The holidays are a good time for going home, so let's take a peek at the place Stephen Crane called home during his late childhood. 508 Fourth Avenue, Asbury Park, NJ, USA is the address of this holy shrine. Crane's mother moved her children there in 1883, when Stephen was nearly 12 years old. The Crane family retained it until 1899. Nearly a hundred years later, in 1995, Tom and Regina Hayes purchased it and rescued the home from demolition.
According to the Stephen Crane House website run by current owner Frank D'Alessandro, "Since 1995, the house has been the small venue for hundreds of literary, musical, film and other cultural programs all dedicated to the memory of Stephen and his very literary and artistic family."
The next event taking place there will be a December 13th "Season's Reading" and viewing of the film "A Christmas Story." Click here for full information.
We of the Stephen Crane Blog have not yet made it to the Stephen Crane House, but when we do it shall be an earth-shaking pilgrimage and well documented on this blog.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
The bird that thwarted the feast
In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, many of us think of birds in terms of gigantic meaty turkey things, wrapped in plastic and perhaps frozen. Such birds, bred for consumption, stand little chance to ruin the feast they are destined for. Unless they are spiteful enough to fall into the hands of an unskilled chef...but even that would not be dramatic enough to compare to the grim role a bird played in the Stephen Crane story "Twelve O'Clock."
In this story a cowboy strolls into a hotel to book a dinner reservation for his troop, numbering...
"Oh, about thirty," replied the cowboy. "An` we want th` best dinner you kin raise an` scrape. Everything th` best. We don`t care what it costs s`long as we git a good square meal. We`ll pay a dollar a head: by God, we will! We won`t kick on nothin` in the bill if you do it up fine. If you ain`t got it in th` house russle th` hull town fer it. That`s our gait. So you just tear loose, an` we`ll -"
At this moment the machinery of a cuckoo-clock on the wall began to whirr, little doors flew open and a wooden bird appeared and cried, "Cuckoo!" And this was repeated until eleven o`clock had been announced, while the cowboy, stupefied, glassy-eyed, stood with his red throat gulping. At the end he wheeled upon Placer and demanded: "What in hell is that?"
This cowboy, aka Jake, then brings his gang to the hotel to see the splendorous cuckoo bird, and let's just say things don't go very well. Not when you throw a rude hotel clerk, a drunken badass, overzealous lawmen, and some mob antics into the mix. Think of The Blue Hotel with a bird replacing the cash register.
Or better yet just read the short story here.
And if that doesn't satisfy your Stephen Crane feasting desires, check out our post from Thanksgiving of last year.
In this story a cowboy strolls into a hotel to book a dinner reservation for his troop, numbering...
"Oh, about thirty," replied the cowboy. "An` we want th` best dinner you kin raise an` scrape. Everything th` best. We don`t care what it costs s`long as we git a good square meal. We`ll pay a dollar a head: by God, we will! We won`t kick on nothin` in the bill if you do it up fine. If you ain`t got it in th` house russle th` hull town fer it. That`s our gait. So you just tear loose, an` we`ll -"
At this moment the machinery of a cuckoo-clock on the wall began to whirr, little doors flew open and a wooden bird appeared and cried, "Cuckoo!" And this was repeated until eleven o`clock had been announced, while the cowboy, stupefied, glassy-eyed, stood with his red throat gulping. At the end he wheeled upon Placer and demanded: "What in hell is that?"
This cowboy, aka Jake, then brings his gang to the hotel to see the splendorous cuckoo bird, and let's just say things don't go very well. Not when you throw a rude hotel clerk, a drunken badass, overzealous lawmen, and some mob antics into the mix. Think of The Blue Hotel with a bird replacing the cash register.
Or better yet just read the short story here.
And if that doesn't satisfy your Stephen Crane feasting desires, check out our post from Thanksgiving of last year.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Happy Birthday Stephen Crane!
When you read this it is likely our hero Stephen Crane will have celebrated another birthday. November 1, 1871 happened 138 years ago, so Crane would have been long in the tooth today. To read more about his life, stroll through this blog, the Stephen Crane Society website, or the Crane wikipedia entry in the links on the left.
November 1 also marks the one-year anniversary of this blog. Two Stephen Crane related posts per month for a total of, um, 25 posts. In 2008 we weren't so good with math, so we made one extra post. If you want to reminisce, check out our very first post: http://redblogofcourage.blogspot.com/2008/11/come-worship-stephen-crane-with-me.html
Looking back at the Crane calendar year, we've covered a Blue Hotel play and music cd, a bunch of memorabilia including the Lanthorn book, and we've looked at enough Crane stories to get us through the year. Check out the blog archives if you missed anything.
2010 will see this blog rolling along to more Crane glory! We are always seeking guest comments and posts, so chip in and help this blog grow. Also in 2010 we will be making a major announcement that is gonna surprise the stuffing out of a lot of people in Crane Land. So look to that and much more, after you properly celebrate Stephen Crane's birthday.
