Stephen Crane
... variations of lifestyles to put on paper and create his first novel, Maggie: A girl of the streets. Maggie: A girl of the streets, a story about a slum prostitute and her downfall in life, came about while Crane was reporting for the Herald and the Tribune (Anderson 439). He was constantly in the dirty saloons of New York experiencing first hand what he wrote about in Maggie (Anderson 439). Even though Cranes first novel was very unsuccessful in stores, in a way, it helped Crane. Maggie: A girl of the streets was the first story to portray the dirty slums of New York (Anderson 439). This novel also revealed Crane as a pioneer of Naturalism, and Realism (Binder 174). “The depth of the girls life was astonishing” (Binder 175) Even though Stephen Cranes first attempt at writing was shot down, he would soon recover to change the view of writing through the eyes of the world. In the summer of 1893 Stephen Crane wrote a Civil War novel so powerful, that many Civil War veterans praised the book for capturing the realism of the actual combat (About Stephen Crane 1). The realism of The Red Badge of Courage set forth a new era of writing (Binder 174). Crane had never experienced a real war, but used such vivid details, that he created Bickerstaff 3 one, in the pages of this novel. The Red Badge of Courage, about a boy who enters the war not knowing what he is about to do, and comes out a war hero, (Stephen Crane Defines Courage 1) influenced the hearts and minds of many authors to come. “The dynamics of Cranes growth are revealing” (Shullman 65). Stephen Crane was now seen as an expert on war, and focused solely on this topic, amazing readers everywhere (Anderson 439). “Bolstered by the success of The Red Badge of Courage, and his book of poetry The Black Riders, Crane became filled with ideas of war” (About Stephen Crane 1). Still working for newspapers, he was hired to go to Cuba as a journalist, where he was to report on the Spanish Rebellion. On the way to the island, Crane was in a shipwreck. He was stranded at sea for 54 hours having to swim to shore. This experience directly led to his most famous short story The Open Boat (Anderson 440). Again Cranes realism reached a high and was an influence for everyone. Soon after the events of The Open Boat, Stephen Crane gave up writing novels and concentrated on short war stories he could easily publish in magazines (Stephen Crane 1). Crane was sent to Greece to cover the Greco-Turkish War for the New York newspapers (Anderson 440). He Bickerstaff 4 returned to Europe after he had been in Cuba repo...