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 American
author, whose second book, THE RED BANDGE OF COURAGE (1895), brought
him international fame. Crane's first novel, MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE
STREETS, was a milestone in the development of literary naturalism.
At its appearance in 1893 Crane was 22 years old. His manuscript
was turned down by the publishers, who considered its realism too
'ugly'. Crane had to print the book at his own expense, borrowing
the money from his brother. The descent of a slum girl into prostitution
was first published under a pseudonym. The book was generally ignored
but it won the admiration of other realist writers.
"At times he regarded the wounded soldiers in an envious way.
He conceived persons with torn bodies to be peculiarly happy.
He wished that he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage."
(from The Red Badge of Courage, 1895)
Crane was born in Newark, New Jersey, as the 14th child of a Methodist
minister. He started to write stories at the age of eight and at
16 he was writing articles for the New York Tribune. Both
of his parents did some writing and two of his brothers became newspapermen.
Crane studied at Lafayette College and Syracuse University. After
his mother's death in 1890 - his father had died earlier - Crane
moved in New York, where he lived a bohemian life, and worked as
a free-lance writer and journalist. While supporting himself by
his writings, he lived among the poor in the Bowery slums to research
his first novel, Maggie.
The Red Badge of Courage depicted the American Civil War
from the point of view of an ordinary soldier. It has been called
the first modern war novel. Crane's collection of poems, THE BLACK
RIDER, which appeared also in 1895, has much in common with Emily
Dickinson's simple, stripped style. These books brought Crane better
reporting assignments and he sought experiences as a war correspondent
in combat areas. Crane travelled to Greece, Cuba, Texas and Mexico,
reporting mostly on war events. His short story, 'The Open Boat,'
is based on a true experience, when his ship sank on the journey
to Cuba in 1896. With a small party of other passengers, Crane spent
several days drifting in an open boat before being rescued. This
experience impaired his health permanently.
When it occurs to a man that nature does not regard
him as important, and that she feels she would not maim the universe
by disposing of him, he at first wishes to throw bricks at the
temple, and he hates deeply the fact that there are no bricks
and no temples. Any visible expression of nature would surely
be pelleted with his jeers.
Then, if there be no tangible thing to hoot
at he feels, perhaps, the desire to confront a personification
and indulge in pleas, bowed to one knee, and with hands supplicant,
saying: 'Yes, but I love myself.'
(from The Open Boat')
 In
Greece Crane wrote about the Greco-Turkish War, settling in 1898
to Sussex, England, where he lived with the author Cora Taylor,
who was proprietress of a well-known Jacksonville brothel. In England
Crane became friends with Joseph Conrad, H.G. Wells, and Henry James.
During these restless years Crane refined his use of realism to
expose social ills, as in GEORGE'S MOTHER (1896), which explored
life in the Bowery. In 1899 appeared ACTIVE SERVICE, which was based
on the Greco-Turkish War.
In 1899 Crane returned to Cuba, to cover the Spanish-American War.
Due to poor health he was obliged to return to England. Crane died
on June 5, 1900 at Badenweiler in Germany of tuberculosis, which
was worsened by malarial fever he had caught in Cuba. His posthumous
publications include the sketches and stories from his life as a
correspondent in WOUNDS IN THE RAIN (1900) and WHILOMVILLE STORIES
(1900), depicting a childhood in a small state. After Crane's death
his work was neglected for many years until such writers as Amy
Lowell and Willa Cather brought it again to public attention. Crane's
works introduced into American literature realism, although his
innovations in technique and style and use of symbolism gave much
of his best work a romantic rather than a naturalistic quality.
 The
Red Badge of Courage (1895) - The story is set during the
American Civil War. Henry Fleming enrols as a soldier in the Union
army. His expectations of the glory of the fight are undermined
by his first encounter with the enemy. During the second encounter
he flees from the battle, but fails to justify his desertion in
his own eyes. He returns to the lines with the wounded, marked
by the 'red badge' of a soldier who has fought but does not tell
anyone how he received his wound. Back with his regiment, in the
heat of the battle, he picks up the regiment's colours when they
fall from another's hands. He is filled with the guilt and haunted
by the memory of a soldier, who was deserted on the field.
The Blue Hotel (1898) - Short story, first published serially
in Collier's Weekly. Three visitors enter at Pat Scully's
hotel in Fort Romper, they search a haven of rest in a blizzard.
Swede is a nervous New Yorker, Bill is a Westerner and reserved.
Mr. Blanc is from the East. The Swede drinks heavily and he beats
Scully's son, Johnnie, after accusing him of cheating at cards.
When the Swede accosts a patron of a bar, he is stabbed and killed.
Several moths later Mr. Blanc confesses to Bill that Johnnie indeed
cheated. He feels responsible for the death.
For further reading: Stephen Crane by Robert W. Stallman
(1968); Stephen Crane by Edwin Harrison Cady (1980); Realism,
Writing, Disfiguration: On Thomas Eakins and Stephen Crane by
Michael Fried (1988); Red Badge of Courage: Redefining the Hero
by Donald B. Gibson (1988); The Crane Log: A Documentary Life
of Stephen Crane 1871-1900 by Stanley Wertheim, Paul Sorrentino
(1994); The Pluralistic Philosophy of Stephen Crane by Patrick
K. Dooley (1994); Stephen Crane, Journalism, and the Making of
Modern American Literature by Michael Robertson (1997); Badge
of Courage: The Life of Stephen Crane by Linda H. Davis (1998);
Readings on Stephen Crane, ed. by Bonnie Szumski (1998); Understanding
The Red Badge of Courage by Claudia D. Johnson (1998)
American Civil War in fiction: Tales of Soldiers and Civilians
by Ambroce Bierce (1891); The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen
Crane (1895); Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (1936);
The Unvanisquished by William Faulkner (1938); The History of
Rome, Hanks and Kindred Matters by Joseph Stanley Pennell (1944);
When the War is Over by Stephen Becker (1970); Roots by Alex Haley
(1976); Shiloh by Shelby Foote (1976); Marching Home by Donald
Honing (1980); Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All by Allan
Gurganis (1989)
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