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. Kidd died and was never able to claim his treasure, but Old Scratch continues to protect it long after he is gone. Old Scratch now offers Tom full access to Kidd’s hidden gold, in return for which Tom must give up his soul.

Tom returns home to think about this; his wife thinks it a simple decision and takes it upon herself to agree on her husband’s behalf. She goes out to meet Old Scratch, who now requires an offering. She returns home to bring all their valuables back to Old Scratch and is never seen again. Tom later finds his wife’s apron hanging from a tree, holding her liver and heart. Because she had been so abusive, Tom considers his wife’s demise a good thing, and he agrees to Old Scratch’s terms, part of which is that Tom will become a money lender or usurer (in modern terms, a loan shark).

Several years later, Tom’s business is thriving. While he appears to have many riches—a large house and many horses—upon a closer look, his home has no furniture and his horses are thin from malnutrition. Thus, he is still a miser. Furthermore, after years of running an unscrupulous business consisting of cheating and swindling people, Tom gradually grows fearful of the afterlife. He becomes God-fearing and religious, always keeping two bibles on hand. Yet even now, as a seemingly pious man, his actions still have an aura of shiftiness: He considers other people’s sins a benefit, since they make him seem more virtuous.

One afternoon, a friend of Tom’s who has lost his money in land speculation comes to him begging for leniency. Tom refuses, declaring his intention to foreclose the mortgage. When the speculator wonders why a man who makes such a profit off of him couldn’t be more merciful, Tom exclaims that the devil himself may take him away if he had made a fraction of the profit the man is talking about.

This statement being an outright lie, Tom immediately hears three knocks on his door: It is Old Scratch, in the guise of Death, waiting outside on his horse. Tom realizes it is all over for him and regrets that the does not have his bibles with him. Old Scratch takes Tom with him on his horse and they ride off together back to the swamp, disappearing into a storm. Tom’s house burns, his horses turn to skeletons, his money and gold transform into wood shavings, and the swamp is haunted by his ghost on horseback.