The Red Badge of Courage (For Further Study)

For Further Study

• Maurice Bassan, editor, Stephen Crane: A Collection of Critical Essays, Prentice-Hall, 1967.

  This collection is notable for its reprint of essays by other famous authors of Crane's period who report on his personality ("When I Knew Stephen Crane" by Willa Cather) and the sensational effect of the publication of The Red Badge of Courage ("His War Book" by Joseph Conrad). This collection also contains the famous essay "Crane's Art" by poet John Berryman and many other useful discussions of Crane's place in American and world literature.

• Thomas Beer, Stephen Crane: A Study in American Letters, Knopf, 1923.

  Beer's work was the first biography about Crane. Though later scholars have found some factual errors in the book, it is still considered an important work.

• Frank Bergon, in his Stephen Crane's Artistry, Columbia University Press, 1975.

  Bergon analyzes the aspects of Crane's use of dreams and dream images in his literature. He offers a complete characterization of Crane's style.

• John Berryman, in his Stephen Crane: A Critical Biography, Sloane, 1950.

  A biography of Crane notable for being written by one of the important poets of the post World War II era, whose insights into Crane and his work have not yet been superseded by more scholarly biographies.

• John Berryman, Stephen Crane: A Critical Biography, Farrar, Straus, 1982.

  This biography examines symbolism in Crane's work, with an interesting chapter on his Freudian themes.

• Harold Bloom, editor, Modern Critical Interpretations: The Red Badge of Courage, Chelsea House, 1987.

  A collection of critical essays containing discussions of psychology, literary impressionism, and the heroic ideal in The Red Badge of Courage. Sophisticated but important theory for a more contemporary, post-modern understanding of Crane's novel.

• Edwin H. Cady, in his Stephen Crane, revised edition, Twayne, 1980.

  This is a balanced critical biography.

• Richard Chase, The Red Badge of Courage and Other Writings, Houghton, 1960.

  A critical view of Crane's contribution as a naturalist writer. Chase contests Stallman's view that Crane is a symbolist.

• James B. Colvert, "Stephen Crane," in Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography: Realism, Naturalism, and Local Color, 1865 – 1917 Gale, 1988, pp. 88 – 109.

  Colvert presents an in-depth survey of Crane's major works, and adds perspective to the author's similarity to Rudyard Kipling.

• Lois Hill, Poems and Songs of the Civil War, Gramercy Books, 1990.

  A very useful collection of the popular songs and poems that common soldiers like Henry Fleming would have sung and cherished. Songs such as "Lorena," "The Vacant Chair," and "The Bonnie Blue Flag" and poems such as Whitman's "Bivoac on a Mountainside" and Melville's "Running the Batteries" give the real flavor of the war — often sentimental — that Crane was trying to capture.

• James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, Ballentine Books, 1988.

  This is the only one-volume treatment of the entire Civil War, and by all accounts, one of the best. It contains a detailed discussion of the Battle of Chancellorsville, which is the setting of The Red Badge of Courage

• David Madden and Peggy Bach, Classics of Civil War Fiction, University Press of Mississippi, 1991.

  James Cox's essay on The Red Badge of Courage places it in the context of other Civil War novels such as Mary Johnston's The Long Roll, Ellen Glasgow's The Battle-Ground, and John Peale Bishop's Many Thousands Gone.

• Richard M. Weatherford, editor, Stephen Crane: The Critical Heritage, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1973.

  Contains thirty-two reviews of The Red Badge of Courage from 1894 through 1898, showing the critical reception of Crane's work in America and England. While some critics were slow to recognize Crane's genius, others were able to see it instantly, and to relate it to the Impressionism movement that was dominating the art world at that time.