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.