The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

History of Collins

In 1819, millworker William Collins from Glasgow, Scotland, set up a company for printing and publishing pamphlets, sermons, hymn books and prayer books. That company was Collins and was to mark the birth of HarperCollins Publishers as we know it today. The long tradition of Collins dictionary publishing can be traced back to the first dictionary William published in 1824, Greek and English Lexicon. Indeed, from 1840 onwards, he began to produce illustrated dictionaries and even obtained a licence to print and publish the Bible.

Soon after, William published the first Collins novel, Ready Reckoner, however it was the time of the Long Depression, where harvests were poor, prices were high, potato crops had failed and violence was erupting in Europe. As a result, many factories across the country were forced to close down and William chose to retire in 1846, partly due to the hardships he was facing.

Aged 30, William’s son, William II took over the business. A keen humanitarian with a warm heart and a generous spirit, William II was truly ‘Victorian’ in his outlook. He introduced new, up-to-date steam presses and published affordable editions of Shakespeare’s works and Pilgrim’s Progress, making them available to the masses for the first time. A new demand for educational books meant that success came with the publication of travel books, scientific books, encyclopaedias and dictionaries. This demand to be educated led to the later publication of atlases and Collins also held the monopoly on scripture writing at the time.

In the 1860s Collins began to expand and diversify and the idea of ‘books for the millions’ was developed. Affordable editions of classical literature were published and in 1903 Collins introduced 10 titles in their Collins Handy Illustrated Pocket Novels. These proved so popular that a few years later this had increased to an output of 50 volumes, selling nearly half a million in their year of publication. In the same year, The Everyman’s Library was also instituted, with the idea of publishing an affordable library of the most important classical works, biographies, religious and philosophical treatments, plays, poems, travel and adventure. This series eclipsed all competition at the time and the introduction of paperback books in the 1950s helped to open that market and marked a high point in the industry.

HarperCollins is and has always been a champion of the classics and the current Collins Classics series follows in this tradition – publishing classical literature that is affordable and available to all. Beautifully packaged, highly collectible and intended to be reread and enjoyed at every opportunity.

Life & Times

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Timeless Tales

Originally the eponymous tale, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, was just one story among more than 30 in a collection entitled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent (1819–20). Geoffrey Crayon was the pseudonym of the American author Washington Irving. Of those stories, two in particular became more famous than the others: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. Both stories were set in New York State, but Irving wrote them in Birmingham – not in Birmingham, Alabama, but in the West Midlands, England, where he happened to be staying with his sister at the time.

Other stories include The Spectre Bridegroom, which has its source in a folklore tale shared by the 2005 stop-frame animation film, Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride. Another story, entitled Little Britain, was the name of a squalid and colourful district in 19th-century London, so called because it was a microcosm of British society. Irving’s story amounts to a stroll through this defining heart of the capital. The British comedians Matt Lucas and David Walliams used the same title for their comedy sketch show because they populated it with a cast of eccentrically British characters, in much the same vein as Irving’s story. Further stories are set in America, England, Scotland and Ireland.

The reasons why the stories of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle have become more successful than the others seems to be threefold. Firstly, they have a sense of completeness in the tradition of storytelling, in that they have a beginning, middle and end. Secondly, one would be forgiven for believing that they were both genuine American folk stories, which Irving had simply committed to the page. Thirdly, because they are set in America, they possess a distinctive quality – to the British audience, they had a romantic exoticness, while to the American audience, they filled a perceived gap in folk tradition as the country was still in its infancy at that time.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow cleverly combines ghost story with romantic comedy and also has an uncertain ending, leaving the reader to surmise what may, or may not, have happened. It also has memorable, if a little clichéd, characters, representing archetypes of sorts. Rip Van Winkle deals with the transition of America, from sovereignty to independence, by imagining what a character would experience if he were to fall asleep for 20 years, much like in a fairy tale.

