Friday 1 June 2018

Stephen Crane 1871-1900

STEPHEN CRANE 1871-1900
Stephen Crane died at the kind age of 24 years, yet his body of work is collected in 12 volumes. In 8 productive years was able to publish two volumes of poetry, 5 novels or 300 short stories. Notwithstanding this productivity, this is nothing if compared to his real life.

Stephen Crane
Stephen Crane

STEPHEN CRANE 1871-1900
Born in Newark, his rejected Christianity even though his dad was a preacher. What is more, her wife had been the owner of a brothel in Florida. At University, he spent more time gambling than studying, hence he left school.

STEPHEN CRANE 1871-1900
He moved to New York City and studied the life of dangerous people in the worst part of New York at that time, The Bowery. This study resulted in a novel titled “Maggie, a girl from the streets”.

STEPHEN CRANE 1871-1900
Given his skills as a writer, he was sent to the West and to Mexico to write about real events. Soon thereafter, he had to write about the Cuban revolution against the Spanish rule. However, the ship in which he had to travel sank, thereby; Stephen Crane spent 27 hours in a dinghy to survive, waiting to be rescued. This experience made him write a famous story “The open boat”. 

STEPHEN CRANE 1871-1900
After covering as a war correspondent a Puerto Rican conflict and the Greco-Turkish war of 1897, he was sent to Cuba again to cover another historical event, the Spanish-American war that ended the imperial power of Spain and made the United States become a major potency. 

STEPHEN CRANE 1871-1900
The courage of Stephen Crane was admired. This war made him to write numerous stories as he also fought therein, another memorable piece of writing of his is “The red badge of courage”. 

STEPHEN CRANE 1871-1900
Nevertheless, Stephen Crane got seriously sick in this war, he collapsed and became delirious. The last months of his life saw him seriously sick and heavily in debt. 

STEPHEN CRANE 1871-1900 Thanks to the help of some friends he entered into a sanatorium in Germany, one month later, he died in 1900. Do share and comment, read my blog in Spanish Ser un Tusitala