“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” utilizes a great deal of descriptive language; an eerie, dreamy tone; and several prominent motifs. The story itself could be considered “sleepy,” as the narrator spends a good amount of time describing the autumnal surroundings and slow nature of Sleepy Hollow. The pacing is slow rather than rushed, emphasizing the significance of the handful of events that play out throughout the story. Since Sleepy Hollow is situated in a valley of plentiful farmland, a great deal of descriptive imagery makes its way into the narrative. It is almost as if readers are transported to the whimsical town with its bountiful charm. Adding to this dreamy tone is the use of foreshadowing. A significant portion of the narrative revolves around the ghost stories of the region. The Headless Horseman who bests Ichabod is mentioned several times throughout, and so is Ichabod’s fascination with the supernatural. Therefore, Ichabod’s fateful journey home does not come as a complete surprise, yet it remains a suspenseful scene.

There are several prominent motifs in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” One is the repetition of images of food. Ichabod is fascinated, even enchanted by food. It is plentiful in the region of Sleepy Hollow, especially in the harvest season. When Ichabod looks around at the autumnal splendor of the countryside, he envisions what delightful treats will come of the products of the local farms. As he surveys the Van Tassel property, he excitedly anticipates the “sumptuous promise of luxurious winter fare.” When he sees pigs around the farmland, he imagines them roasting with apples in their mouths. When he sees pigeons, he pictures them comfortably resting in a pie crust. Ichabod’s appetite manifests itself differently, too: in his pursuit of Katrina. She herself is thought of as a tempting morsel, and Ichabod imagines her serving him treats and hearty meals as his wife. Ichabod’s delight in these fantasies is nearly gluttonous. He is so strongly enchanted by the bounty of the Hudson Valley that he would be willing to give up his position as schoolmaster in a heartbeat—should it raise his station, of course.

Another recurring motif is that of animal descriptions for the main characters. Ichabod Crane is fittingly described as crane-like: tall, spindly, and thin like the bird of his namesake. Cranes are graceful birds, and this is perhaps a reference to Ichabod’s educated demeanor and skill in music and dance. Katrina, for her part, is described as being “plump as a partridge,” yet another bird reference. She is also called a “coquette,” meaning a flirtatious woman, though the word also refers to a hummingbird. While this could be coincidental, it is significant that the narrator paints both Ichabod and Katrina as birds. In this sense, the narrator has grouped them as “birds of a feather” who ought to be together. (With the repetition of food in mind, it is worth considering that Ichabod considers Katrina a bird at times. He envisions real birds swimming in sauce to satisfy his own appetite. Katrina has the potential to satiate his hunger for wealth.) Brom Bones, on the other hand, is compared to a bear. He is large, lumbering, and strong. His amorous pursuit of Katrina is likened to “the gentle caresses and endearments of a bear.” A bear and a partridge do not seem to have much in common, even though Brom and Katrina ultimately marry each other.

Washington Irving first published the story in 1819, not yet fifty years after the American Revolution. New England is full of haunting tales, as the story emphasizes, and many of them are war-related. This would have been well understood by Irving’s readers, as the context of the Revolutionary War was not far off. Though they occurred some 150 years prior, the Salem witch trials are connected to the supernatural backdrop of Sleepy Hollow as well. Ichabod himself is well-versed in the history of witchcraft in New England. His home state of Connecticut is established as having this spooky background. Another important historical aspect is the presence of Dutch settlers. Sleepy Hollow and many other farm valleys in New York have a long history of Dutch influence. These communities are characterized as “untouched” by time, adding to the whimsy of the region. Even when cities industrialize nearby, Sleepy Hollow carries on its business as usual. This, too, represents the context of the changing times.

Irving’s version of this folktale features an effective series of starvation images that begins with his lengthy description of the gaunt, cadaverous Ichabod and extends to the almost physical hunger that his protagonist feels when he sees the rich produce of Van Tassel’s land. Indeed, Ichabod’s mouth waters as he contemplates this wealth and dreams that it might be his.

Complementing the starvation imagery is Irving’s choice of names. Ichabod is tall and as gaunt as the crane whose name he shares. Like the biblical Ichabod, Irving’s protagonist is as much an outcast as is his Old Testament namesake. Similarly, Brom, whose given name is Abraham, is as much a patriarch of his people as is the father of the tribes of Judah.

