University of Virginia Works!

I recently added something wonderful to my Crane collection: the University of Virginia edition of Stephen Crane's WORKS, edited by Fredson Bowers. Money is tight these days so i can't buy as much Crane stuff as i'd like, but i figured this was well worth it and an essential part of my collection.

Here is the information about the set:

The Works of Stephen Crane
The University of Virginia Press, 1969-1975

Ten Volume Set. Fredson Bowers, Editor. Yellow Cloth, Hardcover. No dust jackets.

Vol. I. Bowery Tales: Maggie and George's Mother; ISBN: 978-0813902586

Vol. II. The Red Badge of Courage; 978-0813905143

Vol. III. The Third Violet and Active Service; 978-0813906669

Vol. IV. The O'Ruddy; 978-0813903415

Vol. V. Tales of Adventure; 978-0813903026

Vol. VI. Tales of War; 978-0813902944

Vol. VII. Tales of Whilomville; 978-0813902593

Vol. VIII. Tales, Sketches, and Reports; 978-0813904054

Vol. IX. Reports of War; 978-0813903422

Vol. X. Poems and Literary Remains; 978-0813906102

I managed to purchase all volumes except #5 from Alibris for $117 shipped, on 1-23-2009. I cross referenced Amazon and Alibris using the ISBN numbers, looking for the books in best condition and at the best price. In many cases booksellers list on both sites. I bought the majority of books from a single seller in Indiana, and in that way saved a few bucks on shipping. All of my books are in very good condition, or better. A couple just have the prior owner's signature, one is an ex-library book, and one was even brand new and shrink wrapped.

If you want the whole set, go for it. I doubt you will match my el cheapo skillz and get it for $117, but i would expect you to be able to manage under $200. If you aren't a hardcore Crane collector, i wouldn't suggest you buy the entire set, as most of it is just the text of his books & famous stories that can be purchased elsewhere. I would focus on volumes 8, 9 and 10, which contain the more obscure stuff.

Volume five is in red in my list above because i don't have it, and i imagine it will torment me for many years to come. You see, this volume is the rarest of them all and i was unable to find it for sale anywhere! I don't know why, as it is a slim and unremarkable book that was published in 1970. I suppose there has to be one pain in the poop in every group! My working theory is that volume five was the most popular book of the set, given its title and content as Tales of Adventure. I'm guessing a lot of professors assigned their students to read this book, and as a result most of the copies got sucked up into academia land, never to return. Those copies that do exist are now long forgotten in dusty boxes in basements and attics, or hidden in mom and pop bookstores that don't list inventory on the internet. I am really not sure if my theory is correct, so if anyone one knows, or praise Jesus if anyone has a copy to sell me, please leave a comment below!!

The best price i found for the entire set (including volume 5) was $500. If you can spend that type of money, i don't think $500 is an unreasonable price tag, considering all the trouble you'll save hunting down each volume. I do want to stress that this is a TEN volume set. I saw a couple listings that said they were selling #1-1o of a 12 volume set. No, there were only ten. Perhaps people were thinking of Bowers' two-volume facsimile of Crane's Red Badge of Courage manuscript, but that wasn't part of the University of Virginia set. Or maybe they were thinking of the 1925 Knopf 12-volume set? Or the mysterious, expensive, and hard-to-find 12-volume set of Crane's works published in the 1990's by Reprint Services Corp. In any case, the sellers were just confused.

The aesthetics of the books get mixed reviews from me. The mustardy yellow color is unique, and i rather like it despite (or because) it has the academic library aura all over it! The titles on the spine are also in gold, and i find them very hard to read due to the lack of contrast. I do like that the books are hardcover & cloth, and that they don't have dust jackets. The paper is bright and high quality, and the font is large and easy to read. My biggest complaint about the books is Volume VIII....this beast is over 1173 pages long! What were the publishers thinking!? This book is way too bulky to balance on your chest while lying in bed, and rather awkward to crack open on a desk or table for the long periods it would take to read it. Too bad because the subject matter, Tales, Sketches & Reports, would be most interesting to read. The obvious solution would have been to cut the book in half and made the set 11 volumes instead of 10, but i imagine somehow printing costs prevented that. By comparison, the next biggest volume is IX, Reports of War, and that weighs in at a substantial but manageable 678 pages. The slimmest volume is the first, Bowery Tales, a mere 184 pages. So the set is all over the place when it comes to size.

I have not read the set yet, but when i do i will read it all the way through as Bowers has arranged it. Fredson Bowers was quite a remarkable literary man, and he published several sets of works like this and many painstakingly researched bibliographies. This University of Virginia Works set is considered the most comprehensive of the Crane canon. There has been some criticism of the reliability of the text for a couple of the books, such as with Red Badge there may be some variations or errors. I've read most of what's in here under separate covers, except i haven't read all of Crane's war dispatches, so that will be fun. I'm not looking forward to reading The O'Ruddy, Crane's last written book, which was finished after his death by Robert Barr. Not sure if i can bring myself to read that sad end of Crane's work. Bowers has it rather early, as volume 4, so maybe i'll skip 4 and oh yeah...skip the impossible to find volume 5, and hope my chest doesn't get crushed while reading gargantuan volume 8. Oh yeah, what fun!