The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a gothic story by American author Washington Irving, first published in 1820. Sleepy Hollow is a strange little place, some say bewitched. Some talk of its haunted valleys and streams, the ghostly woman in white, eerie midnight shrieks and howls, but most of all they talk of the Headless Horseman. A huge, shadowy soldier who rides headless through the night, terrifying unlucky travellers.