Stephen Crane; A Biography

by R.W. Stallman

Original documents, contemporary viewpoints and modern scholarly research are interwoven into a comprehensive and definitive narrative on the life and works of this enigmatic American novelist of the nineteenth century

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1968

Reviews

[Matthew]

Classic Biography!!

[Jean]

Stallman mines the limited available sources on Crane's life for every salient detail. However, one wonders if all the detail was absolutely necessary. Crane lived a full life, but do we really need 650+ pages devoted to a man who did not even reach age 30? For the researcher, the book is somewhat frustrating because it's often difficult to figure out exact dates, even years, sometimes, without reviewing large chunks of Stallman's finely detailed narrative. I also agree with another reviewer that even with the level of detail, Stallman fails to convey Crane's personality-- his "soul." Crane was famously enigmatic, but one wonders if Stallman got so caught up in arranging and organizing all the details that he forgot the man.