Washington Irving's two most famous stories are combined here. One tells of Rip Van Winkle who escaped the dreadful life of a hen-pecked husband by magical means and the other of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman on their midnight ride. Experience the fright of poor Ichabod when assailed by the headless horseman and laugh at poor Rip who spends a lot of time sleeping to try to escape the headache of a nagging and ungrateful wife.

Washington Irving (1783–1859) was an American short story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, magazine editor and diplomat.

Born in Manhattan at the end of the American Revolution, he was named for George Washington, whom he met as a child of six. As a teenager, Irving lived further upstate and became familiar with the surroundings that provided the setting for his best known works, "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"