Crane Fantasy: The Secret Stash

Reclusive writer JD Salinger died this week at the old age of 91. He hadn't published anything since 1965, yet insider reports and common sense claim he's still been writing all these years. When the contents of Salinger's literary safe are revealed, will we see a dozen quality book manuscripts and hundreds of unpublished short stories, or will we see the leavings of a highly eccentric old man?

Either way, this is the sort of thing literary nerds like us dream of. Salinger, famous for The Catcher in the Rye, published more interesting works like Nine Stories or Franny & Zooey. He is a minor literary god, not anyplace near the heights of Stephen Crane, but it will be wonderful to see where he took his literary talent over the past silent 45 years.

Such time was never enjoyed by Mr. Crane, who died before his 29th birthday, and had not the luxury of leaving behind a secret stash of works, instead hurriedly dictating the end of his tales from his deathbed, for sake of money. Yes, life isn't fair, but at least Salinger fans who've waited all these years will see some payoff.

State of the Blog Address

Fellow Crane Worshippers,

A couple days ago we listened to the President go on and on about a bunch of problems with America, and also every wonderful thing his administration has done for it so far. With a proper dash of Crane-style cynicism, we'll say it's good President Obama is keeping track of such things, so we can attend to the Stephen Crane matters of this blog.

As you know we have been going strong since November 2008 and have produced 30 Stephen Crane related posts thus far, to the tune of two a month. We've covered wonderful events like The Blue Hotel play and cd release, and amazing artifacts from a Lanthorn book to the Crane house. This year, 2010, we will announce our most exciting Crane contribution to date!

We considered unveiling it right off the bat, but then all our posts after that might be seen in a lesser light, so we're going to build up the suspense a bit before making the announcement. In the mean time you can always get onboard the Crane blog! Submit a guest post by emailing us or leave a comment below. My fellow Crane champions, the fate of the Red Blog of Courage rests upon your heads as well. Long live the legacy of Stephen Crane, mastersmith of letters!

Stephen Crane's New Year Ordeal: The Open Boat

What will you be doing tonight when 2010 comes onto the scene? We of the Stephen Crane blog will be working at our night job, unfortunately, rather than reading Crane stories aloud into the new year as we'd like to. Still, our labors tonight won't be nearly as bad as Crane's 1897 new year's party aboard the SS Commodore, a little steamer (pictured above) which twice ran up on sand before inconveniently sinking off the Florida coast. Two lifeboats were lowered but one sank, drowning the seven men aboard. The other boat preserved our hero Stephen Crane, the captain, and members of the crew, excepting one fated to die. This ordeal, which can be read in detail at this webpage, was the basis for Crane's most powerful short story, The Open Boat, which can be read online here.

Thankfully Crane was not a Romantic, or he probably would have drown'd at sea. Yet he'd survive for only a handful of years more, and relive The Open Boat experience in nightmares on his deathbed, his diseased lungs drowning him on dry land. Alas, the fatal reach of cruel Poseidon!

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There is at least one film version of The Open Boat floating around, but we haven't located or watched it yet, so if you can help please email or leave a comment below. And keep reading here all through 2010 as we celebrate Stephen Crane stuff!

Christmas Stove & Spanking Story?

We've found another Stephen Crane Christmas story for you this year. It's a Whilomville tale called "The Stove," first published in Harper's, April 1900. The "angel child" and her parents come to visit Jimmie Trescott and family for the Christmas holiday. The girl brings along her prized toy; a working mini-stove, and we're talking cast-iron, not a lightbulb-powered Easy Bake Oven!

Mrs. Trescott puts on a ladies' tea party along with the angel child's mother, but the kids do something to spice up the party, until Dr. Trescott takes things in a different direction with this: "You've hurt her, have you? Well, hurt her again. Spank her!" he cried, enthusiastically. "Spank her, confound you, man! She needs it. Here's your chance. Spank her, and spank her good. Spank her!"

Hard to believe such things are mentioned in a Crane story, is it? Well guess again, and read the tale for yourself. And remember, anything can happen at Christmas time!

Stephen Crane's House

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.

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.

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.