Sleepy Hollow

Sleepy Hollow is a small Dutch community in New York, near Tarry Town (now commonly known as Tarrytown) and the Hudson River. Sleepy Hollow has two main characteristics. The first is a sense of “listless repose” that settles over the land and the inhabitants. This drowsiness fosters the other characteristic, the enhanced imaginations and superstitions of its inhabitants. For example, its inhabitants speculate that an Indigenous chief’s powwows or a German doctor’s enchantments might be the causes of the strangeness in the area.

Residents of Sleepy Hollow enjoy sitting by their fireplaces and telling one another tales of ghosts. Washington Irving attributes the hauntings and tales to the fact that this is a long-established Dutch community whose families remain there generation after generation. Chief among the ghost stories are those about the Headless Horseman, the main specter in the tale, who is often seen around the old church, where he was supposedly buried without his head.

Throughout most of the tale, natural surroundings convey mood. During the daylight hours, Sleepy Hollow is bright and cheerful. On the fall day that schoolteacher Ichabod Crane heads for the Van Tassel farm, the trees are bright orange, purple, and scarlet. Ducks fly overhead. Quail and squirrels can be heard. However, when Ichabod returns home at night, the scene changes. He passes by a tulip-tree whose limbs are “gnarled and fantastic” and a “group of oaks and chestnuts, matted thick with wild grape vines” that throws a “cavernous gloom” over the road. The ominous change in scenery alerts readers to the fact that Ichabod is about to encounter the Headless Horseman.

The Van Tassel Farm

The Van Tassel farm in Sleepy Hollow is home to Ichabod Crane’s love interest, Katrina Van Tassel. What is most remarkable about the farm is that it is portrayed as an agrarian paradise. Situated along the banks of the Hudson River, the farm is in “one of those green, sheltered, fertile nooks, in which the Dutch farmers are so fond of nestling.” It has a spreading elm tree, bubbling spring, and babbling brook. As big as a church, its barn is filled with activity and treasures from the farm. Birds twitter among its eaves, large pigs and sucklings grunt in their pens, and a “stately squadron” of geese occupy the farm’s pond. “Regiments of turkeys” and guinea fowl wander through the barnyard. The farm has rich fields of rye, buckwheat, wheat, and Indian corn, and the orchards are “burdened with ruddy fruit.”

The inside of the Van Tassel farmhouse also speaks of its family’s wealth. Farming and husbandry implements are hung from the rafters, while a spinning wheel and a butter churn stand in the piazza. On entering the hall, Crane is struck by “rows of resplendent pewter” on a long dresser. A huge bag of wool waiting to be spun rests in one corner, while in another stands “linsey-woolsey just from the loom.” Dried apples and peaches and Indian corn are placed on strings and hung as decorations. The best parlor holds mahogany furniture, silver, china, and an ostrich egg hanging from the center of the room.

Descriptions of the Van Tassel farm are slightly exaggerated, using military terms such as “regiments” and “troops” that fit the nature of the tall tale. The farm represents the idea of America as a land of plenty. The Van Tassel family is rich because of the fertility of the Hudson Valley soil. Crane is attracted to the farm because of its prosperity; his interest in Katrina is fueled by her father’s wealth. He daydreams of marrying Katrina and selling the farm to pay for his trip to “Kentucky, Tennessee, or the Lord knows where.” This is a sharp contrast to the contented settlements of the Dutch community. It is thus no surprise when Ichabod is eventually driven out of Sleepy Hollow.

The Dutch in New York

New York was initially settled by the Dutch, originating from the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In 1609, Henry Hudson, mentioned as “Master Hendrick Hudson” in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” navigated from what is now New York City to Albany along the river that the Dutch called the Tappan Zee, now known as the Hudson River. The Tappan Zee Bridge in New York City honors his journey. Though Hudson was British by birth, he was employed by the Dutch East India Company. Following his explorations, the Netherlands claimed the area now known as New York. The first Dutch settlers arrived in present-day New York City in 1624. Despite the region eventually coming under British and then American control, Dutch influence remained strong in New York during Irving’s time.

