the Reader,” page 289)
“To rescue from oblivion the memory of former incidents, and to render a just tribute of renown to the many great and wonderful transactions of our Dutch progenitors, Diedrich Knickerbocker, native of the city of New York, produces this historical essay.”
(from A History of New York, page 383)
It has already been hinted in this most authentic history, that in the domestic establishment of William the Testy “the gray mare was the better horse”; in other words, that his wife “ruled the roast,” and in governing the governor, governed the province, which might thus be said to be under petticoat government.
(from A History of New York, page 438)
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Notes, Note on the Text, Biography, Chronology, Inspired By,
Comments & Questions, and For Further Reading.
Introduction, A Note on the Text, Notes, and For Further Reading
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Note on Washington Irving, The World of Washington Irving and The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow, Inspired by Washington Irving, and Comments & Questions
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The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Writings
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FIRST PRINTING
Washington Irving
Washington Irving, arguably the first American author to earn international literary acclaim, was born on April 3, 1783, in New York City. The Americans had won independence from Britain (the Treaty of Paris would be signed in September), and William Irving, a well-to-do merchant who had emigrated from Scotland, named his eleventh and youngest child after General George Washington. When Irving was seventeen, he began apprenticing in New York legal firms, including that of a former attorney general of New York, Josiah Hoffman. Irving soon realized, however, that his true interests lay in writing.
By the age of nineteen he was writing witty stories and sketches for local journals. His series Letters of Jonathan Oldstyle, Gent. was published in 1802 in the Morning Chronicle, a weekly edited by his brother Peter. In 1807, after a two-year tour of Europe, he began a similarly tongue-in-cheek series of sketches, Salmagundi; or, The Whim-Whams and Opinions of Launcelot Langstaff & Others, which he coauthored with his brother William and their friend James Kirke Paulding. Two years later Irving’s mock history of Dutch colonization, A History of New York, was published; full of fascinating historical details and ribald comic portraits, it gained instant notoriety. This period was also one of personal hardship and depression for Irving. His fiancée, Matilda Hoffman, died of tuberculosis in 1809; a few years later, the War of 1812 devastated the family import business. Irving sailed to London in 1815 to begin a second tour of Europe but found himself instead in Liverpool, helping his brother attempt to salvage the remains of their company.
When P. & E. Irving went bankrupt in 1818, Irving determined to earn a living through his writing. He met Scottish novelist Sir Walter Scott, who took the young author under his wing, introducing him to such literati as Mary Shelley and Lord Byron. Irving scored an immediate triumph with The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, published in 1819. The work—which contains his best-known tales, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle”—was an international success.
In 1826 Irving was appointed a diplomatic attaché to the American embassy in Madrid. Ever curious to understand his environment, he began researching Spanish history and customs. The Conquest of Granada was published in 1829, and The Alhambra followed in 1832.
Irving finally returned to America in 1832, after a seventeen-year absence. He made an adventurous trip through the American West, which he chronicled in A Tour of the Prairies (1835), and then built his home, Sunnyside, along the picturesque banks of the Hudson River north of New York City. Irving traveled again to Europe in 1842 to serve as the American minister to Spain, a position he held until 1846. Otherwise he remained at Sunnyside, where he continued to write. He published many more stories and sketches as well as a five-volume biography of his namesake, George Washington. Washington Irving died at home on November 28, 1859.
The World of Washington Irving and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
1783 Washington Irving is born in New York City on April 3, the youngest of eleven children. His father, a Scottish immigrant and well-to-do merchant, names him after General George Washington. The American Revolution ends with the Treaty of Paris, signed on September 3, in which Great Britain formally recognizes the independence of the United States.
1787 Irving attends several schools in the New York area and develops a love of plays and histories.
1788 English poet and satirist George Gordon, Lord Byron, is born.
1789 The French Revolution begins. Songs of Innocence, by English poet and artist William Blake, is published. George Washington is inaugurated as first president of the United States.
1790 Conservative English statesman Edmund Burke publishes Reflections on the Revolution in France, in which he opposes the French Revolution.
1791 American political writer Thomas Paine publishes part 1 of his treatise in defense of the French Revolution, Rights of Man; part 2 will be published in 1792.
1798 Lyrical Ballads, by English poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, is published.
1799 Irving begins studying law in the offices of Henry Masterton and, two years later, Brockholst Livingston.
1802 Irving continues his law studies clerking for Judge Josiah Hoffman, a former attorney general of New York. In his spare time, Irving begins writing for newspapers and literary journals. His Letters of Jonathan Oldstyle, Gent., witty send-ups of Manhattan culture written in the voice of a disapproving elder, are published in the Morning Chronicle, which is edited by his brother Peter.
1804 Irving embarks on a two-year tour of Europe.
1806 He returns to the United States in 1806 and is admitted to the bar.
1807 Irving, his brother William, and his friend James Kirke Paulding collaborate to publish a series of satirical writings entitled Salmagundi; or, The Whim-Whams and Opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, Esq. & Others.
1809 Irving’s A History of New York is published under the pen name Diedrich Knickerbocker. The book, a wry and comedic mock-political history of New Amsterdam (the Dutch settlement that became New York) is a great success. Irving’s fiancée, Matilda (the daughter of Judge Hoffinan), dies, and Irving enters into a deep depression; he will never marry. American author Edgar Allan Poe is born.
1811 English novelist Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility is published.
1812 The War of 1812, between Great Britain and the United States, begins. Irving serves as military aide to New York Governor Daniel Tompkins. He travels to Washington, D.C., to seek relief from the trade embargoes that
are crippling his family’s import business. Grimm’s Fairy Tales, a collection of German folk tales by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, is published.
1814 American poet Francis Scott Key writes “The Star-spangled Banner.”
1815 Irving travels to England intending to begin another tour of Europe. With the family business still foundering, however, he remains in Liverpool to help his brother Peter, who is director of the company’s British office. The Napoleonic Wars end with the defeat of Napoleon I at the Battle of Waterloo.
1817 Irving tours England and Scotland, and meets Scottish author Sir Walter Scott. Construction begins on the Erie Canal, an artificial waterway connecting New York City with the Great Lakes.
1818 When his family’s business collapses, Irving determines to make a living through his writing. Frankenstein, by English author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, is published.
1819 Serialization begins of The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., a collection of sketches and stories that includes Irving’s tales “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle.” The work is immensely popular in America, Britain, and Europe. Irving’s newfound celebrity makes him a popular guest in London’s most exclusive literary salons , where he counts such writers as Scott and Byron among his friends. Scott’s novel Ivanhoe and Byron’s satirical poem Don Juan are published.
1820 The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. is published in book form.