It’s almost Halloween, and that means everyone’s looking for Ichabod Crane! With the help, of course, of Irving expert Elizabeth Bradley, who wrote the introduction and notes to our edition of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories.
In Electric Lit, Jason Diamond went searching for the Headless Horseman at the Old Dutch Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, finding universality in the story:
With the Headless Horseman, we’re not entirely sure what happened, let alone if there ever was a haunting in the first place. Maybe he was just a lone rider mistaken for a phantom in the dark; but in Irving’s story—one of America’s truly great stories, passed on through time—he’s whatever we want him to be.
And in The New York Times, Michael Pollak looked at who was the real Ichabod. He went to Elizabeth Bradley, who had some advice on the connection between Ichabod and New Yorkers:
Several 19th-century schoolteachers are held up as the model for the character of Ichabod Crane, including Samuel Youngs and Jesse Merwin. Kinderhook, the Columbia County town where Mr. Merwin taught, has renamed an extant 19th-century, one-room schoolhouse the Ichabod Crane Schoolhouse, the better to capitalize on the Irving association. It shows you how quick New Yorkers are to claim a piece of Irving’s ‘Legend’ for their own community,” she said. “Much like George Washington, we all want to say that the Headless Horseman Slept Here.
Regardless of who the historical Ichabod and the Horseman were, if you take to the streets next weekend, you just might find them yourself!
tangentwithtanner
stormborns
blakekathryn
areudirty
snowghoul
yousharknotpass
romaincrisis
dededos