About the Author: Transatlantic Popularity

Irving was very much a product of the emergent US. The year of his birth, 1783, marked the end of the American Revolutionary War, and he was named after George Washington, who was then commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and would go on to become the first president of the United States of America in 1789. The war had lasted eight years and was seen as a metamorphosis that was keenly felt by Irving’s parent’s generation.

This sense of transition is where he found his inspiration for Rip Van Winkle, as the character was a traveler in time, spanning the turbulence. The eponymous Rip is, in effect, a personification of the metamorphosis of America from larva, through pupa, to imago. Little was Irving to realize, however, that America would be plunged into bitter civil war just two years following his death. Independence in itself was not enough, as the North and South had different ideas about what it actually meant to be American. In the end, much more blood would be shed in order to find the way forward.

Irving is credited with having become the first American author to garner international success. This is partly because his parents were British immigrants who settled in New York. This gave Irving a footing on both sides of the Atlantic, a fact he took full advantage of by establishing many contacts in both America and Europe. In addition to this, Irving was influenced by the wealth of folk stories that emanated from the European continent and lived on in the subcultures of those who had found their new home in the US.

The result was that Irving had an eye for writing stories that, although original, had an air of traditional authenticity, along with a ready market comprising Europeans and their New World diaspora. Irving had an extended stay in Britain and Europe and, at one stage, and had a liaison with Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, following the death of her husband and subsequent return to England.

Within the literary community, Irving was very highly regarded on both sides of the Atlantic. He actively encouraged his fellow American authors to try their luck on the international scene, and his work was also admired by contemporary British authors. At the time, writing was not generally accepted as an orthodox profession, but Irving amply demonstrated that it was possible to make a respectable living from the pen. He also initiated the idea that there should be laws to protect authors and publishers from infringement of copyright and piracy, as it was all too easy for others to steal original ideas or to simply sell counterfeit copies of novels without fear of prosecution.

Irving is famed for his clever marketing prowess. In 1809 he was ready to publish his first major work, with the ludicrously long title A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty, by Diedrich Knickerbocker. To garner attention, Irving placed ‘missing person’ postings in New York papers, pretending that Knickerbocker was a real Dutch author who had vanished from his hotel room. He followed this with a hoax posting from the proprietor of the hotel, stating that an abandoned manuscript would be used to settle Knickerbocker’s hotel bill if he failed to resurface. New Yorkers were so beguiled that they were primed for reading the book, which was published in December of that year.

Irving initially took the pseudonym Knickerbocker, but the readership didn’t mind when he revealed that they had been duped, because they so loved the book and admired Irving’s guile. He had become an overnight celebrity, and his writing career was assured. Today the name Knickerbocker has become synonymous with those who live in Manhattan, but it was also used as the title of an influential literary magazine. Irving himself became a member of its staff for a few years.

The period 1842–46 saw Irving enter politics, as Minister to Spain. He presumed that the role would be somewhat honorary, so that he could spend much of his time writing. However, it was anything but, as Spain was a rather turbulent place at the time due to the Spanish queen still being a child, so that there was much infighting for power among those in government. Irving also became involved with long-winded negotiations over trade between the Americans and the Iberians. This included the Spanish territory of Cuba, which was problematic due to the use of slave labour – the issue that would soon ignite the American Civil War.

When Irving returned to America, he grew ever closer to the hearts of the nation the older he became. He was viewed as a sage of American literature and a wise elder statesman. He was blessed with talent, intelligence and an affable personality, which gave him an unprecedented likeability.

Interestingly, the perception of Irving’s learnedness was so strong that he inadvertently introduced a historical myth that became taught as historical fact; a fact that has persisted after his death, to this day. He published a biography of the explorer Christopher Columbus in 1828, in which he stated that Europeans believed the world to be flat, so that Columbus’s crew feared falling off the edge of the world during their voyage into the unknown. The truth is that Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, had settled on the idea of the world being spherical in the 4th century BC and medieval European culture was based on Aristotelian thinking. Furthermore, the curvature of the Earth was clearly in evidence to those navigating the oceans in 1492.

PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION.

The following papers, with two exceptions, were written in England, and formed but part of an intended series for which I had made notes and memorandums. Before I could mature a plan, however, circumstances compelled me to send them piecemeal to the United States, where they were published from time to time in portions or numbers. It was not my intention to publish them in England, being conscious that much of their contents could be interesting only to American readers, and, in truth, being deterred by the severity with which American productions had been treated by the British press.

By the time the contents of the first volume had appeared in this occasional manner, they began to find their way across the Atlantic, and to be inserted, with many kind encomiums, in the London Literary Gazette. It was said, also, that a London bookseller intended to publish them in a collective form. I determined, therefore, to bring them forward myself, that they might at least have the benefit of my superintendence and revision. I accordingly took the printed numbers which I had received from the United States, to Mr. John Murray, the eminent publisher, from whom I had already received friendly attentions, and left them with him for examination, informing him that should he be inclined to bring them before the public, I had materials enough on hand for a second volume. Several days having elapsed without any communication from Mr. Murray, I addressed a note to him, in which I construed his silence into a tacit rejection of my work, and begged that the numbers I had left with him might be returned to me. The following was his reply:

MY DEAR SIR: I entreat you to believe that I feel truly obliged by your kind intentions towards me, and that I entertain the most unfeigned respect for your most tasteful talents. My house is completely filled with workpeople at this time, and I have only an office to transact business in; and yesterday I was wholly occupied, or I should have done myself the pleasure of seeing you.

If it would not suit me to engage in the publication of your present work, it is only because I do not see that scope in the nature of it which would enable me to make those satisfactory accounts between us, without which I really feel no satisfaction in engaging—but I will do all I can to promote their circulation, and shall be most ready to attend to any future plan of yours.

With much regard, I remain, dear sir,

Your faithful servant,

JOHN MURRAY.

This was disheartening, and might have deterred me from any further prosecution of the matter, had the question of republication in Great Britain rested entirely with me; but I apprehended the appearance of a spurious edition. I now thought of Mr. Archibald Constable as publisher, having been treated by him with much hospitality during a visit to Edinburgh; but first I determined to submit my work to Sir-Walter (then Mr.) Scott, being encouraged to do so by the cordial reception I had experienced from him at Abbotsford a few years previously, and by the favorable opinion he had expressed to others of my earlier writings. I accordingly sent him the printed numbers of the Sketch-Book in a parcel by coach, and at the same time wrote to him, hinting that since I had had the pleasure of partaking of his hospitality, a reverse had taken place in my affairs which made the successful exercise of my pen all-important to me; I begged him, therefore, to look over the literary articles I had forwarded to him, and, if he thought they would bear European republication, to ascertain whether Mr. Constable would be inclined to be the publisher.

The parcel containing my work went by coach to Scott’s address in Edinburgh; the letter went by mail to his residence in the country. By the very first post I received a reply, before he had seen my work.

“I was down at Kelso,” said he, “when your letter reached Abbotsford. I am now on my way to town, and will converse with Constable, and do all in my power to forward your views—I assure you nothing will give me more pleasure.”

The hint, however, about a reverse of fortune had struck the quick apprehension of Scott, and, with that practical and efficient good-will which belonged to his nature, he had already devised a way of aiding me. A weekly periodical, he went on to inform me, was about to be set up in Edinburgh, supported by the most respectable talents, and amply furnished with all the necessary information. The appointment of the editor, for which ample funds were provided, would be five hundred pounds sterling a year, with the reasonable prospect of further advantages. This situation, being apparently at his disposal, he frankly offered to me. The work, however, he intimated, was to have somewhat of a political bearing, and he expressed an apprehension that the tone it was desired to adopt might not suit me. “Yet I risk the question,” added he, “because I know no man so well qualified for this important task, and perhaps because it will necessarily bring you to Edinburgh. If my proposal does not suit, you need only keep the matter secret and there is no harm done. ‘And for my love I pray you wrong me not.’ If on the contrary you think it could be made to suit you, let me know as soon as possible, addressing Castle Street, Edinburgh.”

In a postscript, written from Edinburgh, he adds, “I am just come here, and have glanced over the Sketch-Book. It is positively beautiful, and increases my desire to crimp you, if it be possible. Some difficulties there always are in managing such a matter, especially at the outset; but we will obviate them as much as we possibly can.”

The following is from an imperfect draught of my reply, which underwent some modifications in the copy sent:

“I cannot express how much I am gratified by your letter. I had begun to feel as if I had taken an unwarrantable liberty; but, somehow or other, there is a genial sunshine about you that warms every creeping thing into heart and confidence. Your literary proposal both surprises and flatters me, as it evinces a much higher opinion of my talents than I have myself.”

I then went on to explain that I found myself peculiarly unfitted for the situation offered to me, not merely by my political opinions, but by the very constitution and habits of my mind. “My whole course of life,” I observed, “has been desultory, and I am unfitted for any periodically recurring task, or any stipulated labor of body or mind. I have no command of my talents, such as they are, and have to watch the varyings of my mind as I would those of a weathercock. Practice and training may bring me more into rule; but at present I am as useless for regular service as one of my own country Indians or a Don Cossack.

“I must, therefore, keep on pretty much as I have begun; writing when I can, not when I would. I shall occasionally shift my residence and write whatever is suggested by objects before me, or whatever rises in my imagination; and hope to write better and more copiously by and by.

“I am playing the egotist, but I know no better way of answering your proposal than by showing what a very good-for-nothing kind of being I am. Should Mr. Constable feel inclined to make a bargain for the wares I have on hand, he will encourage me to further enterprise; and it will be something like trading with a gypsy for the fruits of his prowlings, who may at one time have nothing but a wooden bowl to offer, and at another time a silver tankard.”

In reply, Scott expressed regret, but not surprise, at my declining what might have proved a troublesome duty. He then recurred to the original subject of our correspondence; entered into a detail of the various terms upon which arrangements were made between authors and booksellers, that I might take my choice; expressing the most encouraging confidence of the success of my work, and of previous works which I had produced in America. “I did no more,” added he, “than open the trenches with Constable; but I am sure if you will take the trouble to write to him, you will find him disposed to treat your overtures with every degree of attention. Or, if you think it of consequence in the first place to see me, I shall be in London in the course of a month, and whatever my experience can command is most heartily at your command. But I can add little to what I have said above, except my earnest recommendation to Constable to enter into the negotiation.”

Before the receipt of this most obliging letter, however, I had determined to look to no leading bookseller for a launch, but to throw my work before the public at my own risk, and let it sink or swim according to its merits. I wrote to that effect to Scott, and soon received a reply:

“I observe with pleasure that you are going to come forth in Britain. It is certainly not the very best way to publish on one’s own accompt; for the booksellers set their face against the circulation of such works as do not pay an amazing toll to themselves. But they have lost the art of altogether damming up the road in such cases between the author and the public, which they were once able to do as effectually as Diabolus in John Bunyan’s Holy War closed up the windows of my Lord Understanding’s mansion. I am sure of one thing, that you have only to be known to the British public to be admired by them, and I would not say so unless I really was of that opinion.

“If you ever see a witty but rather local publication called Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, you will find some notice of your works in the last number: the author is a friend of mine, to whom I have introduced you in your literary capacity. His name is Lockhart, a young man of very considerable talent, and who will soon be intimately connected with my family. My faithful friend Knickerbocker is to be next examined and illustrated. Constable was extremely willing to enter into consideration of a treaty for your works, but I foresee will be still more so when

Your name is up, and may go

From Toledo to Madrid.

—And that will soon be the case. I trust to be in London about the middle of the month, and promise myself great pleasure in once again shaking you by the hand.”

The first volume of the Sketch-Book was put to press in London, as I had resolved, at my own risk, by a bookseller unknown to fame, and without any of the usual arts by which a work is trumpeted into notice. Still some attention had been called to it by the extracts which had previously appeared in the Literary Gazette, and by the kind word spoken by the editor of that periodical, and it was getting into fair circulation, when my worthy bookseller failed before the first month was over, and the sale was interrupted.