Stephen Crane(1871-1900)

Stephen Crane was the 14th child of parents who were both writers. Descended from a line of soldiers and clergymen (his father, Rev. Jonathan T. Crane, was a Methodist minister), Crane inherited from his forebearers the obsessive subject of war, stoical compassion and, particularly in his poetry, a Biblical style. His short, phenomenal literary career, which began in 1891 when he quit Syracuse University as a freshman, yielded the novels "The Red Badge of Courage" (1895), "The Open Boat" (1898) and "The Blue Hotel" (1899), as well as two volumes of poetry. His novel "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets", reputed to have been written in two days in 1891, is often credited with starting the naturalistic tradition in American fiction. He worked as a reporter in New York and later as a foreign correspondent following the wars. During his brief residence in England he befriended Henry James, Joseph Conrad, H.G. Wells and F.M. Ford, who all recognized Crane's ruthless literary talent. His emergence as a fiction writer and poet was cut short when he died of tuberculosis at the tragically premature age of 28.