Stereotypes of the Dutch, like those of any ethnic group, were widespread. They were often depicted as jolly, prosperous, well-fed, and somewhat foolish. Irving humorously portrayed Dutchmen in A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, authored by the fictional Diedrich Knickerbocker. Knickerbocker is also credited as the source of this story, using these stereotypes comically in characters like Baltus Van Tassel, his daughter Katrina, and their superstitious and somewhat pompous neighbors. It's worth noting that stereotypical views also existed about Yankees, or people of Anglo-Saxon descent, who were often seen—like Ichabod Crane—as vain, overeducated, sophisticated, and lacking in practical sense.

Irving utilized and subtly contributed to the folklore surrounding Dutch people. By creating the character Diedrich Knickerbocker, he invented the name “Knickerbocker” to be humorous yet convincingly Dutch. As Irving’s works gained popularity, the name became associated with Dutch descendants. Consequently, Dutch people were called “knickerbockers,” and the baggy pants gathered below the knee worn by men were named “knickerbockers” and later “knickers.” While knickers fell out of fashion after the 1930s, the name persists in the professional basketball team, the New York Knicks, officially known as the Knickerbockers.

The New American Fiction

Irving lived and wrote during a pivotal moment in American literary history when there was a growing call for a distinct national literature. Before this period, most writings from the colonies, and later from the new nation, were predominantly religious or historical, closely resembling similar works from Europe. Ichabod Crane’s favorite author, Cotton Mather (1663–1728), was a preacher and political writer known for his rational and stern treatises on contemporary issues. His writings on witchcraft, inspired by the Salem witch trials, were neither imaginative nor meant to entertain or convey personal experiences or emotions. For instance, in The History of New England Witchcraft, which Daniel Hoffman identifies as Magnalia Christi Americana (1702), Mather presented case histories of what he believed to be real and Satanic events, aiming to inform readers and argue against the witch trials.

By the late eighteenth century, there was a rising demand for American characters and themes, leading to the emergence of plays that met this need. The popularity of novels imported from England spurred the beginnings of American novels and sparked serious discussions about what types of literature would best reflect the values of a democratic society. Irving was among the first American writers with both the talent and determination to craft American fiction, yet he had no American literary models to follow.

The Sketch Book, written in England, comprises over thirty sketches or stories, with most focusing on English life and characters. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” was notable, though not unique, for being set in the United States. To create the story, Irving drew heavily from German legends of Ruebezahl found in the Volksmaerchen der Deutschen, relocating the basic plot and characters to Upstate New York. This work marked a beginning. The Sketch Book became the first book by an American author to sell well in England, proving that such success was achievable.

For over a century, historians and critics have debated whether Irving invented the short story with “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle.” Some argue that these works are not true stories but merely tales. Regardless of whether he was an innovator or an adapter, a storyteller or a tale writer, Irving broadened the scope of American literature and paved the way for the explosion of new forms and styles that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century.

Narration/Narrative/Narrator

The levels of narration and narrators in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” are almost dizzying:

• a) Washington Irving is the author of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.;
• b) Geoffrey Crayon is the fictional author of the volume, responsible for gathering or creating the stories and sketches;
• c) Diedrich Knickerbocker is the character who supposedly wrote down “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” with the postscript “found” by Crayon;
• d) the legend was recounted to Knickerbocker by a “pleasant, shabby, gentlemanly old fellow”;
• e) within the legend, characters share stories they’ve heard or read, many about “a figure on horseback without a head.”

Ichabod Crane becomes a man frightened by a story within a story within a story within a story.

The narrators are not only numerous but also unreliable. Knickerbocker claims he has repeated the legend “almost in the precise words in which I heard it related”—a ludicrous assertion given the story’s length, detailed descriptions, and the fact he heard it only once. The “gentlemanly old fellow” initially insists on telling the truth, noting he has heard an explanation for the name “Tarry Town” but won’t “vouch for the fact, but merely advert to it, for the sake of being precise and accurate.” By the end, however, he concedes the legend might be exaggerated, admitting, “I don’t believe one half of it myself.”

The residents of Sleepy Hollow are prone to fits of imagination. They are “given to all kinds of marvelous beliefs” and enjoy gatherings where each storyteller is encouraged “to dress up his tale with a little becoming fiction, and, in the indistinction of his recollection, to make himself the hero of every exploit.” When not recounting how they singlehandedly won the war, they tell “tales of ghosts and apparitions,” finding these stories both delightful and frightening. As narrators, they are as unreliable as Knickerbocker and his acquaintance.

