Sleepy Hollow-in-the-Catskills, N.Y., Old Original Rip Van Winkle Rock, just above old house
Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving was published to international acclaim in 1819. Set in the Catskills, an amiable Rip wanders off in the woods with his dog Wolf to escape his wife’s nagging and to avert “all kinds of profitable labor” only to encounter a silent group of short, bearded men playing nine-pins. After drinking some of their liquor he falls asleep for twenty years. Upon waking, he returns to his village to learn that his wife has died, the American Revolution has occurred and that he must face the fact that many of his former friends have either died, moved on or simply do not recognize him. The short story is an American classic.
The postcard, depicting the sleepy Rip Van Winkle as he naps on Rip’s Rock in Sleepy Hollow, was published by the Hugh C. Leighton Company located at Portland, Maine. The postmark on the reverse side shows that it was mailed in 1908.
