But The Sketch-Book also contained many other pieces inspired by Irving’s time in England, prompting some critics to conclude that Irving had turned his back on America to become an Old World scribe. The Sketch-Book contained not only “Rip Van Winkle,” but “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” Irving’s iconic tale of an ungainly schoolteacher who might- or might not-be the victim of a supernatural presence in the woods.īoth “Rip” and “Sleepy Hollow” drew on Hudson Valley settings, affirming Irving’s connection with New York City and the wider region of New York State. He’d kept up his literary career during his days abroad, creating a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic with the publication of The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. He had left as a famous writer in 1815, and his celebrity mushroomed during his years away. Invitations quickly poured in for public dinners in Irving’s honor. When Irving’s return ship, the Havre, stalled outside New York Harbor, unable to complete its passage because of a steady headwind, a local newspaper dispatched a schooner to collect Irving and bring him ashore-a clever way to get the scoop on Irving’s arrival back in the States. What had not changed, as Irving quickly discovered, was New York’s affection for one of its famous native sons. “Huge edifices and lofty piles had sprung up in the place of lowly tenements the old landmarks of the city were gone the very streets were altered.” “I passed through places that ought to be familiar to me, but all were changed,” he later recalled. In other ways large and small, Irving’s old haunts had evolved. Out near the edge of the city-or the place where he once marked the city’s end-buildings now stood instead of woodland. After seventeen years abroad, helping to manage a family import business, working as a diplomat, and honing his literary career, Irving had returned to his hometown.īut the New York of 1832 was not the same as the New York he’d left in 1815. Now, it was Irving’s turn to be surprised.
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