Sleepy Hollow as American Myth (2025)

978-1-4766-9757-4

What Others Say

“This is not an exhaustive book, as I pointed out there is not an episode guide for Sleepy Hollow, but it is groundbreaking and the goal of showing how a short story in a book became pop myth has been well done.”—Charles Floyd Rhodes, Amazon review

The Story behind the Story

Sleepy Hollow as American Myth: Irving’s Story Retold, Adapted and Cemented in Popular Culture is available from McFarland Books. This is a survey of the afterlives of Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1820). Washington Irving, America’s first famous writer, made his reputation with two stories: “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle,” both in his Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Although Sleepy Hollow is well represented in American culture, not many books exist about it. That’s why I wrote this one. I wanted to demonstrate that a book about Sleepy Hollow was possible. This study is intended to inform, entertain, challenge, and simply to give an excuse to anyone who wants to linger over this short story for as long as possible.

John Quidor, The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane, public domain via Wikimedia Commons

It’s difficult to imagine any other single short story that has such wide recognition. Some years ago I began wondering if it would be possible to write an entire nonfiction book on a single story. In my research I found only one other book written about the Legend, Gary Denis’ Sleepy Hollow—Birth of the Legend. Denis tries to trace the backstory behind Sleepy Hollow. What I’m doing here is tracing its development from the original tale into the full-blown myth that it’s become. I would also shout out Joe Nazare’s website that gave me inspiration early on.

This book began forming about six or seven years prior to its publication. After writing an article on the Fox TV series Sleepy Hollow, and then exploring it further in Holy Horror, the idea to write something more comprehensive took hold. I’d known of the story since childhood, of course. Probably I saw it in the Disney cartoon form, discussed quite a lot in this book. I remembered when the Sleepy Hollow postage stamp was issued. I kept watching the mail, hoping one might arrive in our letterbox. It never did. The story never left me. Then my wife suggested we watch Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow one October while living in Wisconsin. I was immediately hooked. I still know of no other movie like it. It also renewed a national interest in Washington Irving’s story again.

Image credit: F.O.C. Darley, Le Magasin pittoresque, 1849; public domain

I give a little social commentary in my book as well. The story demonstrates what it is to be an American, and it makes ghosts of those who don’t fit the “usual form.” The book also explores the haunted nature of the Hudson Valley. Although I live a couple hours away from the area, my family roots, way back, are from that region. The story is timeless, and quintessentially American. I timed this book to be available before Lindsey Beer’s reboot of Sleepy Hollow hits theaters.