Achievement

A brilliant writer, Crane was dead at twenty eight. Nevertheless, in an extraordinary burst of energy, he produced two great books Maggie and The Red Badge of Courage, wrote impressive poems, and ninety pieces of short fiction. His depiction of ghetto life and the deprivation of war made him internationally well known. True to naturalism, Crane shows his characters trapped in situations which they cannot control. Still, these characters show courage and valor in the face of insurmountable adversities.

Primary Works

Maggie, A Girl of the Streets, 1893; The Red Badge of Courage, 1895 (E-Text); The Black Riders, 1895; The Black Riders and Other Lines, 1895 (poems); George's Mother, 1896; The Third Violet, 1897; The Open Boat & Other Tales of Adventure, 1898; War is Kind, 1900 (poems).

| Top | Selected Bibliography: Books

Ahnebrink, Lars. The Beginnings of Naturalism in American fiction: A Study of the Works of Hamlin Garland, Stephen Crane, and Frank Norris, with special reference to some European influences, 1891-1903. New York: Russell & Russell, 1961. PS371 .A2

Bassan, Maurice. Stephen Crane: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1967. PS1449 .C85 Z548

Benfey, Christopher E. G. The Double Life of Stephen Crane. NY: Knopf, 1992. PS1449 .C85 Z554

Bergon, Frank. Stephen Crane's Artistry. New York: Columbia UP, 1975. PS1449 C85 Z556

Cady, Edwin H. Stephen Crane. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1980. PS1449.C85 Z575

Davis, Linda H. Badge of Courage: The Life of Stephen Crane. NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.

Gibson, Donald B. The Fiction of Stephen Crane. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP 1968. PS1449 C85 Z62

---. The Red Badge of Courage: Redefining the Hero. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1988. PS1449 .C85 R3945

Gullason, Thomas A., ed. Stephen Crane's Career: Perspectives and Evaluations. New York: New York UP, 1972. PS1449 C85 Z643

Hoffman, Daniel. The Poetry of Stephen Crane. New York: Columbia UP, 1957. PS1449.C85 Z65

Katz, Joseph, ed. Stephen Crane in Transition: Centenary Essays. DeKalb: Northern Illinois UP, 1972. PS1449 C85 Z69

Mariani, Giorgio. Spectacular Narratives: Representations of Class and War in Stephen Crane and the American 1890s. NY: P. Lang, 1992. PS1449 .C85 Z735

Nagel, James. Stephen Crane and Literary Impressionism. U Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 1980. PS1449.C85 Z75

Pizer, Donald, ed. Critical Essays on Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage . Boston: G.K. Hall, 1990. PS1449 .C85 R3924

Solomon, Eric. Stephen Crane, from Parody to Realism. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1966. PS1449.C85 Z848

Stallman, R. W. Stephen Crane: A Biography. New York: G. Braziller, 1968. PS1449 C85 Z9

---. Stephen Crane: A Critical Biography. Ames: Iowa State UP, 1972. PS8198 .S76

Weatherford, Richard M., ed. Stephen Crane, the Critical Heritage. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973. PS1449 C85 Z98

Wertheim, Stanley. The Crane Log : A Documentary Life of Stephen Crane 1871-1900. NY: G. K. Hall, 1994.

- - -. A Stephen Crane Encyclopedia. NY: Greenwood, 1997.

Wolford, Chester L. The Anger of Stephen Crane: Fiction and the Epic Tradition. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1983. PS1449 .C85 Z983

---. Stephen Crane: A Study of the Short Fiction. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1989. PS1449 .C85 Z984

| Top | Selected Bibliography: Articles

Conder, John. "Stephen Crane and the Necessary Fiction" in Naturalism in American Fiction: The Classic Phase, 1984. PS374 .N29 C66

Crane, Stephen Kellogg. "Stephen Crane's Family Heritage." Stephen Crane Studies 4:1 (Mar 1997): 48-.

Fudge, Keith. "Sisterhood Born from Seduction: Susanna Rowson's Charlotte Temple, and Stephen Crane's Maggie Johnson." Journal of American Culture 19.1 (Sprg 1996): 43-50.

Gandal, Keith. "A Spiritual Autopsy of Stephen Crane." Nineteenth-century literature 51.4 (?): 500-.

Marshall, Elaine. "Crane's 'The Monster' Seen in the Light of Robert Lewis's Lynching" Nineteenth Century Literature 51.2 (Sep 1996): 205-24.

McInerney, John "Constructing Crane for the Screen." Stephen Crane Studies 3:2 (Sprg1994): 19-24 .

Musto, Tom. "Filming To Escape My Fate." Stephen Crane Studies 3:2 (Sprg1994): 24-25.

Nagel, James. "The American Short-Story Cycle and Stephen Crane's Tales of Whilomville." American Literary Realism 32.1 (Fall 1999): 35-43.

Vanouse, Donald. "Stephen Crane: An Annotated Bibliography of Articles and Book Chapters through 1996." Stephen Crane Studies 5.1 (Sprg1996): 28-32.

Wilson, Christopher P. "Stephen Crane and the Police." American quarterly 48.2 (Jun 1996): 273-316.

| Top | The Red Badge of Courage (1895)

Selected Bibliography

Albrecht, Robert C. "Content and Style in The Red Badge of Courage." College English 27 (March 1966): 487-492.

