Does Rip Van Winkle have an interesting relationship to the author's life or career?

One interesting fact about "Rip Van Winkle" is that it was written in England and despite its vivid and beautiful description of the Catskill mountains, Irving had never visited there. So when he writes

the magical hues and shapes of these mountains ... are clothed in blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky; but sometimes, when the rest of the landscape is cloudless, they will gather a hood of gray vapors about their summits, which, in the last rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of glory. At the foot of these fairy mountains, the voyager may have descried the light smoke curling up from a village, whose shingle-roofs gleam among the trees, just where the blue tints of the upland melt away into the fresh green of the nearer landscape ...

That is imagination at play ... or maybe more a description of a European setting. For a second interesting fact about the story is that Irving based it and other stories in his short story collection, called  The Sketch Book, on German folk tales. He was encouraged to do so while in England by his friend, the famous British writer Sir Walter Scott. That could explain why the appearance of the mysterious forest folk, who look like characters from a German fairy tale, are so much more fully described than Rip. Thus, we have a classic American tale with descriptions of an American setting Irving had never seen and based not on American lore but on German folktales. Interesting, eh?

Finally, Irving had declared bankruptcy not long before writing the collection of stories that includes "Rip Van Winkle," so he needed the money badly.