Ordering Information • Back to New York in the Civil War
STEPHEN CRANE'S NOVEL OF THE CIVIL WAR:
THE RED BADGE OF COURAGEAn Historically Annotated Edition by Charles LaRocca
From the introduction:
"Stephen Crane was born six years after the American Civil War ended. Except for some drill instruction at prep school, he had no military training and never served in any army. Lacking such personal experience, it is remarkable that he was able to write The Red Badge of Courage, a story of war so convincing that Civil War veterans corresponding with the young author in the late 1890s demanded that he name his regiment. Some veterans even claimed to have served with Crane in the war. . . . Many Civil War veterans who read Crane's novel found it to be a realistic, faithful rendition of a soldier's life, especially on the battlefield, and were sure it must have been written by someone who had been there. Stephen Crane had not. He was born in 1871 in Newark, New Jersey, led a somewhat bizarre life, made his mark early, and died young."
Since Stephen Crane's remarkable novel The Red Badge of Courage was published one hundred years ago, Civil War enthusiasts have tried to discover its precise historical context. Now is this annotated edition of Crane's classic, Charles LaRocca, a history teacher and Civil War re-enactor from Montgomery, New York, has established convincing parallels between the fictitious 304th New York State Volunteers and the 124th New York, Orange County's regiment, whose members saw action at the Battle of Chancellorsville and whose veterans Crane is known to have interviewed. The results of LaRocca's careful research of regimental histories, Crane archives, soldier's letters, and newspaper accounts are enhanced by pen-and-ink drawings by Dianne Drewes and Wayne Merrick.
See also Steven Crane's Sullivan County Tales and Sketches 212 pages, illustrated, 6 x 9, 1995
$18.00 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press original
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