Reprint of the original, first published in 1875.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1875.

Washington Irving was an American short story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820), that appear in the collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. or simply the Sketch Book, as commonly referred. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is among the earliest examples of American fiction that has not lost its popularity, especially during Halloween. More recently, the story has also inspired the successful TV series titled simply Sleepy Hollow. In 1974, the story was recognized with the issue of a postage stamp by the US Postal Service. "The Spectre Bridegroom" stands out as one of the few longer, folktale-style stories that is not set in America. The story, a Traveler Tale as the author calls it, is introduced by a much shorter story titled the "Inn Kitchen," which is the only story Geoffrey Crayon, the pseudonymous narrator, remembers after spending the evening in the kitchen of the Inn he was staying at, listening at the stories told by travelers and local folks gathered there. This production includes all three stories, and all their illustrations, as published in the book edition by J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., Philadelphia, 1875

Originally published: Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1975.

Along with "Rip Van Winkle", "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is among the earliest examples of American fiction with enduring popularity, especially because of a character known as the Headless Horseman believed to be a Hessian soldier who was decapitated by a cannonball in battle. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" relates the tale of Ichabod Crane, a lean, lanky and extremely superstitious schoolmaster from Connecticut, who competes with Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, the town rowdy, for the hand of 18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter and sole child of wealthy farmer Baltus Van Tassel. Ichabod Crane, a Yankee and an outsider, sees marriage to Katrina as a means of procuring Van Tassel's extravagant wealth ...

Standing Bear, a Ponca Native American chief, is best known for successfully arguing in U.S. District Court in 1879 that Native Americans are "persons within the meaning of the law" who have the right of habeas corpus. When playwright Christopher Cartmill returned to his hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska, to write a play about Chief Standing Bear, he unknowingly began a complicated adventure. As he followed the story of the Ponca chief who fought so hard to return from a reservation in Oklahoma to his homeland in northern Nebraska, Cartmill stumbled into the politics of identity, contested notions of homeland, and his own past. Chronicling these adventures in a series of dispatches to friends, he documented the transformation of a research trip into a three-year exploration of Nebraska, its Native community, the meaning of home, and the complex relationship we all have with history. These dispatches, originally presented in Cartmill's celebrated performance and now gathered together in this book, offer snapshots of a New Yorker's travels into the heartland, insights into a very personal journey, and glimpses into a history that critiques and continues the American story.