Burhans, Clinton S. Jr. "Twin Lights on Henry Fleming: Structural Parallels in The Red Badge Of Courage." Arizona Quarterly 30 (Sumr 1974): 149-159.

Cox, James T. "The Imagery of The Red Badge of Courage." Modern Fiction Studies 5 (Autumn 1959): 209-219.

Curran, John E. Jr. "Nobody seems to know where we go: Uncertainty, History, and Irony in The Red Badge of Courage. American Literary Realism 26 (1993): 1-10.

Davis, Linda H. "The Red Room-Stephen Crane and Me." The American Scholar 64.2 (Sprg 1995): 207(13).

Dillingham, William B. "Insensibility in The Red Badge of Courage." College English 25 (Dec. 1963): 194-98.

Fraser, John. "Crime and Forgiveness: The Red Badge in Time of War." Criticism 9 Summer 1967: 243-256.

Fryckstedt, Olov W., "Cosmic Pessimism in The Red Badge of Courage." 141-5. (in Bassan's book)

Gibson, Donald B. The Red Badge of Courage: Redefining the Hero. Boston: Twayne, 1988. (PS153.N5 G50

Hart, John E. "The Red Badge of Courage as Myth and Symbol." U of Kansas City Review 19 (Summer 1953): 249-256.

Hungerford, Harold R. "`That Was at Chancellorsville': The Factual Framework of The Red Badge of Courage." American Literature 34 (Jan. 1963): 520-531.

Kent, Thomas L. "Epistemological Uncertainty in The Red Badge of Courage." Modern Fiction Studies 27 4 (Winter 1981-82): 621-628.

Marcus, Mordecai and Erin. "Animal Imagery in The Red Badge of Courage." Modern Language Notes 74 (Feb. 1959): 108-111.

McDermott, John J. "Symbolism and Psychological Realism in The Red Badge of Courage." Nineteenth Century Fiction 23 (Dec. 1968): 324-331.

Mitchell, Verner D. "Reading 'Race' and 'Gender' in Crane's The Red Badge of Courage." College Language Association Journal 40.1 (Sep 1996): 60-71.

Newberry, Frederick. "The Red Badge of Courage and The Scarlet Letter." Arizona Quarterly 38.2 (Sum 1982): 101-115.

Osborn, Scott C. "Stephen Crane's Imagery: `Pasted Like a Wafer.'" American Literature 23 (Nov. 1951): 362.

Pizer, Donald. The Red Badge of Courage: Text, Theme, and Form." South Atlantic Q. 84 (Spring 1985): 302-313.

Rathbun, John W. "Structure and Meaning in The Red Badge of Courage." Ball State U Forum 10 (Winter 1969): 8-16.

Rechnitz, Robert M. "Depersonalization and the Dream in The Red Badge of Courage." Studies in the Novel 6 (Spring 1974): 76-87.

Reynolds, Kirk M. " The Red Badge of Courage: Private Henry's Mind as Sole Point of View." South Atlantic Review 52.1 (Fall 1987): 59-69.

Satterfield, Ben. "From Romance to Reality: The Accomplishment of Private Fleming." College Language Association Journal 24 4 (June 1981): 451-464.

Schneider, Michael. "Monomyth Structure in The Red Badge of Courage." American Literary Realism 20.1 (Fall 1987): 45-55.

Solomon, Eric. "The Structure of The Red Badge of Courage." Modern Fiction Studies 5 (Autumn 1959): 199-208.

Stevenson, James A. "Beyond Stephen Crane: Full Metal Jacket." Literature/Film Q. 16 4 (1988): 238-243,

Vanderbilt Kermit and Daniel Weiss. "From Rifleman to Flagbearer: Henry Fleming's Separate Peace in The Red Badge of Courage." Modern Fiction Studies 11 (Winter 1965-66): 371-380.

Wogan, Claudia. "Crane's Use of Color in The Red Badge of Courage." Modern Fiction Studies 6 (Summer 1960): 168-172.

Discussion

Main Characters: Henry Fleming, often called simply "the youth" and once nicknamed "Flem"; Mrs. Fleming, his mother; Jim Conklin, often called "the tall soldier"; Wilson, often called at first "the loud soldier"; Lieutenant Hasbrouck; Colonel Macchesnay; the Tattered Man, one of the two major unnamed characters; the other is the Cheery Voice. In addition, some nineteen other officers and men are named but are unimportant; many minor characters are kept anonymous; Henry's hometown girl friends are identified as "a light-haired girl" and "a darker girl."

| Top | Study Questions

1. Analyze the natural "forces" that the characters struggle against in "The Open Boat." How do they deal with their lack of control over those forces?

2. Despite the apparent irrationality of its characters, "The Blue Hotel" moves logically and inexorably toward its conclusion. Study the evidence of irrationality in the story's portraits of human behavior; then describe the linear progression by which the Swede's initial comment-"'I suppose there have been a good many men killed in this room'"-comes to control events.

3. In "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky," Jack Potter's marriage appears to alter forever Scratchy Wilson's perception of reality. Argue that, for Crane, marriage itself becomes an external force. Does the story's humor mitigate the oppressiveness of this force?

4. Explore the relationship between Crane's poems and his fiction. Does Crane's choice of the lyric poem allow him to develop aspects of his major themes that his fiction does not fully explore?

MLA Style Citation of this Web Page

Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 6: Late Nineteenth Century - Stephen Crane." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. URL:http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap6/crane.html (provide page date or date of your login).   

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