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STUDYWORLD STUDYNOTES

Stephen Crane

Stephen Crane was a very important novelist, poet, and and a wonderful reporter who spent his short life writing about war, suffering, and the slums. Within his lifetime, he showed people the different war-time experiences that he experienced, giving the world a better sense of what happened in our history.

Stephen Crane, one of 14 children, was born to a Methodist Minister's family on November 1, 1871 in Newark, New Jersey. He was an intelligent but underachieving student with more interest in athletics than reading. This pattern continued through college at Lafayette and Syracuse University. After completing higher education, Crane went to New York working as a reporter, freelance writer and in a business office, but soon left these jobs to pursue writing. Crane's first significant work came with Maggie: A Girl of The Streets. In 1893 Crane drafted The Red Badge of Courage which was eventually published in 1895.

The Red Badge of Courage established Crane as a great writer. Crane continued to proliferate works with four volumes of short stories and two volumes of poetry. He also traveled to Eastern Europe often to report on wars for America and Great Britain. In fact, it was in Greece where Crane married his wife, Cora Taylor. After a lifetime of sub par health, Crane finally succumbed to illness June 5, 1900, at the young age of 28.