The effect of all these unreliable narrators is to distance the reader from the action and characters. When nothing can be trusted, empathy cannot develop, leaving the reader with no strong feelings about Crane, either positive or negative. As a psychological study, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” falls short because the reader never gets close enough to the characters to explore their minds. Cardboard characters move through a humorous scenario, and although there is some trickery, no one truly gets hurt. This emotional distance, created by the multiple layers of narration, directs readers’ focus to the humor, which has made “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” an American favorite for almost two hundred years.

Imagery

One of the most striking aspects of the story is its extensive passages filled with rich, descriptive detail. The narrator begins with a lengthy reflection on the dreamlike quality of the landscape. However, as the story shifts to focus on Crane and his thoughts, the descriptions become even more vivid. For instance, when Crane walks home in the evening, the narrator enumerates every creature that startles him: the whippoorwill, the tree-toad, the screech-owl, the fireflies, and the beetle. When Crane gazes at the Van Tassel barn, “bursting forth with the treasures of the farm,” his eyes—and the reader’s—linger over each swallow, martin, pigeon, pig, goose, duck, turkey, guinea fowl, and rooster.

When Crane sees a farm animal, he envisions it as food, and the list of farm creatures is quickly followed by an even longer list of the dishes they could become. “In his devouring mind’s eye,” Crane sees the pigs roasted, the pigeons “snugly put to bed in a comfortable pie,” and the ducks “pairing cozily in dishes, like snug married couples, with a decent competency of onion sauce.” Inside the Van Tassel home, Crane's eyes dart around as he admires the tools, the furniture, and most importantly, the fruits of the earth: “In one corner stood a huge bag of wool ready to be spun; in another, a quantity of linsey-woolsey just from the loom; ears of Indian corn, and strings of dried apples and peaches, hung in gay festoons along the wall, mingled with the gaud of red peppers.” While other men are drawn to Katrina for her beauty, Crane sees her as a means to access “the treasures of jolly autumn.”

William Hedges notes that “the method of this story is to heap up images of abundance and contrast Sleepy Hollow’s amplitude with the meagreness of Ichabod Crane’s body and spirit.” Mary Weatherspoon Bowden refers to the same images of “glorious autumn days and autumn harvests, to food, food, and more food, to buxom lasses and merriment and pranks” when she concludes that the legend is “a celebration of the bounty of the United States.”

For Americans at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the United States was still viewed as a land of plenty, a country rich in endless resources. This abundance was a source of pride for Irving and his American readers and a subject of fascination and wonder for his British readers, whose national wilderness had been tamed centuries earlier. Irving employs lush imagery precisely for its richness, to illustrate and celebrate the boundless resources of a new, unproven nation.

Early in the story, the reader encounters the legend of the Headless Horseman, a ghost with which the residents of Sleepy Hollow are familiar. Beheaded by a cannonball during the Revolutionary War, he searches nightly for his head. This anecdote—humorous in itself—provides the key to the trick by which the schoolmaster is driven from the town.

The schoolmaster, Ichabod Crane, is also the local singing master and, in that role, meets and falls in love with Katrina Van Tassel, the only child of a well-to-do Dutch farmer. In fact, Irving’s complete catalog of the wealth of Baltus Van Tassel implies that Crane’s desire to marry Katrina is partly monetary.

Crane has a rival, however: Brom Bones, whose ingenuity finally drives the superstitious schoolmaster away from Sleepy Hollow. Impersonating the Headless Horseman, Bones rides after Crane one night and finally throws a pumpkin, which Crane believes to be the horseman’s head. The schoolmaster abruptly departs, leaving Bones to marry Katrina.

Irving uses this plot as a vehicle for commenting on the primacy of the imagination. Not only does the central story contain many references to legend and folklore, but also there is a frame around the tale that complements these references. As the story opens, the reader meets a nameless narrator whose description of Sleepy Hollow implies that it is a realm of the imagination, a retreat where dream and reality meet. A postscript explains how the story came to be known by a “Mr. Knickerbocker,” the name of a fictional character in other works by Irving. By such devices the reader is constantly reminded that in this story—as, perhaps, in life—imaginative fiction exists side by side with everyday reality.

Bibliography

Bowden, Mary Weatherspoon. Washington Irving. Boston: Twayne, 1981. Good introduction to Irving’s work. Bowden examines the first edition of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” within the context of its place and importance in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.