November 1 also marks the one-year anniversary of this blog. Two Stephen Crane related posts per month for a total of, um, 25 posts. In 2008 we weren't so good with math, so we made one extra post. If you want to reminisce, check out our very first post: http://redblogofcourage.blogspot.com/2008/11/come-worship-stephen-crane-with-me.html
Looking back at the Crane calendar year, we've covered a Blue Hotel play and music cd, a bunch of memorabilia including the Lanthorn book, and we've looked at enough Crane stories to get us through the year. Check out the blog archives if you missed anything.
2010 will see this blog rolling along to more Crane glory! We are always seeking guest comments and posts, so chip in and help this blog grow. Also in 2010 we will be making a major announcement that is gonna surprise the stuffing out of a lot of people in Crane Land. So look to that and much more, after you properly celebrate Stephen Crane's birthday.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Spooky Stephen Crane
Looking at the calendar we are now less than two weeks away from Stephen Crane's birthday. What a glorious day that will be! November 1st also marks the one-year anniversary of this blog. That's right, one full year of celebrating Stephen Crane online nonstop, and we didn't even break a sweat.
Before Crane's birthday we have to endure this thing called Halloween, a time to dress up and pretend, while encouraging little kids to run around bothering strangers for candy. Since we can't fully hide from this day, we can at least taste it with a touch of style, in this case consuming a spooky article by the master.
Crane wasn't known for tales of terror, as Poe was, yet this little piece from an Asbury Park newspaper puts the chill in us with Crane's unmistakable pen knitting visions of a lonesome spectral indian & a ghostly shipwrecked dog, among others.
Zoinks!
Before Crane's birthday we have to endure this thing called Halloween, a time to dress up and pretend, while encouraging little kids to run around bothering strangers for candy. Since we can't fully hide from this day, we can at least taste it with a touch of style, in this case consuming a spooky article by the master.
Crane wasn't known for tales of terror, as Poe was, yet this little piece from an Asbury Park newspaper puts the chill in us with Crane's unmistakable pen knitting visions of a lonesome spectral indian & a ghostly shipwrecked dog, among others.
Zoinks!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Stephen Crane Studies 17.2
Now let's take a look at volume 17, number 2 of Stephen Crane Studies. The first article is "The Sound and the Fury in Stephen Crane's Maggie and George's Mother" by Shunji Kuga. This takes a look at the slang and speech habits of Crane's bowery folk. I'll spoil the surprise for you though...they mostly yell and curse a lot, and utter things like, "What'd hell?". I know many of you do as well.
Next is a piece about "An Unpublished Note and Inscription of Stephen Crane" by George & Jean Houston. The items are on photographs and date from 1897, sent to a man named Eben Alexander. I won't reveal what Crane wrote, you'll have to read Stephen Crane Studies 17.2 to find that out.
"'Our Own Steve Crane' in Chicago," by George Monteiro, samples some funny unsigned parodies of Crane's poetic style that appeared in newspapers during his lifetime. This one was published in the Duluth News-Tribune, August 6,1897:
A man walked along a crooked road.
The road was so twisted that sometimes the man met himself coming back.
"Ah," he said, and smiled. "Nit."
He was a wise man and bought a bottle of Keeley cure.
Last is a review of Patrick Dooley's "A Community of Inquiry: Conversations Between Classical American Philosophy and American Literature" submitted by John Clendenning.
Next is a piece about "An Unpublished Note and Inscription of Stephen Crane" by George & Jean Houston. The items are on photographs and date from 1897, sent to a man named Eben Alexander. I won't reveal what Crane wrote, you'll have to read Stephen Crane Studies 17.2 to find that out.
"'Our Own Steve Crane' in Chicago," by George Monteiro, samples some funny unsigned parodies of Crane's poetic style that appeared in newspapers during his lifetime. This one was published in the Duluth News-Tribune, August 6,1897:
A man walked along a crooked road.
The road was so twisted that sometimes the man met himself coming back.
"Ah," he said, and smiled. "Nit."
He was a wise man and bought a bottle of Keeley cure.
Last is a review of Patrick Dooley's "A Community of Inquiry: Conversations Between Classical American Philosophy and American Literature" submitted by John Clendenning.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
New Issue of Stephen Crane Studies
I received volume 17, number 1 & 2 of Stephen Crane Studies this week. This is published by the Stephen Crane Society and as we've said before, is a must-have subscription for any Crane fan. Ordering info and table of contents for the last few issues can be found here. With this post i'd like to briefly go through #1, and in our next post we'll look at #2.
Enclosed with the issues was a very polite dues renewal notice. The editor, Paul Sorrentino, points out that the subscription/membership fee of $10 is still the same as it was for volume 1 in 1992. He makes a good point so i think i will forward this bill to my financial secretary for review. However it is signed "Paul" in what appears to be blue ink. Since Sorrentino is one of the top Stephen Crane experts i might have to archive this signed bill and add it to my Crane collection.
The look of Stephen Crane Studies hasn't changed much since i started subscribing back in 04-05. It is a slim half-page volume with a creamy cover and a photo of Stephen Crane on the front. The first article in volume 17, #1 is called "New York City Topography of Maggie and George's Mother" by Stanley Wertheim. It is the longest article in here and is an interesting read.
