The Devil And Tom Walker

Many consider Washington Irving (1783-1859) one of the foundational figures of early American literature, and his stories “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” have become part of popular culture. Only slightly behind these works in popularity and critical acclaim is “The Devil and Tom Walker,” a brooding short story written under the pseudonym of Diedrich Knickerbocker and published in the 1824 story collection Tales of a Traveler. This guide will refer to the story as it appears in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Selections from Washington Irving, published by Washington Square Press.

Set around 1727 near Boston, Massachusetts, the story centers on Tom Walker, a cheap and stingy miser who lives with his equally greedy but more abusive wife. One day, while taking a shortcut home through a swampy forest near an old Indian fortress, Tom Walker runs into the devil incarnate, here taking the form of a swarthy, soot-covered lumberjack named “Old Scratch.” Years earlier, the pirate William Kidd had hidden a treasure deep in this forest and made a deal with the devil to protect his money.