Ichabod Crane Original and Limited Edition Art

Ichabod Crane is a fictional character and the main protagonist in Washington Irving's short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, first published in 1820.

As described in the story, Ichabod Crane is a timid schoolteacher who travels to Sleepy Hollow to teach the children of the area. This, in company with his ability to ingratiate himself, persuades many of the townspeople to successively lodge him at their homes for a week at a time, which serves as his sole source of shelter. He follows strict morals in the schoolroom, including the proverbial "Spare the rod and spoil the child"; outside the schoolroom, he is shown to have few morals and no motive but his own gratification. Despite being thin, he is capable of eating astonishingly large amounts of food and is constantly seeking to do so. In addition to this, he is excessively superstitious, often to the extent of believing every myth, legend, tall tale, etc. to be literally true. As a result, he is perpetually frightened by anything that reminds him of ghosts or demons. At the climax of the story, Crane has a terrifying encounter with the legendary Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow.