Stephen Crane

Stephen Crane

Stephen Crane (November 1, 1871 - 5 June 1900) was an American novelist, poet and journalist. He was born in Newark, New Jersey, the 14th child of a Methodist minister.

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Biography of Stephen Crane

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 (1897).

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 the age of 28, in Badenweiler, Germany on June 5, 1900. He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in what is now Hillside, New Jersey.

Bibliography

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See also

Notes

References and further reading

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Stephen Crane

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Author: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 at 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