Queries 2003

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Missing Crane Poems?  (X)
Crane copyrights? (X)
"A man said to the universe"(X)
Crane house in Asbury Park? (X)
Drawings of Crane and Dora Clark?(X)
Crane and Naturalism
(X)
Crane and John Willard Raught (X)
Translations of Crane's Works

Order of Stories in The Little Regiment (X)
Crane Photographs and Copyright (X)
Photographs of Crane's Parents
(X)
"Leper Colony in The Open Boat" (X)
Crane and Medical Journals (X)
Crane and War (X)
Crane and Football (X)
Publication Information for Maggie
Publication Dates for "An Illusion in Red and White" (X)
Quotation about Child's Grave
Publication Dates for Stories (X)
Copy of The Black Riders wanted


Film version of The Monster
Copy of Black Riders
Translations of Crane's Works
Publication Dates for Stories
Publication Date for "An Illusion in Red and White

Crane and Medical Journals
Quotation about Child's Grave
Publication Information for Maggie
Crane and Football
Crane and War

Film version of The Monster?

I am preparing to write a monograph on how various disabilities have been portrayed in films. Years back I saw a film version of Stephen Crane's "The Monster." Now, however, when I go looking for information on it, I find none; nor do I get anywhere trying to locate the information by starting with the stars I thought were on the film. I am beginning to think I dreamed up this movie that I thought featured James Whitmore and Victor Jory. Are there lists of films that have been based on Crane's work? Please help me if you can.

Dr. John Van Ness, johnwvn@hotmail.com

11/9/03

The Internet Movie Database lists a movie called Face of Fire that was based on "The Monster." It starred James Whitmore and Cameron Mitchell.If you think this might be the right one, you can see a complete cast list at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052793/

Although the IMDB does not claim to be complete in its information, its list for Stephen Crane includes two versions of The Red Badge of Courage (1951 and 1974) in addition to film versions of "The Blue Hotel" and "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky." It also lists some unspecified early television programs based on Crane's works. The entire list is at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0186427/ .

If anyone knows of other adaptations of Crane's works, please e-mail the site so that they can be added to this list.

Copy of The Black Riders wanted

I live in England, near London, and I have been trying without success to find a copy of the Black Riders - as complete as possible - edition immaterial. I also frequently travel to NY, so could pick something up there also. If anyone can help, I would appreciate it - Thank you.

Peter Giblin Peter@Giblin.com 10/28/03

The Black Riders s available for online reading but not in book form (which is what's being requested) at the Crane Society site at black.htm .

Translations of Crane's Works

I am currently editing a Norwegian translation of Stephen Crane's selected poems, and I was just wondering if you have any idea of how many languages Crane has been translated into, and where I can find more information on these translations.

Best wishes
Trond Knutsenknutsen, trond@yahoo.no 10/21/03

 
Publication Dates for Stories

QUESTION: Hello,
can you please tell me where and when these tales were first published, before they were included in Wounds in the Rain?:

«The Clan of No-name»
«Virtue in War»
«This Majestic Lie»
«War Memories»

It seems the «The Price of the Harness» was called «The Woof of Thin Red Threads» when first published in «The Cosmopolitan». Do you know why the title was changed?

Thanks for answering my previous questions and all the best,
David davidf@net.sapo.pt


"The Clan of No-Name" was syndicated in a number of American newspapers on 19 March 1899; "Virtue in War" was first published in the November 1899 issue of Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly under the title of "West Pointer and Volunteer or Virtue in War"; "This Majestic Lie" was published posthumously in two parts in the New York Herald and other newspapers on 24 June and 1 July 1900; "War Memories" first appeared in truncated form in the third volume of Lady Randolph Churchill's Anglo-Saxon Review in December 1899.

"The Price of the Harness" appeared simultaneously in December 1898 in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine and in Cosmopolitan. The editor of Cosmopolitan substituted a phrase from the fifth section of the story, "The Woof of Thin Red Threads,"as the title. Crane was furious about this editorially supplied title, but it was common practice for magazine editors in the late nineteenth century to try to attract readers by provocative titles.
--Stanley Wertheim 10/28/03
Quotation about Child's Grave

QUESTION: Has Stephen Crane ever been credited with the quote: "The only response to a child's grave is to lay down beside it and play dead."?

