Rip Van Winkle And The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow

This article explains how Irving’s influence of his short stories, especially Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, came from the style of Southwestern humor during the time. Humorists in the South told short stories with ironic twists to them, similar to how Rip Van Winkle slept peacefully during the Revolution and how Ichabod Crane’s greed to marry Katrina for her profit led to his disappearance. According to researchers, Irving based several the characters in his stories on the townspeople living in the South, notably farmers. Brom Bones of Tarrytown was based on farmers who enjoyed playing pranks on their friends, while Katrina and her father were based on rich farmers who made profits on the crops they sold. The article also

Gilfoyle, author of the article, describes Washington Irving himself as a public intellectual: a writer of fiction active in the culture and political life of his time. Irving worked and befriended other famous authors in his life such as Charles Dickens and Thomas Moore, as well as public figures like Aaron Burr and explorers Lewis and Clark. He is even admired by President Thomas Jefferson and Franklin Pierce. Irving’s legacy is left by his writings themselves. His first story, A History of New York, promoted tourism into the state of New York, as including satire into the history made people interested in visiting the state itself. The last name of Irving’s pen-name, Knickerbocker, became the term that people call the citizens of New York City (people still use the term Knickerbocker now). Irving’s most popular story in media, however, happens to be his short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The short story is considered the first Gothic horror story, thanks to how it used irony as a way to surprise readers. The story has been told throughout the ages, even long after Irving’s death, and found its way into the biggest parts of media with several film adaptations by studios like Disney and top directors like Tim Burton. Gilfoyle wrote the article to explain about the legacy Irving left behind in the time during and after his life. This article will be used in my research project to describe how the literature Irving left influenced other popular writers into writing their own short stories with ironic twists, like Edgar Allen