“Exceptional talent….I am one of his most ardent admirers. I admired Mr. Irving’s work so much, in fact, that I gave it the ultimate praise; I ‘borrowed it.’”—Edgar Allan Poe Sage, storyteller, and wit, Washington Irving created such staples of American fiction as the stories “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” He earned his preeminence in early American literature with the masterpieces in miniature collected here: dozens of stories, travel essays, biographical discourses, and literary musings. Originally published as The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent, this collection was one of the first widely read works by an American author abroad, establishing not only Irving's reputation, but the notion of an American style of literature. “His influence on American writers is unquestioned,” wrote Edgar Allan Poe, and his stories have proved as enduring as the Catskill Mountains the author immortalized. With an Introduction by Wayne Franklin