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Brady Walsh

Ms. Tomaselli

ELA 3

04 May 2019

Stephen Crane: A Master of Innovation

Stephen Crane was regarded as one of America’s elite realistic writers. He is most well-

known for his civil war novel The Red Badge of Courage (1895). It’s considered by many to be

an American literature classic and more about the novel will be covered later in this paper. Even

though he is most well-known for The Red Badge of Courage, Crane also wrote more novels in

his lifetime. He wrote Maggie: A Girl of The Streets, The Open Boat, War is Kind, The Blue

Hotel, and many others. Crane may have lived a rather short life, but his impact he had on

America during The Civil War will never be questioned.

Born in Newark, New Jersey, Crane was the youngest child in a family of fourteen

children. His desire to write was mainly inspired by his father. His dad was a Methodist minister

and his mother was a woman who was dedicated to social concerns. His mother and two of his

brothers were journalists in their own right. During his time of higher education, Crane attended

Hudson River Institute and Claverack College. At Hudson River Institute, this was where Crane

first found his interest in the civil war. While Crane was there, he continued his studies on the

civil war and in military training.

After his time at the military school concluded, he decided to attend Claverack College.

During his time at Claverack, Crane was a freelance writer for his brother's news service, and it
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was while he was working for his brother that he had written the preliminary sketch of Maggie.

In 1891, Crane Decided to quit school all together and decide to pursue his dream. He worked

full time as a reporter alongside his older brother and worked part time for the New York tribune.

While in New York, Crane saw firsthand what poverty was really like and decided that he never

wanted his family to ever have to go through something such as that.

Two Years later in 1893, Crane decided to privately publish his first novel, Maggie. Many

publishers turned down the idea of publishing this novel because it didn’t like how realistic the

novel was about topics such as slum realities that would just shock readers. However, the novel

Maggie still "tries to show that environment is a tremendous thing in the world and frequently

shapes lives regardless." (Crane, 1893). Critics saw Maggie as a novel that truly helped develop

American literary naturalism and introduced people to Stephen Crane's Vision of life.

Stephen Crane's second novel, The Red Badge of Courage, won him international fame.

According to Poetry Foundation, “Often compared to Impressionist painting, The Red Badge of

Courage is a series of vivid episodes in which a young soldier, Henry Fleming, confronts a

gamut of emotions—fear, courage, pride, and humility—in his attempt to understand his

battlefield experiences; in this respect, Fleming represents the Everyman of war” (Poetry

Foundation 2017). Despite never having been to war at the time of releasing this novel Crane

told people that his source of what some people called his very realistic descriptions were from

the football field. After Crane had actually experienced what an actual battle was like as war

correspondent, he would later say that the novel was “alright”. To this day, Stephen Crane's the

Red Badge of Courage is still considered and referred to as Realistic, Symbolistic and

Naturalistic by many schools across the nation. Two years after the publication of The Red

Badge of Courage, Crane met Cora Taylor. They moved to England where Crane would meet
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some of his literary friends. Between the years of 1897 and 1900, Crane only published a few

more novels. Only one of them is worth noting. Crane published Active Service. (1899) He wrote

this novel based off his war experience as a war correspondent in the Greco-Turkish War. A year

later in 1900, Stephen Crane’s health had been rapidly declining because of the general disregard

of his well being. In other words, all Crane cared about was his writing and absolutely nothing

else. After seven bad respiratory attacks, Stephen Crane sadly died of tuberculosis at the age of

twenty-eight. Long after Cranes passing in 1988, a collection of his notes were published and

named the correspondence of Stephen Crane.

The Legacy of Stephen Crane is often misconceived. Crane had been biggest impact in

American literacy when he wrote the Red Badge of Honor which was a story about the civil war.

Despite this, many critics still believe that some of his greatest work came with his short stories.

Most of his short stories are based off of cranes experience as a war correspondent. Throughout

his short life and therefore short-lived career. Crane left a lot of people wondering about what

could’ve been if he had lived longer. Crane would have gotten the chance to write more historic

short stories that could’ve baffled people for years to come. The legacy that Stephen Crane left

behind will never be questioned, but the length of his legacy will always leave people wondering

“what if”.

Works Cited
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Jones, Walter. "Stephen Crane." Poetry Foundation, 2017,

www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/stephen-crane.

Of Britannica, Writers. "Stephen Crane." Encyclopedia Britannica, 2017,

www.britannica.com/biography/Stephen-Crane.