Chasing the Headless Horseman

Tread the drowsy shades of Sleepy Hollow with Edgar Award-winning travel writer J.W. Ocker in this spirited exploration of haunted corners, local lore, and America's most famous ghost story.

This immersive travelogue investigates the town that inspired Washington Irving's famous short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” and dives into the storied history of the Headless Horseman’s stomping grounds. Within the pages you'll visit the village’s graveyard where Irving himself is buried and explore all the present-day spookiness of one of the strangest towns in the country.

Blending cultural criticism and behind-the-scenes reporting, Ocker uncovers the tensions between tourism and tradition, profit and preservation, fiction and fact. With wit and curiosity, Chasing the Headless Horseman tells the story of how one small town reinvented itself as America’s Halloween capital, complete with statues, street signs, and an 18-foot-tall Headless Horseman. A must-read for anyone who loves ghost stories, Halloween, or small-town drama, Ocker’s new book does for Sleepy Hollow, New York, what his A Season with the Witch did for Salem, Massachusetts.