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

"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 

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

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

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