"Rip Van Winkle" (1819) is the second of the two stories for which Irving is famous today. Rip Van Winkle wanders off into the Catskill mountains to escape his wife's nagging, plays ninepins with a group of dwarfs, and sleeps for twenty years.

"The Spectre Bridegroom, A Traveller's Tale" (1819) is another story from Irving's Sketch Book. A young girl is loved by two men, one from her own rural area and one from a far-away city. Although it is set in Germany, this story of competition, pranks and the supernatural is instructively like and unlike "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."

The Life of Washington Irving (1935) by Stanley T. Williams is a two-volume biography, notable for its thoroughness and for the strong sense Stanley creates of thoroughly disliking his subject.

Davy Crockett's Narrative of the Life of David Crockett (1834) is a collection...