Next article is "Crane's "Red Wafer" Again" by George Monteiro. This is a funny one, as the author cites old school Crane critic John Berryman knocking down Robert W Stallman's theory that the wafer in the Red Badge of Courage is supposed to be sacramental. Instead the red wafer is supposedly inspired by discs used to seal letters back in the day. Which makes a lot more sense considering that Crane was not a religious-minded person. Monteiro ends the brief article by looking at Portuguese, Brazilian, and Spanish translations of Red Badge. He looked at five translations, and only one translates "wafer" as "seal." The other four follow Stallman's thinking and translate "wafer" as "host."
The third article is "The President's Column: In a Jocular Vein" by Tom Clayton of the University of Minnesota. He is talking about Ambrose Bierce and Stephen Crane, and a course on them he almost taught in '85-'86 but never did. Wow and i thought i was a slacker...get to it, buddy! He mentions a few of Crane's cynical poems and then Bierce's definition of cynic in The Devil's Dictionary. Sorrentino puts an editor's note at the bottom of this article that says, "...Though it deals with more than Crane, readers of Stephen Crane Studies should find it interesting." Luckily for him i do, and i also like Bierce, so i won't get upset and start pressin' charges.
Last thing in #1 is a review of Stephen Crane Remembered, edited by Sorrentino, 2006. The review is by Donald Vanouse, so don't mess around.
Enclosed with the issues was a very polite dues renewal notice. The editor, Paul Sorrentino, points out that the subscription/membership fee of $10 is still the same as it was for volume 1 in 1992. He makes a good point so i think i will forward this bill to my financial secretary for review. However it is signed "Paul" in what appears to be blue ink. Since Sorrentino is one of the top Stephen Crane experts i might have to archive this signed bill and add it to my Crane collection.
The look of Stephen Crane Studies hasn't changed much since i started subscribing back in 04-05. It is a slim half-page volume with a creamy cover and a photo of Stephen Crane on the front. The first article in volume 17, #1 is called "New York City Topography of Maggie and George's Mother" by Stanley Wertheim. It is the longest article in here and is an interesting read.
Next article is "Crane's "Red Wafer" Again" by George Monteiro. This is a funny one, as the author cites old school Crane critic John Berryman knocking down Robert W Stallman's theory that the wafer in the Red Badge of Courage is supposed to be sacramental. Instead the red wafer is supposedly inspired by discs used to seal letters back in the day. Which makes a lot more sense considering that Crane was not a religious-minded person. Monteiro ends the brief article by looking at Portuguese, Brazilian, and Spanish translations of Red Badge. He looked at five translations, and only one translates "wafer" as "seal." The other four follow Stallman's thinking and translate "wafer" as "host."
The third article is "The President's Column: In a Jocular Vein" by Tom Clayton of the University of Minnesota. He is talking about Ambrose Bierce and Stephen Crane, and a course on them he almost taught in '85-'86 but never did. Wow and i thought i was a slacker...get to it, buddy! He mentions a few of Crane's cynical poems and then Bierce's definition of cynic in The Devil's Dictionary. Sorrentino puts an editor's note at the bottom of this article that says, "...Though it deals with more than Crane, readers of Stephen Crane Studies should find it interesting." Luckily for him i do, and i also like Bierce, so i won't get upset and start pressin' charges.
Last thing in #1 is a review of Stephen Crane Remembered, edited by Sorrentino, 2006. The review is by Donald Vanouse, so don't mess around.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Stephen Crane's Lonely Hearts Club Band?
I hear "The Beatles: Rock Band" is coming out soon, and quite frankly i could care less. Video games like that aren't my thing. The interesting part is that the two surviving Beatles (McCartney, Starr) and the widows of George Harrison (Olivia) and John Lennon (Yoko) supposedly had so much input with this project. Which of course makes sense.
I felt guilty letting my mind wander to Beatles thoughts while pondering this video game, so i quickly searched for a Stephen Crane tangent to riff off on (that's cool guitarspeak, people). Believe it or not, Stephen Crane is on the cover of one of the greatest albums of all time, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band!
Check it out on this website, scroll down half way to see the album cover. Here is the detail, rather hard to see, but Crane is at center in this image, wedged between a guy's face and and hand.
Hmm, this forces the question: Who was consulted on Stephen Crane's behalf before he was included on one of the best selling albums of all time? While it's awesome the Beatles thought to include him, I've got to say, the pic of him is rather hard to see, mixed in there among 60 other figures. It would have been so much better had the cover of Sgt. Pepper featured just Stephen Crane...or ok, the Beatles and him.
What is nice is that he is placed directly above Paul McCartney's head. However, this is probably connected to that weird marketing ploy which spread the rumor that the real Paul died during the Beatles' rise and was replaced by a double. Don't know about you but i'm not too keen on Stephen Crane's partially obscured face being used as a false hint to something that never happened...or did it?
But i suppose i can overlook all this and get really grooved out that Crane is on the Sgt. Pepper cover. I just need my magnifying glass to make sure it's really him. Also need my meds, because the rest of the cover gives me seizures!
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