Anne ann@lynkage.com
8/28/03

 
Publication Information for Maggie

QUESTION: I am in need of a complete time-line of the printings of "Maggie. A Girl of
the Streets." Please e-mail.

THANKS,

Mike

mike wilson, michael_ray_wilson@yahoo.com
8/28/03

Maggie was privately printed by Crane in 1893. A bowdlerized version was published by D. Appleton & Co. in 1896. This faulty version was reprinted, together with George's Mother, in Bowery Tales (1900), subsequent printings in 1915 and 1918, and in Vol. 10 of Wilson
Follett's limited edition of The Work of Stephen Crane (1925-1927). This (1926) reprinting is the only one I know of until the Newland Press edition of 1930. The 1893 edition of Maggie, representing Crane's true intentions, was not reprinted until 1966.

Complete answers to questions such as this are best found by consulting the National Union Catalogue

.--Stanley Wertheim


Publication Dates for "An Illusion in Red and White"

QUESTION: hello, can you tell me where and when
«An Illusion in Red and White» and «A Tale of Mere Chance» were first published?

all the best for the site,

David
8/28/03

 

"An Illusion in Red and White" appeared in the New York World and other newspapers on 20 May 1900 and was collected in the English edition of The Monster and Other Stories (1901). "A Tale of Mere Chance" was syndicated by Bacheller, Johnson and Bacheller on 15 March 1896.

--Stanley Wertheim

Crane and Football

QUESTION: I am writing a nonfiction book on little known persons and incidents in world history. One of the stories will be on Stephen Crane and how his participation in collegiate athletics figured in his writing. In fact, Crane said after writing "The Red Badge of Courage" that "...I believe that I got my sense of rage of conflict on the football field." I know that Crane played baseball during his short terms at Lafayette College and Syracuse University in 1890 and 1891, but are there any records or publications that show him also playing football on the intercollegiate or intramural levels at either college?I would appreciate any help you can give me in tracking down information on the Crane football experience, or in referring me a to an appropriate
source.

Greg Mahoney, gregmahoney32@comcast.net
8/28/03

Crane wrote "I got my sense of rage of conflict on the football field" in autobiographical sketches that he sent to several editors, but there is no record that he played football on the intercollegiate or intramural levels at Lafayette College or at Syracuse University. Nevertheless, Crane had a serious interest in the game. He enjoyed teaching football to his young nephews and he reported Harvard football games for the New York Journal. --Stanley Wertheim

Crane and War

QUESTION: In Graham Green's "The Silent American", a reporter says: "Stephen Crane could describe a war without seeing one. Why shouldn't I?" Is he referring to a fact? Which war would be that? Thanks

George Tsaknias

gogol@mailbox.gr 8/28/03

Well, Crane was born in 1871, so he could not have personally experienced the American Civil War. The Red Badge of Courage has as its setting the Battle of Chancellorsville, a major battle of the Civil War which occurred in the spring of 1863. This is no doubt what the character in Graham Greene's novel was referring to. --Stanley Wertheim

Crane and Medical Journals

QUESTION: Is there any evidence--or any way of finding evidence--that Crane read the professional medical journals of his day, or of the Civil War period? Might he have perused, for example, the multi-volume Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, or the American Medical Times or other such periodical. Crane, I know, was supposed to have been rather ill-read; but any information about his reading in medicine or psychiatry would be most appreciated.
Chris Walsh, cwalsh@fulbrightweb.org
8/28/03

While there is no evidence that Crane read books or professional journals on medicine or psychiatry, he was very much concerned with the effects of wounds on the psyche. This is evident in short stories such as "An Episode of War" and "War Memories"as well as in The Red Badge of Courage. In the novel, Crane demonstrates that nineteenth-century moralistic conceptions of courage and cowardice are fanciful distortions of visceral reactions to environmental circumstances. This is the reason for the mordant satire of Henry Fleming's thought processes (which some readers find tedious) as he tries to rationalize his conduct before, and especially after, fleeing from the enemy. --Stanley Wertheim

Leper Colony in "The Open Boat"?

