Suspended animation in fiction which is indistinguishable from death. In American fiction, the first story to deal with suspended animation is the tale of Rip Van Winkle, a short story by American author Washington Irving published in 1819 as well as the name of the story's fictional protagonist. In the story, a British subject in the American colonies wanders into the Catskill Mountains in the years before the American Revolutionary War, and finds a group of fairies, whose moonshine he drinks. He then falls asleep for 20 years, and returns to his village in what is now the United States, finding his home town
Isaac Homer Van Winkle Isaac Homer Van Winkle Isaac Homer Van Winkle (December 3, 1870 – December 14, 1943) was an American attorney in the state of Oregon. A former dean of Willamette University's law school, he served as the 6th Attorney General of Oregon for 23 years. Van Winkle was born in Linn County, Oregon, near the community of Halsey, to Isaac Newton Van Winkle and Elizabeth Ann Pearl. Isaac graduated from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, in 1898 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. In 1901, he graduated from Willamette University College of Law, where he later served as the sixth dean.