I am sure at one time or another...
we have all read this story...
it is one of my favorite fall/ halloween stories of all time...
and I would read it every year...
and though it has been printed so many times...
with so many covers...
for me, it never gets old...
Washington Irving was born on 3 April 1783...
the youngest of 11 children...
and during a yellow fever outbreak in Manhattan in 1798...
his family sent him north to live with a friend in Tarrytown, NY...
close to the Dutch town of Sleepy Hollow...
full of Dutch customs and ghost stories...
as a teenager...
he made many trips north up the Hudson River...
getting his setting for another story...
Rip Van Winkle...
he was an ambassador to Spain...
he wrote biographies...
including one of George Washington...
he was very successful as a writer...
and made a fine living at it...
encouraging other authors of his time...
if you want to know more about him...
look him up...
he died 28 November 1859...
and he was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery...
Sleepy Hollow, New York...
with his head...