Classic Authors: Stephen Crane

War fascinated Stephen Crane. Long before he wrote The Red Badge of Courage(1895), Stephen studied stratagem on the baseball diamond, where he spent much of his time. He learned all about offense and defense, secret moves, and the thrill of victory, without ever leaving New Jersey. When he decided to write a novel about war, Stephen used what he had learned playing baseball to create one of the most well-known war stories of all time.

Stephen Crane was born in 1871 in New Jersey, where his family had lived since Revolutionary times. He was the 14th child of Jonathan Townley Crane, a Methodist minister, and his wife. Jonathan Crane died when Stephen was only 8, leaving his mother to support the large family. Although his mother loved her children, she also embraced causes (such as temperance), which seemed to demand all of her attention. Perhaps because his mother so often absented herself from the home, Stephen grew into a rebellious young man.

When he was 16, Stephen began classes at Hudson River Military Institute. Uninterested in studying, he spent his time practicing his pitching. He sped through college, spending six months at Lafayette and six more at Syracuse. He published several pieces in the schools' newspapers and journals.

After leaving college, Stephen planted himself in New York City, where he found jobs as a reporter and critic. His writing showed flair and promise, but he had difficulty penning a no-nonsense news story, which made reporting jobs hard to keep. In his spare time, he wrote, publishing stories here and there. He also spent many hours on the Lower East Side, watching the dregs of society perform their labors. When friends expressed their shock at his fascination with drunks, prostitutes and the like, he replied, "Hully Gee! It's the only interesting place in New York. These people are real." Certainly, the New Yorkers he met fueled his imagination, and supplied him with mounds of material to incorporate into his stories.

Stephen published his first novel, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets(1893), himself, selling exactly 100 copies. Meanwhile, he lived in poverty, the epitome of the starving artist. In desperation, he sent a copy of Maggie to poet/author Hamlin Garland, who sent it on to William Dean Howells, also a famous author. Fortunately for Stephen, Howells found the work impressive, and vowed to help the young writer publish his work.

In 1894, Stephen finished writing The Red Badge of Courage, which he showed to a very impressed Hamlin Garland. The story was purchased by Irving Bacheller's newspaper syndicate, and later published as a book in 1895. At first, Americans seemed unimpressed. However, when the book found instant fame in England, Americans perked up, and devoured the book. It became an instant bestseller, earning Stephen Crane a reputation as a serious writer.

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