playing poker， and lived largely on monc~ b，，H ，， Fredricksburg， Virginia， re talk to Confederate veter-
from his brothers， ans， and make sure he had the details right. He proba-
Nobody wanted to publish Maggie， though some pub bly also p eked the brains of his brother William. who
lishers admitted it was a good book. Its subject matter was a student of Chancellorsv e. the battle described
was too outrageous: nobody in the prudish 1890s could in Red Badge.
risk publishing a book that was sympathetic about a He shuffled from place to place， wnring and rewrit-
prostitute and that used rough language in describing ing Red Badge， which at the time he called \"Private
her life. ( These things go in cycles. Ninety years later. Fleming， His Various Battles.\" He was living on the
Maggie seems quite tame; it would have seemed tame generosity of his friends ano relatives and the small fees
to Chaucer and Shakespeare， too.) Finally， Crane cashed he collected writing occasional newspaper and maga-
in the stock his mother had willed to him， and paid to zinc pieces. Finally satisfied with the piece， he gave the
have the book printed himself， under the obvious pseud- handwritten manuscript to a typtst--who refused to give
onym Johnston Smith. His dream was that after the book it back until he was paid! Crane borrowed $15 from a
had been a smashing success， he would come forward fraternity brother， enough to make the typist hand over
and admit \"1 am he， friends.\" the first half of the book， which he showed to the
But the book was ignored. He had 1100 copies and influential writer Hamlin Garland over lunch. Garland
couldn t give them away. Only the bookstore in New loved it， gave Crane another $15 to get the rest of it out
York would handle it: they took twelve copies and sold of hock， and thought as highly of that when he read it
two. In the arty flophouse where he was staying， Crane the next day. He recommended Red Badge to book and
wrote in chalk on his will a quote from Emerson: newspaper publishing friends， which may have helped a
\"Congratulate yourselves if you have done something great deal
strange and extravagant and broken the monotony of a Publication was delayed for most of a year. (The first
editor whe saw the book liked it， but didn t have any
decorous age.\" money， and so sat on it for six months.) Some parts
Maybe that was enough; at any rate， he didn t allow
his lack of success to slow him down. He started writ- were serialized in newspapers， though， and well re-
ing The Red Badge of Courage， but it wasn t a case of ceived. A newspaper syndicate hired Crane to go out
rolling up his sleeves and setting out to write the best West. to report on a great drought that was devastating
American war novel ever. He started it on a bet. Nebraska. He left just as the book was sent to Appleton
A friend of his， Acton Davies， had read and admired and Company. Privately he vowed that if Appleton
Emile Zola s war novel The Downfall. Crane had no rejected it， he was going to burn the damned thing and
patience with it， and bet that he could write a better war get on with his life.
story even though he d never been in a battle. He When Appleton did print The Red Badge of Courage，
evidently started out to write a sensationalistic short in 1895， Stephen Crane s days of obscurity were over.
story for a newspaper a \"pot-boiler，\" but in the pro- It was an immediate success in both England and
cess of writing it， he said， \"I got interested in the thing America.
in spite of myself，\" and spent several months writing Literary success was a mixed blessing for Crane. For
the first draft of a serious novel. He traveled down to one thing， everyone wanted him to write more war
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