In "The Open Boat" the first group of people that the men in the boat encounter seem to wave a black flag and warn the men away. I thought I read somewhere that they had encountered some sort of leper colony or other kind of quarantined area on the coast of Florida. Any info? Susan Neff snenterprises@juno.com

7/11/03

The initial sentence of "The Open Boat," "None of them knew the color of the sky," evokes the question of the subjective nature of reality central to the story. There is a detached narrator, but the focus is on perception and the individual and collective consciousness of the men in the dinghy as they react to their ordeal. On the shore near Mosquito Inlet, the men in the boat perceive figures rolling out what first seems to be a lifeboat and then seems to be a hotel omnibus. The captain fixes a bath towel to a stick and waves it, and one of the men on the shore responds by waving what first appears to be "a little black flag." As they look more closely the men in the boat agree among themselves that it is not a flag he is waving but "his coat," referring to his jacket. What specific object the man is waving is not as important as the greater failure of perception and comprehension both on the part of the men in the boat and the men on the shore. This is epitomized in the captain's question, "'What's that idiot with the coat mean? What's he signalling anyway.'"

--Stanley Wertheim
7/11/03

Photographs of Crane's Parents

QUESTION: I am trying to track down photographs of Stephen Crane's parents. Do any exist? Also, is there any material about Crane attending summer religious revivals as a child in Mt. Tabor, N.J., where his father helped establish an annual camp meeting for Methodists? I've seen one reference to Tabor in the Linda Davis biography, but nothing more.

Jeff May, jbmay@optonline.net
3/28/03

Full page photographs of Stephen Crane's parents, Jonathan Townley Crane and Mary Helen Peck Crane, may be found in Stanley Wertheim and Paul Sorrentino, The Crane Log: A Documentary Life of Stephen Crane. New York: G. K. Hall and Co., 1994, pp. 2–3. There is also short discussion of Stephen's attendance with his family at Camp Tabor revival meetings on pp. 8, 12.

--Stanley Wertheim

Crane's Birthplace--Photos?

QUESTION: Do any contemporary photos exist of the house at 14 Mulberry Place, Newark, N.J., or street where Crane was born? Does the house still exist? If not, what's in its place now?

Jerry Gottlick, jgottlick@hotmail.com 3/16/03

Photographs of Stephen Crane's birthplace, 14 Mulberry Place, Newark, NJ, are in the possession of the Newark Public Library and Syracuse University library. There is a photograph reproducing a frontal view of the house in The Crane Log: A Documentary Life of Stephen Crane, p. 6. The house was demolished a long time ago and a playground was built on the site which had a memorial plaque in one wall. This wall has also since been destroyed.

--Stanley Wertheim

Order of Stories in The Little Regiment

QUESTION: hello. i'm translating Crane's complete works to portuguese, and =
i'd like to know the original sequence of the tales in the collection The Little Regiment, by Appleton (1896). Can you tell me if "An Episode of War" should be included? According to
the Dover Thrift edition of these texts, it belongs to Wounds in the Rain,
but i didn't find it on the site boondocksnet.com.
thank you very much and best regards,

David 3/16/03

The order of stories in The Little Regiment (1896) is: "The Little Regiment"; "Three Miraculous Soldiers"; "A Mystery of Heroism"; "An Indiana Campaign"; "A Gray Sleeve"; "The Veteran."

"An Episode of War" did not appear in a book during Crane's lifetime. Its first book publication was in an anthology, Last Words (1902).

--Stanley Wertheim

Crane Photographs

QUESTION: I've been thinking (for quite some time) of putting up my own "fan site" of Stephen Crane, and am wondering if it's okay for me to put up pictures of him on my site without it breaking the copyright laws. Could you please tell me if I need special permission, and if so, from whom I should obtain it? This is really the only thing holding me back from creating the site. Thanks.

Chuck Goodson

Stephen Crane's heirs have no objection to photographs of him being published. Nevertheless, if you reproduce photographs belonging to institutions or private collectors, you should obtain their permission to do so. Libraries usually charge a small fee for granting permission and/or for copies of such photographs.

--Stanley Wertheim

Crane copyrights?

