The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a gothic tale written by Washington Irving detailing the life of a lonely man who falls in love, but mysteriously disappears. All that is left behind is a pumpkin, crafting the ghost story that is the headless horseman. The story takes place in Sleepy Hollow, New York in the year 1790. Interestingly enough, according to an interview by Michael Pollack, it was confirmed that an Ichabod B. Crane truly existed. In this interview, when asked if Ichabod was a real person, the response was, "Col. Ichabod B. Crane definitely existed, and was a contemporary of Washington Irving’s, but unlike the spindly bookish schoolteacher in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” which Irving published in 1820, this Ichabod Crane did not run away." This can be left up to interpretation, as can anything which occured centuries ago, yet it adds to the mystery surrounding the story.