Stephen Crane's Influence On Literary Fiction

Stephen Crane was unquestionably a literary prodigy. Few authors have so dramatically shaped literary fiction or American writing as Crane did in his tragically short lifetime. His uncanny, realistic writing style, depicted throughout his many novels, including Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and The Red Badge of Courage, as well as his many short stories, has led him to be commonly designated "the first modern American writer" ("Stephen Crane"). Because Crane was capable of masterfully utilizing his keen observations and imagination, he was not only a pioneer in American naturalism and realism, but his works are also still iconic in literature and history today. Six years after the Civil War had ended, Stephen Crane was born in November of 1871 in New Jersey, to Mary Crane, an active writer for various Methodist papers, and Jonathan Crane, a Methodist minister. He was the youngest of fourteen, only nine of whom survived infancy ("Stephen Crane"). Crane grew amidst many hardships that would shape his own outlook on the world: his family moved often,

Crane 's concern with authenticity and realism continue to remind generations of the extreme horrors of war. His potent descriptions of the loss of individuality, the psychological stress, and the death that come consequential to battle, serve as a warning to those who think lightly of war, and give due respect to those veterans who have experienced it first-hand. Because of his writing and the literary style he helped foster, Crane was also widely praised by authors such as Robert Frost, H.G. Wells, and Joseph Conrad ("Stephen Crane"). His blending of naturalism and realism in his works not only empowered his writing, but it has also credited Crane with contributing to the birth of American Realism. Ernest Hemmingway wrote The Red Badge of Courage was "one of the finest books of American literature"