"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is a short story by Washington Irving contained in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., written while he was living in Birmingham, England, and first published in 1820. With Irving's companion piece "Rip Van Winkle", "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is among the earliest American fiction still read today.

The story is set circa 1790 in the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town, New York, in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow. It tells the story of Ichabod Crane, a priggish and lightly goofy schoolmaster newly arrived from Connecticut, who competes with Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt, the town rowdy, for the hand of Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter of a wealthy farmer. The legend tells of Crane leaving a party at the Van Tassel home on an autumn night, and he suddenly is pursued by the Headless Horseman, the ghost of a Hessian soldier who lost his head during "some nameless battle" of the American Revolutionary War and who "rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head." In the dark there's something shadowy and towering intent on taking Ichabod's life! It's the Headless Horseman! Poor Ichabod has to outrun the galloping phantom! Does he? No one knows for sure because the schoolmaster is.....never....seen....again.

Our musical is produced by special arrangement with Pioneer Drama Service, Inc., Englewood, Colorado. With book adaptation written by Vera Morris, and music and lyrics by Bill Francoeur.



Read the story online HERE.
Listen to the story online HERE. (1hour.23minutes, streaming)