The legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

p THE WORLD OF WASHINGTON IRVING AS

SHOWN IN '93THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW br

Washington Irving does not disclose a great deal about himself in '93The Legend of Sleepy Hollow '94 but from this and his biography , a picture can be discerned of a man enjoying a good story , and enjoying a good life beyond the story

The society portrayed in '93The Legend of Sleepy Hollow '94 is rural , and area of farms large and small . The people are descendants of Dutch settlers , enjoying the gentle conditions of

the Hudson River valley in what is now New York . Irving generally portrays this society favorably , although he seems to poke fun at their traditions of ghosts and phantasms and hauntings , although it is of note that the great text on such matters came not from Dutch source , but from the great Puritan Cotton Mather , whose "History of New England Witchcraft " in which the Connecticut-born (Irving , 1961 ,

. 332 ) Crane '93most firmly and potently believed (Irving , 1961 ,

. 335 ) A key to Irving '92s attitude is that in The Sketch Book , he opened '93The Legend of Sleepy Hollow '94 with a note : '93Found among the s of the late Diedrich Knickerbocker '94 (Irving , 1961 ,

. 327 ) Diedrich Knickerbocker was a pseudonym Washington Irving used in his satirical History of New-York , in which he described and poked fun at the early Dutch settlers . Further , when died in November 1859 , at age 76 , he was buried in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery at the Old Dutch Church in Sleepy Hollow , New York . This choice of a burial cite must reflect a certain fondness for the Dutch , as Irving certainly left a sufficient estate that he could have afforded a burial plot in a different location had he wanted one

Although is now remembered almost entirely for his fiction , especially the stories in The Sketch Book , later in his life he stopped writing fiction , and devoted himself exclusively to historical studies including a multi-volume biography of George Washington , and two substantial and thoroughly researched studies of Columbus , written based on original sources he studied while in that country , so widely admired that the Spanish elected him to their Real Academia de The World of Washington Irving as Shown in '93The Legend of Sleepy Hollow '94 Page la Historia . He was also awarded an honorary degree by Oxford University and gold medal in history from the Royal Society of Literature in London . When he finally returned to America , his home in Sunnyside became a salon regularly visited by literary pilgrims ( '93About WASHINGTON Irving '94 n .d ) The painter Christian Schlussele paited Irving there , surrounded by such contemporary luminaries as Hawthorne , Emreson , Longfellow , Emerson , Cooper , Bancroft Bryant , and Holmes (Conn , 1989 ,

. 114 ) These are the actions of a man who enjoys the society in which he lives

Although engaged once , Irving never married ( '93About Washington Irving '94 n .d ) He seems to have regarded women as either the good...