Books

Undated; circa 1928. Large 8" x 10" gift book design. Black cloth boards, color plate, gilt spine titles, light shelf wear, rub. Cover plate depicts the dynamic haunted headless horseman, stylish titles graced by two mischievous elfin characters. Pages very good, clean. Frontispiece color plate with captioned tissue guard by Rackham: "Frequently see strange sights, and hear music and voices in the air." Classic two-page spread, monochromatic in golden sepias and oranges w/black & white in various hues, illustrated endpapers at front, back. Scene features main characters below trees teeming with ghouls and black cats and Sleepy Hollow townscape in b.g. Classic antiquarian bookstore label at endpapers: "Brentano's, New York." Beautifully and aptly illustrated throughout by the esteemed artist Arthur Rackham. Includes eight whimsically creepy full-color plates and partial-page imagery, decoration, headers and tailpieces throughout. Bind good, square; hinges intact. Rare cream dust wrapper w/large front panel illustration matching front board and crisp titles at spine, moderate chip, rub; protected in new clear sleeve. Scarce very good finely crafted volume in good original wrapper. Contains a prologue by D. K., Irving's most well known public persona, Diedrich Knickerbocker. One of American literature's most enduring and popular tales, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow tells the tragic story of the love triangle that develops between the ill-fated Ichabod Crane, Brom Bones and Katrina Van Tassel. Lavishly decorated by Rackham in his, by turns, humorous and blood-curdling illustrations. Headless horsemen hail from Northern European storytelling, in German, Irish, Scandinavian (The Wild Hunt) and English legends, and were included in Robert Burns's "Tam o' Shanter" (1790) and The Wild Huntsman (1796). Appearing as omens for those who disregard apparitions, these spectors found victims in proud schemers bearing hubris and arrogance. The most notable, however, was the spector of Sleepy Hollow, who had been riding the trails with his horse among the church yard graves. Enter Brom Bones, who made light of the galloping Hessian as an arrant horseman. He disaffirmed that returning one night from a neighboring village, being overtaken by the midnight trooper. That he had offered to race with him for a bowl of punch and should have won it too, for Daredevil beat the goblin horse all hollow, but as they came to the church bridge, the Hessian bolted and vanished in a flash of flame. All these haunts, told in a hushed undertone as men whisper in the dark, the countenances of the listeners only now and then receiving a casual gleam from the shine of a pipe, sank deep in the mind of Ichabod.Washington Irving was an American author, essayist, biographer and historian of the early 19th century. In 1809, he published, The History of New York, under his most well known public persona, Diedrich Knickerbocker. Irving is best known for his short stories, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle". 102 pages. Insured post. Size: 4to - over 9�" - 12" tall.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a gothic story by American author Washington Irving, contained in his collection of 34 essays and short stories entitled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.