A man who sleeps for twenty years in the Catskill Mountains wakes to a much-changed world.

Originally published: Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1975.

The first English edition was issued simultaneously with the American. John Jacob Astor persuaded Irving to undertake this story of his ill-fated enterprise at the mouth of the Columbia River in 1834. Irving had the use of all of Astor's notes and manuscripts, as well as the original journals of such key participants as Robert Stuart, Wilson Price Hunt, and Ramsey Crooks. The resulting work is a classic - an indispensable resource for students of the American West. It is considered to be the "classic account of the first American attempt at settlement on the Pacific coast,1811--initial action towards substantiating our claim to Oregon--including the earliest extended relation of Wilson P. Hunt's overland expedition from St. Louis to that settlement." Howes.

Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 - November 28, 1859) was an American author, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820), both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works include biographies of George Washington, Oliver Goldsmith and Muhammad, and several histories of 15th-century Spain dealing with subjects such as Christopher Columbus, the Moors and the Alhambra. Irving served as the U.S. ambassador to Spain from 1842 to 1846.