QUESTION: I am interested in writing some vocal compositions based on the texts of "The Black Riders."  Who do I need to contact for copywrite clearance?  Thanks 
Brian Childers, coplandsp@yahoo.com 

Since Stephen Crane has been dead for over 100 years and Copeland and Day are no longer extant, the copyright has expired, and you do not need permission to reprint Crane poems. Copeland & Day standardized Crane's idiosyncratic punctuation in some of the poems,and it may be best to utilize a scholarly edition such as that edited by Joseph Katz which restores original punctuation from manuscript sources. --Stanley Wertheim

Asbury Park House

I write a daily pieces for web and magazine use called "Today in Literature -- 500 word pieces on literary events which occurred on any given day. I try to include interesting sites for the literary traveler - museums, collections, memorials, etc. I can't seem to find anything substantial on Stephen Crane House, on Fourth Ave in Asbury Park: do you know if plans went through and if it in fact exists, and do you have any contact information for it? Thanks so much if you can spare the time,
Steve King todayinliterature.com

2/19/03

In June of 1883, Crane's mother moved her family from Port Jervis,
New York, to 508 Fourth Avenue in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Crane lived in this house, known as Arbutus Cottage because of the arbutus shrubs which grew and still grow in its front yard, at various times until a few months after the death of Mary Helen Crane in December 1891. Many of his New Jersey shore tales and sketches were written there. In the late 1980s a group headed by Tom Hayes, at that time head of the Asbury Park Chamber of Commerce, restored and renovated the house. It is now a private residence. --Stanley Wertheim

2/22/03

Crane and Naturalism

I know Crane was one of the first writers to embrace Naturalism, but I was curious to know if he followed this form of writing throughout his career? Or was it just a phase he went thru?

Bob F.

2/28/03

Unlike Emile Zola, the foremost European exponent of literary naturalism, Crane did not consider free will and moral character as illusions. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and George's Mother depict characters weak in personality development and apparently below the average in intelligence who are at least partly destroyed by environmental conditions. But even in these early slum novelettes, Crane is not a simple determinist. False moral imperatives and personal misconceptions play as large a part in undermining the protagonists as external surroundings. In The Red Badge of Courage and "The Open Boat" Crane stressed the importance of mental and physical resources to comprehend and struggle with the circumstances of the external world. His later work continued to emphasize the naturalistic theme of the importance of environment in determining human destiny, but he increasingly focused on individual ability to apprehend reality and even on sheer chance.

--Stanley Wertheim
3/6/03

Drawings of Crane and Dora Clark

QUESTION: Where/how might I get photocopies of the line drawings of Crane and Dora Clark that appeared as illustrations to the articles in the NY City newspapers that covered that incident and its repercussions?

Philip Paradis, phil.paradis@fuse.net

The line drawings in New York City newspapers that accompanied coverage of the Dora Clark affair are generic and undistinguished. They may easily be obtained by any research library through inter-library loan of the microfilms of the New York Sun, New York Journal, and New York Times of 16-17 September 1896, for the story of the arrest of Dora Clark and Crane's testimony before the magistrate, and the New York Journal, New York World, and New York News of 16 October 1896, for Crane's testimony as a witness in the hearing of Dora Clark's charges of false arrest against Patrolmen Charles Becker and Martin Conway in New York City Police Court.

--Stanley Wertheim

"A Man Said to the Universe"

I found the following poem attributed to Stephen Crane. Can you tell me the name of the poem or what collection it is from? Thank you! A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me a sense of obligation."

Rory Noland rorynoland@hotmail.com

This poem is from War is Kind and Other Lines, which was published on May 20, 1899, by Frederick A.Stokes. You can find the text of this or other poems in the volume at http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/crane/warkind.htm

Pictures of the first edition are also available.

The Search Feature can also be used to specific poems; bring up the search feature and type in a word or phrase such as "universe."

-- D. Campbell

Crane and John Willard Raught

QUESTION: I am looking for any information on Crane's relationship with the painter John Willard Raught. I believe he visited his home in Scranton, PA. John Powell jpcoal7@yahoo.com

Crane had no relationship with John Willard Raught, a traditionalist in painting who rejected the impressionist and modernist modes in art that fascinated Crane. In mid-May 1894 Crane and the his artist friend Corwin Knapp Linson traveled to the Scranton, Pennsylvania, area to investigate working conditions in the coal mines for the McClure syndicate. Crane's article, "In the Depths of a Coal Mine," illustrated by Linson, was syndicated by McClure in various newspapers on 22 July 1894 and included in the August 1894 issue of McClure's Magazine. Raught was an acquaintance of Linson, and Crane wrote a first draft of his article in the evening of 18th May in Raught's house in Dunmore, Pennsylvania, where he spent the night, but there is no evidence of a relationship, either personal or artistic, between Raught and Crane.

--Stanley Wertheim
3/10/03

   
   

 

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