Washington Irving

When Ichabod Crane becomes the new schoolmaster of Sleepy Hollow, he quickly and happily adjusts to the local ways. He delights in the bountiful dinners he's served when visiting the prosperous farms of the region; he enjoys the local yarns and scary legends that fill the firelit evenings of autumn; and he comes to love the idea of marrying Katrina Van Tassel and of one day owning her father's wealth and lands. There's one problem with his plans,...

Travel back in time to the days before the American Revolution, when Dutch settlers populated the little towns along the Hudson River and ghosts roamed the mountains and river valleys. In "Rip Van Winkle," a henpecked husband escapes his nagging wife by wandering the Catskills, where he encounters some mysterious mountain men and tastes a strange brew with unexpected effects. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" recounts schoolmaster Ichabod Crane's dream...

A superstitious schoolmaster, in love with a wealthy farmer's daughter, has a terrifying encounter with a headless horseman.

Bracebridge Hall, written by the esteemed author, Washington Irving, is a collection of location-based character sketches, detailing the lives and personalities of the occupants of a countryside manor in Yorkshire, England, owned by a squire. Narrated by an American man who is an old acquaintance of the squire, Bracebridge Hall follows the events leading up to the wedding of the squire's son, Guy, and his bride-to-be, Julia. Beginning with the arrival...

In 1811 a group of American traders built a fort at the mouth of the Columbia River, named Fort Astoria in honour of its financier, John Jacob Astor. Envisioned as the spur of a fur-trading empire, by 1813 the project was a business failure and the fort was surrendered to the British. But in its short life Astoria rendered incalculable benefits to public understanding of the Great Northwest. The exploration of trade routes, the description of various...

"This volume showcases Irving's best work across a variety of genres, including whimsical newspaper articles about New York society, the theater, and contemporary fashions; charming travel pieces that evocatively weave together history and legend; humorous stories and satirical essays from The Sketch-Book and its sequel Bracebridge Hall; and excerpts from A History of New York, considered the first great American book of comic literature."--From publisher....

Spanish Papers is a number of stories and legends covering the history of the Muslim conquest of Spain and the later recovery by Christian forces. These stories are from unpublished manuscripts left by Washington Irving in his will after his death.(Goodreads)

A writer of great urbanity and poise, Washington Irving was America's first internationally acclaimed man of letters. Here in one volume are the writings that established his reputation and earned him the admiration of Hawthorne, Poe, Coleridge, Byron, Scott, and Dickens. Written in the character of an elderly gentleman of the old school, "Letters of Jonathan Oldstyle, Gent." is a series of comic reports on the theater, theater-goers, fashions, balls,...

"Kat Van Tassel wants nothing to do with Sleepy Hollow's ghostly history. But when her mother gives her the original Katrina van Tassel's diary on the two-hundredth anniversary of the Headless Horseman's haunting, a new legend begins to take shape, weaving together the past and the present in eerie ways. When a new girl in town opens Kat's eyes to the possibility that ghosts are real, it makes her question who she truly wants to be . . . and be with....