Κρέην, Στήβεν

Αμερικανός ποιητής, μυθιστοριογράφος, διηγηματογράφος και δημοσιογράφος. Πολυγραφότατος, παρά τη σύντομη ζωή του, έγραψε ακολουθώντας την παράδοση του ρεαλισμού, το έργο του, ωστόσο, παρουσιάζει τα πρώτα ψήγματα νατουραλισμού και ιμπρεσιονισμού, εξ ου και η κριτική τον αναγνώρισε ως έναν από τους πλέον καινοτόμους συγγραφείς της γενιάς του. Σημαντικότερα πεζογραφικά έργα του θεωρούνται τα "Maggie: A girl of the streets" (Μάγκι: Ένα κορίτσι του δρόμου), "Open boat" (Βάρκα στο πέλαγος), "The Bluee service" με βάση τις εμπειρίες του στην Ελλάδα - ταξιδευτής, μποέμ και με ασθενική υγεία, ο Κρέιν θα εγκατασταθεί προς το τέλος της ζωής του στην Αγγλία όπου θα συνδεθεί φιλικά με τον Τζόζεφ Κόνραντ, τον Φορντ Μάντοξ Φορντ, τον Χ. Τζ. Γουέλς, τον Χένρι Τζέιμς και άλλους και θα πεθάνει εκεί στα είκοσι εννιά του μόλις χρόνια, αφήνοντας πίσω του ένα έργο μεγάλης στυλιστικής λεπτότητας και ψυχολογικού βάθους. Stephen Townley Crane was born on 1st November 1871 in Mulberry Place, New Jersey. Hewas the youngest of fourteen children born to Jonathan Townley Crane, a Methodist minister, and his wife Mary Helen Peck Crane, a formidable campaigner for the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Stephen, nicknamed 'Stevie' by the family, was a sickly child, prone to constant colds. He began writing at the age of four, having taught himself how to read. In 1879, age eight, he wrote a poem about wanting a dog for Christmas, I’d Rather Have being his earliest surviving poem. He wrote his firstknown story, Uncle Jake and the Bell Handle, when he was just fourteen years old. It appears that writing ran in the family, as two of his brothers went on to become professional journalists. After Jonathan Crane died in 1880, the family moved toAsbury Park, New Jersey. Later, Mary Crane moved to Roseville, leaving Stephen in the care of his older brother Edmund in Sussex County. Throughout his childhood he lived with various siblings at one time or another. Crane attended the PenningtonSeminary in 1885, a ministry-focused boarding school where his father had been principal. He stayed here for two years before leaving to attend Claverack College, a quasi-military school. Crane enrolled at the Hudson River Institution New York in1888 and from then on began a somewhat unsuccessful university career, spending sometimes as little as a semester at a university before moving on to something else. Whilst at Syracuse University, Crane wrote his first novel, Maggie, a Girl of the Streets: a Story of New York, which was published in 1893 under the name Johnston Smith. The book, published at Crane’s own expense with inheritance from his mother, sold very little, but gained the attention of campaigners for the new realist movement. Deciding that college was ‘a waste of time’, Crane turned to full-time journalism, writing ironic newspaper sketches and penning stories set in Sullivan County, New York, an area where he used to camp when living with his brother Edmund. Thesetales were published posthumously under the title Stephen Crane: Sullivan County Tales and Sketches. Crane had shown two of his Sullivan County short stories to a family friend, Willis Fletcher Johnson, the editor of the Tribune, who agreed to publish them. The first to appear were Hunting Wild Dogs and The Last of the Mohicans. During this time he lived a bohemian lifestyle, living off journalistic commissions in an artist's studio. In the spring of 1893 he began work on what would become The Red Badge of Courage: an Episode of the American Civil War, a tale of a young soldier in battle. The book appeared only as a newspaper serial, but led Crane to catch the eye of Irving Bacheller, the syndicator, who sent him to the American West andMexico as a roving reporter in 1895. He travelled to Saint Louis, Missouri, Nebraska, New Orleans, Galveston, Texas and Mexico City. These adventures allowed Crane to acquire material for his later tales, The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky (1897) and TheBlue Hotel (1898). A volume of poems, The Black Riders and Other Lines appeared in 1895. The Red Badge of Courage was finally published in book form in 1895, and proved to be a success both in Britain and the USA, spending four months in the top