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Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was first published in 1820 in a sketchbook of short stories that also included Rip Van Winkle, two of the earliest examples of American fiction. Sleepy Hollow is set in the Hudson River Valley in the real town of Tarry Town, New York, where Washington Irving had a home known as Sunnyside—a home that exists today. In fact, you can still visit the churchyard and the bridge mentioned in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow... though don’t look for it in Tarry Town. In 1997 the town of Tarrytown, NY changed its name to Sleepy Hollow.