Author · 5 titles

Washington Irving

Washington Irving (1783–1859) helped invent American literature for a reading public still finding its voice. Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow — both from The Sketch Book — gave the young republic its first enduring short-story myths: the long sleep, the headless horseman, the Hudson Valley as haunted ground. Essayist, biographer, historian, and later American minister to Spain, Irving wrote with charm, humour, and a storyteller's instinct for the tale that outlives its teller. Across five titles here, he remains the early American classic of ghost, joke, and gentle satire.

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