The original Pumpkinhead...
I really dig this story...to me, it is THE scary story for this time or year. Written by Washington Irving, the preeminent American author of the first half
of the 19th century, it involves
Ichabod Crane a hapless schoolteacher, the ghost of a headless Hessian
soldier from the Rev War sporting a jack-o-lantern for a head (a cannonball removed what
God gave him), and a girl named Katrina...it's a classic love triangle with
some supernatural hijinks thrown into the mix.
Originally published between 1819 and 1820 while Irving was living in
Britain, the short stories would be shipped back to New York as Irving finished them, where they were published in installments, under the overall title The Sketch Book Of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. The first set of stories debuted on June
23rd, 1819. The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow was included in the sixth installment on March 15th, 1820. Over the next couple of years, the collection
was put into book form, both in England and America, but the true masterpiece was not seen until 1848, almost 30 years after original publication, when Irving revised the book and it was republished. By then, two of the stories had already become great American classics, Sleepy Hollow being one, Rip van Winkle being the other.
The original first edition pamphlets are not online...but
the first British edition book in which Ichabod and the Headless Horseman appear, is.
You have been warned...let the scare begin...
You have been warned...let the scare begin...
Irving's revised and republished Sketch Book. Sleepy Hollow is at the very end...