The Red Badge of Courage and Selected Sh - Stephen Crane [1]
(from “The Open Boat,” page 141 )
During the afternoon of the storm, the whirling snows acted as drivers, as men with whips, and at half-past three the walk before the dosed doors of the house was covered with wanderers of the street, waiting.
(from “The Men in the Storm,” page 168)
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The Red Badge of Courage was serialized in 1894 and published in book form in 1895.
“The Open Boat” was first published in 1897. “TheVeteran” in 1896,
and “The Men in the Storm” in 1894.
Published in 2004 by Barnes & Noble Classics with new Introduction,
Notes, Biography, Chronology, Inspired By, Comments & Questions,
and For Further Reading.
Introduction, Notes, and For Further Reading
Copyright © 2003 by Richard Fusco.
Note on Stephen Crane, The World of Stephen Crane and The Red Badge of Courage,
Inspired by The Red Badge of Courage, and Comments & Questions
Copyright © 2003 by Barnes & Noble, Inc.
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The Red Badge of Courage and Selected Short Fiction
ISBN 1-59308-119-7
eISBN : 978-1-411-43302-1
LC Control Number 2004102192
Produced and published in conjunction with:
Fine Creative Media, Inc.
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New York, NY 10001
Michael J. Fine, President and Publisher
Printed in the United States of America
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FIRST EDITION
STEPHEN CRANE
Stephen Crane was born on November 1, 1871, the fourteenth and last child of the Reverend Jonathan Townley Crane and Mary Helen Peck, a Methodist missionary. Stephen’s interest in war and the military developed early, and he convinced his mother to enroll him in the Hudson River Institute, a semi-military school in upstate New York. On the advice of a professor who urged him to pursue a more practical career than the army, Stephen transferred to Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, to study mining engineering; however, he seldom attended class and failed a theme writing course because of poor attendance. His formal education ended after one semester at Syracuse University, where he was known on campus for his baseball skills. Despite his unimpressive academic performance, he wrote regularly while he was a student.
Stephen Crane became a prolific writer—of journalism and novels, short stories and poetry. By age twenty-three he had completed two major novels marked by an impressionism and a psychological realism that anticipated the “new fiction” of Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and William Faulkner. His writing of fiction is informed by the keen, precise observation that also made him a journalist; for Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893), he shadowed a New York prostitute for weeks. Crane was born after the Civil War, and he relied on secondary sources and his own intuition and emotional insights in creating The Red Badge of Courage (1895), the story of a young recruit’s experiences during one key battle. The book is often cited as the first modern novel.
While on assignment to cover the Cuban-Spanish conflict that preceded the Spanish-American War, Crane met his life-long companion, Cora Stewart, a well-read daughter of old money who owned a brothel in Jacksonville, Florida. Crane and Stewart later lived in England, where they socialized with Henry James, Joseph Conrad, and Ford Madox Ford, who admired Crane’s unique writing style. The young American continued to publish novels, stories, and articles for journals, which solidified his reputation.