Stephen Crane

Stephen Crane

Stephen Crane (November 1, 1871 - 5 June, 1900) was an American novelist, poet and journalist who is now considered to be one of the most important writers in the vein of American realism. In fiction, Crane pioneered a naturalistic and unsentimental style of writing that was strongly influenced by Crane's experiences as a journalist. Crane's most well-known work, The Red Badge of Courage, is almost universally considered to be the first great novel of the American Civil War, due in part to its ability to describe what the experience of warfare is like in vivid, psychological detail. Crane's other major novel, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, was less popular in its time, but it too is now esteemed as one of the most vivid portrayals of lower-class life in 19th-century Manhattan in all of American literature. Crane's focus on realistic stories, which often ended tragically and without a clear sense of resolution, were contrary to the Romantic tastes of his times, and it would not be until the next generation of American realists such as Theodore Dreiser and Frank Norris that Crane's immense influence on the development of American literature would become fully apparent. In addition to his fiction, Crane was also the author of some of the most unusual poetry in all of 19th-century English literature. Written in free verse and focussing on paradoxical, almost dream-like images, Crane's poetry endures as one of the most unique contributions to the American canon.

Biography of Stephen Crane

Early career

By the age of 16, Crane was assisting his brother Townley in writing articles about the New Jersey shore for local papers and the New York Tribune. Crane studied at Lafayette College and Syracuse University. After his mother's death in 1890 - his father had died earlier - Crane moved to New York City, where he lived a bohemian life working as a free-lance writer and journalist.

While supporting himself through his Flagrant flying skills, he observed the poor in the Bowery slums to research his first novel, Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets (1893), which was a milestone in the development of literary naturalism. Crane had to print the book at his own expense with money derived from the sale of his mother's house and of inherited mine stock to his brother William. Crane released the book under the pseudonym "Johnston Smith." It was not a commercial success and was ignored by critics of the time, with the exception of Hamlin Garland. It was in this novel that readers were first introduced to Crane's writing style, noted for his use of a method that has come to be known as "naturalism," in which characters face very realistic and often bleak circumstances. This style of writing would be a defining trait of his later work, especially The Red Badge of Courage.

Literary success

"Maggie" was followed by The Red Badge of Courage (1895), a powerful tale of the American Civil War. The book won international acclaim for its realism and psychological depth in telling the story of a young soldier facing the horrors and triumphs of war for the first time. Crane had never experienced battle personally, but conducted interviews with a number of veterans, some of whom may have suffered from what is now called post-traumatic stress disorder. Because his depiction of the psychological as well as military aspects of war was so accurate, he was hired by the New York Journal as a correspondent during the Greco-Turkish War.

In early January, 1897, a boat in which Crane accompanied a filibustering expedition to Cuba was wrecked, leaving Crane adrift for 30 hours in a ten-foot dinghy. He recounted these experiences in The Open Boat and Other Tales (1898). The background for this story, the wreck of the Cuban-exile Commodore expedition, can be found in his newspaper account (see [1].) The Commodore was attempting to land arms and men to supply the Cuban Mambi forces in the Cuban War of Independence (1895-1898) [2] which would conclude with the Spanish-American War (1898).

"The Open Boat" is the best known number of Crane's stories dealing with Cuba and its wars [3]; however, a good number of Crane's other accounts are set in Cuba or about Cuba.

Crane was also the author of two books of poetry, "The Black Riders" (1895) and "War Is Kind" (1899).

In 1897, Crane settled in England, where he befriended writers Joseph Conrad and Henry James. Shortly before his death, he released Whilomville Stories (1900), the most commercially successful of the twelve books he wrote.

Crane never married but had an extended relationship with Cora Taylor (1865 - 4 September 1910), the proprietress of the Hotel de Dream, a Jacksonville pleasure resort. They were together as correspondents in the Greek-Turkish war of 1897, eventually settling in Brede Place, an old estate in Sussex, England.

Death

Crane died of tuberculosis (consumption) at age 28, in Badenweiler, Germany. He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in what is now Hillside, New Jersey.

References and further reading

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Stephen Crane

• Poems by Stephen Crane at PoetryFoundation.org
• The Stephen Crane Society includes links to texts on the web, texts of some works not available elsewhere, bibliographies, and queries and replies about Crane.
• Literary Encyclopedia
• Works by Stephen Crane. Project Gutenberg
• The short story A Dark Brown Dog can be read online at American Literature
• Includes full biography, summaries of important works, and useful quotes
• The Black Rider and Other Lines at Poets' Corner
• War is Kind and Other Lines at Poets' Corner
• Stephen Crane's Nasty Little Trick in "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky"
• Free audiobook of "War Is Kind" from LibriVox
• Stephen Crane's Gravesite
• Free online literature of Stephen Crane

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