Hedges, William L. Washington Irving: An American Study, 1802–1832. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1980. Hedges seeks to substantiate Irving’s relevance as a writer, define his major contributions, and detail aspects of his intellectual environment. The work presents “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” as proof that Irving was a pioneer in the renaissance of American prose fiction.

Roth, Martin. Comedy and America: The Lost World of Washington Irving. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1976. This study surveys Irving’s American period of creativity, including “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” demonstrating that his last experiment creates a comic vision of America.

Rubin-Dorsky, Jeffrey. Adrift in the Old World: The Psychological Pilgrimage of Washington Irving. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988. Critical revisionist view of Irving and his work primarily seen in psychological terms. It dissects Irving’s personal problems and political orientation as reflected in his writings, particularly in a substantive chapter discussing “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”

Tuttleton, James W., ed. Washington Irving: The Critical Reaction. New York: AMS Press, 1993. Solid collection of sixteen essays that survey the breadth of Irving’s work from early sketches to his final biographies. Two essays, Terence Martin’s “Rip and Ichabod” and Daniel Hoffman’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” scrutinize the story in depth and view it as a unique creation.

In a postscript appended to the story in the handwriting of Diedrich Knickerbocker (Washington Irving’s gentle burlesque on old Dutch New Yorkers and the fictive annotator of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., 1819–1820, in which this tale was published), the Dutchman records his having heard this story from an old, “dry-looking” gentleman described as possessing features strikingly like those of Ichabod Crane. When pressed for a moral, the storyteller replies: “He that runs races with goblin troopers is likely to have rough riding of it.” This, indeed, sums up a recurring theme in Irving’s sketches: the results of the culture clash between industrious and poor but to some degree unscrupulous Yankees and the hardheaded and prosperous but also wily Dutch.

Neither the Dutch nor the Yankee newcomers possess a clear moral superiority. Here, for example, Ichabod has only a slightly better education than the Dutch children he teaches, and he would marry Katrina not from love but for her father’s wealth. Similarly, Brom recognizes the threat to his interests and in his own rough way thwarts his Yankee opponent. Because Katrina does not appear especially attractive or faithful, Brom’s motives hardly seem purer than those of Ichabod.

1810: Irving’s hometown, New York City, is a bustling metropolitan hub with a population of 80,000. The total population of the United States stands at 7,239,881.

1990: New York City’s population has grown to 7,322,564.

1810s: Women's bodies are considered attractive if they are, like Katrina Van Tassel’s, “plump as a partridge.” Many women believe it is improper to be so thin that their bones are visible.

1990s: Society expects women to be slim, with defined cheekbones being a standard of beauty.

1810s: In rural villages, few people are educated enough to teach. Most residents cannot read or write, so teachers usually come from urban areas.

1990s: Adults who are illiterate face significant challenges in managing everyday tasks.

1810s: Veterans of the American Revolution are still alive and often share both true and embellished stories of their wartime experiences at social gatherings.

1990s: Veterans of the Korean and Vietnam wars generally remain quiet about their experiences.

Sources

Bowden, Mary Weatherspoon. Washington Irving, Boston: Twayne, 1981, p. 72.

Giamatti, A. Bartlett. The Earthly Paradise and the Renaissance Epic, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1966, pp. 3, 6, 34, 126-27.

Hedges, William L. Washington Irving: An American Study, 1802–1832, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1965, p. 142.

Hoffman, Daniel G. Form and Fable in American Fiction, New York: Oxford University Press, 1961.

“Irving’s Use of American Folklore in ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,’” in PMLA, Vol. 68, June, 1953, pp. 425–435.

Jeffrey, Francis. Review of The Sketch Book, in Edinburgh Review, Vol. 34, August, 1820, pp. 160–76.

Kolodny, Annette. The Lay of the Land: Metaphor as Experience and History in American Life and Letters, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1975, pp. 68–70.

Leary, Lewis. “Washington Irving and the Comic Imagination,” in The Comic Imagination in American Literature, ed.

Louis D. Rubin. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1973, pp. 63–76.

Martin, Terence. “Rip, Ichabod, and the American Imagination,” in American Literature, Vol. 31, May, 1959, pp. 137–149.

Pataj, Edward F. “Washington Irving’s Ichabod Crane: American Narcissus,” in American Imago, Vol. 38, Spring, 1981, pp. 127–35.

Plummer, Laura, and Michael Nelson. “‘Girls Can Take Care of Themselves’; Gender and Storytelling in Washington Irving’s ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,’” in Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. 30, 1993, pp. 175-84.

Pochmann, Henry A. “Irving’s German Tour and Its Influence on His Tales,” in PMLA, Vol. 45, December, 1930, pp. 1150–87.

“Irving’s German Sources in The Sketch Book,” in Studies in Philology, Vol. 27, July, 1930, pp. 477–507.

Theocritus. “Idyll VII,” in The Greek Bucolic Poets, translated by J. E. Edmonds, Cambridge, Mass.: Loeb Library, 1938, lines 135–46.

von Frank, Albert J. “The Man That Corrupted Sleepy Hollow,” in Studies in American Fiction, Vol. 15, No. 2, 1987, pp. 129–143.

Further Reading

Aderman, Ralph M., ed. Critical Essays on Washington Irving, Boston: G. K. Hall, 1990.
A collection of Irving criticism that includes early nineteenth-century reviews and twentieth-century scholarly articles.

Bowden, Edwin T. Washington Irving: Bibliography, Boston: Twayne, 1989.
Volume 30 in The Complete Works of Washington Irving, this is the most comprehensive and current bibliography available.

Bowden, Mary Weatherspoon. Washington Irving, Boston: Twayne, 1981.
An excellent introduction for general readers, covering each of Irving’s major works in chronological order.

Hedges, William L. Washington Irving: An American Study, 1802–1832, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1965.
Provides insightful literary analysis of Irving’s major works, particularly those written before his return to the United States.

Tuttleton, James W., ed. Washington Irving: The Critical Reaction, New York: AMS Press, 1993.
Contains sixteen critical essays on Irving’s work, including three that directly address “Sleepy Hollow” and two that contextualize his early works, such as The Sketch Book.

Wagenknecht, Edward. Washington Irving: Moderation Displayed, New York: Oxford University Press, 1962.
An accessible biography and critical overview that highlights Irving’s prominence during his lifetime as the United States’ most important writer.

Bibliography

Primary Work

Irving, Washington. The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. 1819820. Edited by Haskell Springer. Boston: Twayne, 1978.

Secondary Works

Fox, Dixon Ryan. Yankees and Yorkers. New York: New York University Press, 1940.

Myers, Andrew B., ed. A Century of Commentary on the Works of Washington Irving, 1860974. Tarrytown, N.Y.: Sleepy Hollow Restorations, 1976.

Pochmann, Henry A. “Irving’s German Sources in The Sketch Book.” Studies in Philology 27 (1930): 47707.

Richardson, Judith. Possessions: The History and Uses of Haunting in the Hudson Valley. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003.

Ringe, Donald A. American Gothic: Imagination and Reason in Nineteenth-Century Fiction. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1982.

Rubin-Dorsky, Jeffrey. Adrift in the Old World: The Psychological Pilgrimage of Washington Irving. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.

Thompson, G. R. “Washington Irving and the American Ghost Story.” In The Haunted Dusk: American Supernatural Fiction 1820–1920, edited by John W. Crowley, Charles L. Crow, and Howard Kerr, pp. 116. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1983.

Williams, Stanley T. The Life of Washington Irving. 2 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 1935.

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” has been narrated by Donada Peters as part of a five-hour audiotape collection titled Rip Van Winkle and Other Stories. This set is available through Books on Tape, Inc. Additionally, the story can be found as a musical dramatization on audiocassette, which has garnered excellent reviews. Produced by Reed Publishing USA in 1993, this version is included in the Carousel Classics series.

The story is also offered on videocassette. Tales of Washington Irving (1987) is a videocassette featuring animated films from the 1970s. Distributed by MGM/UA Home Video, this forty-eight-minute tape includes “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle,” and showcases the voice talents of Mel Blanc and other notable actors. Another videocassette, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, features live actors and is set in a recreated early American-Dutch village. Published by Guidance Associates, it aims to encourage students to read the story.

Among the numerous film adaptations, two stand out. Shelley Duvall's Tall Tales and Legends: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a fifty-two-minute film starring Ed Begley Jr. and distributed by Trimark. In November 1999, Tim Burton directed a major motion picture titled Sleepy Hollow, with Johnny Depp portraying Ichabod Crane.