Pebble

In 1798, the pebble in New York City’s pond was a yellow fever epidemic. And like most people trying to cope with a crisis, all the Irving family could see was the vortex.

The epidemic apparently was caused by an inadequate and filthy water supply that became a breeding ground for the mosquitoes that carry the virus. After a brief incubation period, yellow fever begins with fever, headache, back pain, chills, nausea, and vomiting. But then it can progress in some patients to produce jaundice; bleeding in the mouth, eyes, and gastrointestinal tract; liver damage; kidney failure; coma; and death. So many New Yorkers died during the 1798 epidemic that itinerant vendors were selling coffins on street corners.

Sarah Sanders Irving and her husband William, a successful merchant and church deacon, lived with their 11 children in Manhattan—ground zero for the emergency. The Irvings were concerned for all their children but particularly for their youngest son, Washington. The boy was 15 and had been sickly most of his life. Worse, he had a habit of sneaking out nights to attend plays and engage in similar artistic pursuits his father considered frivolous—and which might further expose him to catching the illness.

Ripple

So for his own protection, Sarah and William sent young Washington out of the city to live in a place called Tarrytown, 25 miles north of New York. While in Tarrytown, Washington began visiting a nearby hamlet originally settled by the Dutch. He fell in love with the area, not only because of its tranquil scenery and quaint Dutch customs, but also because of his passion for literature and tall tales. The village was a hotbed of local ghost stories, which Washington stored in his fertile imagination.

Ripple

As time went by, the yellow fever epidemic passed and Washington was able to return to his family. But just as yellow fever had plagued Manhattan, ill health continued to plague Washington. And he continued traveling to cope with his troubles.

In 1804, Washington set sail from New York heading to France, hoping to treat a lung ailment in a Bordeaux spa. After returning to the States, where he published a periodical and his first novel, he eventually took up residence in England where he continued to indulge his fascination for macabre writings. He particularly enjoyed German folklore, including Johann Karl August Musäus’s tales of a horseman missing his head. The War of 1812 briefly drew him back to America, but three years later he was again living in England and traveling throughout Europe as he tried to nurse his poor health.

Hoping to earn extra income from his writing, in 1820 he published a collection of short stories under a pseudonym. The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon was a hit—largely due to two popular selections. One was “Rip Van Winkle,” the tale of a man who napped away 20 years of his life. The other was a tale that had been fed by the ripples generated from the yellow fever epidemic 22 years earlier. It was set in the real-life hamlet where young Washington Irving had sat listening as Dutch immigrants shared their ancient ghost stories. He called it “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”

Shore

It must have been terrifying for a sickly 15-year-old boy to leave his home and family to escape a deadly epidemic. Back then, as he wandered the area around Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow, he couldn’t have known those difficult times would one day lead him to pen a story that would secure his financial future and continue to chill and delight audiences two centuries later.