Stephen Crane
The youngest of 14 children, Stephen Crane (1871-1900), was reared by a devoutly religous mother after his father, a Methodist minister, passed away. He briefly attended college prior to moving to New York in an attempt to transition into a literary career. He engaged in a bohemian lifestyle exploring the depths and squalor of the Bowery which later affected his health.
His first novel, published under a pseudonym, introduced a breathtaking honesty and realism to American literature; "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets" (1883), considered sordid for its realistic portrayal of a working girl forced into prostitution. He achieved acceptance by the literary community and a great success with his next work, "The Red Badge of Courage" (1895), which introduced non-romantic realism to war literature. It tells of young Civil War soldier Henry Fleming who overcomes fear and cowardice to discover humility and courage.
Crane had never served time in the military yet was widely praised for his ability to bring the clamor, terror, and harsh realities of battle to life. His fascination with war took him to Cuba and Greece as a war correspondent. Crane's short story "The Open Boat" (1897), was based on his first trip to Cuba, when he almost drowned.
He wrote additional novels, short stories, and poetry based on his correspondent duties, experiences in the Bowery, and the Civil War. None of his novels reached the level of "The Red Badge of Courage" but his short stories were exceptional, including "The Monster and Other Stories," "George's Mother," "The Blue Hotel," "Active Service," "The Little Regiment," "The Open Boat and Other Tales of Adventure," and "Wounds in the Rain." His short stories flashed with irony, complex emotion and intense physical action. Crane's free-form poetry, "The Black Riders" and "War is Kind" were also highly praised. Crane's health declined rapidly in his twenties and he died at 29 of tuberculosis complicated by reoccurring malarial fever.
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This article was written by Knowledgerush staff or contributed by users. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
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Stephen Crane (1871-1900) was an American writer, born in Newark, New Jersey. He began his career as a journalist, working, according to his own account, as a "slum reporter" in New York City. The experience provided him with important material for his first novel, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. Crane, who released the book under a pseudonym, had to pay for the publishing himself. It was not a commercial success, though it was praised by several other writers of the time.
This was followed by The Red Badge of Courage (1896), 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. Though Crane had never experienced battle personally, his descriptions of the trials of war persuaded a number of American and foreign newspapers to hire him as a correspondent in the Greco-Turkish (1897) and Spanish-American wars (1898). In 1896 the boat in which he accompanied an American expedition to Cuba was wrecked. Left to drift at sea for four days, the incident eventually resulted in Crane's tuberculosis. He recounted these experiences in The Open Boat and Other Tales (1898). 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.
Stephen Crane died, aged twenty-eight, in Bademweiler, Germany.
Poems
Stephen Crane published two volumes of poetry:
- The Black Riders and Other Lines (1895)
- War is Kind and Other Lines (1899)
His poems are short, untitled, unrhymed, unmetrical, and mysterious, almost koan-like. Rather than try to describe them, we exhibit two of his most famous:
- In the desert
- I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
- who, squatting upon the ground,
- Held his heart in his hands,
- And ate of it.
- I said, "Is it good, friend?"
- "It is bitter—bitter," he answered;
- "But I like it
- Because it is bitter,
- And because it is my heart."
- ("The Black Riders and Other Lines," III)
- A man saw a ball of gold in the sky;
- He climbed for it,
- And eventually he achieved it --
- It was clay.
- Now this is the strange part:
- When the man went to the earth
- And looked again,
- Lo, there was the ball of gold.
- Now this is the strange part:
- It was a ball of gold.
- Aye, by the heavens, it was a ball of gold
- ("The Black Riders and Other Lines," XXXV)
External links
Referenced By
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Stephen Crane".
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If you know facts or have questions about this author post them here.
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butterflies a most beautiful creature with their vuluptious wings and their sexy antennas. just thinking about butterflies gets me excited. i lov
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bibliography of S.Crane
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i hate him
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stephen crane was a very bad student. He left three different colleges- Claverack College, Lafayette University, and Syracuse University. He didn't pay much attention to school. Instead, he smoked, drank, gambled,danced, swore,played baseball, and boxed.
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I have to give a report about Crane's feelings on war...any help? I can mostly gather that he was fascinated by it and liked to write about it...
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how did cranes wife aid him why he was ill with tuberculosis? what did she do and how did he cope with his disease?
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This is a wonder site to visit; however, why is there no information Crane's novel entitled "George's Mother," is it not as important as the rest.
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This is a wonder site to visit; however, why is there no information Crane's short story entitled "George's Mother," is it not as important as the rest.
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