Overview

Stephen Crane (1871-1900), in his short life, was a prolific American poet and author now recognized as one of the most innovative writers of his generation. Working in the Realist and literary Naturalism traditions, Crane penned several notable works - including what many consider his crowning achievement, ""The Open Boat."" In January 1898, while traveling as a newspaper correspondent, Crane survived a shipwreck off the coast of Florida and was stranded at sea with three other men for thirty hours. First written as a report, then adapted into fiction, ""The Open Boat"" recounts the harrowing ordeal: four men clawing at survival in a coffin-sized dinghy, tossed like refuse by an indifferent sea, rowing toward a shore that may not want them. Crane's prose is lean as bone, stripped of sentiment, and soaked in salt and futility. First published in Scribner's Magazine, then collected in The Open Boat and Other Tales of Adventure, this is not a tale of triumph but a parable of cosmic cruelty - where death rows beside them, silent and patient, and the only mercy is that the boat leaks slow enough to tell the story.

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Reviews

""'The Open Boat' is to my mind, beyond all question, the crown of all [Crane's] work."" -H.G. Wells, The North American Review ""A strong piece of realism."" -The Literary News ""We may say at once that this is a book to read."" -Literature ""Mr. Crane has never done anything finer than this truly wonderful picture of four men battling for their lives in a cockleshell off the coast of Florida."" -Spectator ""This is descriptive narrative of the highest order."" -The Literary Digest ""I am quite certain that if 'The Open Boat' by Stephen Crane appeared in print today for the first time it would be jumped on by a dozen athletic critics and Crane would be dubbed a 'Hemingway follower.'"" -Josephine Herbst, The Nation ""The sternest, creepiest bit of realism ever penned."" -Elbert Hubbard, Philistine ""Perhaps his finest piece of work . . . It is a desolate picture, and the tale is one of our greatest short stories."" -Vincent Starrett, ""Stephen Crane: An Estimate"" ""Shows evident signs of that extraordinary ability, amounting to genius, which distinguishes all the prose of Mr. Crane."" -Athenaeum ""He has indelibly fixed the experience on your mind, and that is the test of a literary artisan."" -Robert Bridges, LIFE ""'The Open Boat' would, even if he had written nothing else, have placed him where he now undoubtedly stands."" -Harold Frederic, The New York Times

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