“The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving

by kattomic

“The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving
02.21.12
Story 52/366

“The Devil and Tom Walker” is from the same writer who gave us “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle,” and this story is very much cut from the same cloth. Unlike so many of his contemporaries (he was one of Poe’s mentors), Irving was an internationally known, best-selling writer in his lifetime and was still working when he died at 76. (He’d just completed a multi-volume biography of George Washington, who died when he was 16.) This story, a cautionary tale, involves a pirate treasure, a “meagre, miserly” man (and his wife, a “scold”) and the devil who, in the tradition of devil characters, has some great lines. “The Devil and Tom Walker” originally appeared in the collection Tales of a Traveller, published in 1824. You can read the story here; and there’s a short, animated film based on the story on YouTube.

See you tomorrow!