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1871-1900
Stephen Crane was born in a poor family in Newark, New Jersey. He was the fourteenth and last child of the Reverend John Townley Crane, a Methodist minister and published writer in ethics, and Mary Helen Peck, the daughter of a prominent Methodist minister. Both of his parents were active in the temperance movement, and his father moved the family repeatedly as he was transferred to different ministries. Crane's father died when he was nine, and his mother earned extra money by writing for Methodist journals, the New York Tribune, and the Philadelphia Press, all with young Stephen's help.
In 1885, Stephen entered a Methodist boarding school where his father had served as principal, then later transferred to a military boarding school. He attained the rank of cadet captain.
In January 1891, he entered Syracuse University, which was co-founded by his mother's uncle, and became extensively involved in writing and English. Instead of returning to school the next September, he decided to concentrate on his writing, and stayed with artist friends in New York. Crane worked as a newspaper reporter in New York. At 22 he wrote his first novel, “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets”(1893), a naturalistic picture of the grim life in New York slums. After the publication of the first novel, Crane began reading Civil War memoirs, and began to write “The Red Badge of Courage” in the spring of 1893.
Crane spent 1895 traveling through the American West and Mexico, writing the whole time. His book of poems, “The Black Riders”, was published in May 1895. “The Red Badge of Courage” was published in October 1895, and quickly became a bestseller, establishing Crane's reputation as an author. Although he met Theodore Roosevelt in New York and shared some of his writing, he fell out of favor with Roosevelt and the New York police when he testified in defense of a woman friend who had been arrested on charges of solicitation[3]. Later in 1896, Crane left the U.S. for Cuba to cover the Cuban revolution.
In 1897, the boat from which Crane was covering the Cuban war sank, becoming the inspiration for his story "The Open Boat." In March, Crane took passage to Greece to cover the Greco-Turkish war. His girlfriend, Cora Howorth Steward, was hired by the New York Journal as their first female war correspondent. The two were married during this time, and after the war moved to Oxted, Surrey, in England, where he continued his literary work until he discovered that he was suffering of tuberculosis. He went to Germany to seek a cure but it was too late. He was twenty-nine years old. He was buried by his wife in Hillside, New Jersey. “Wounds in the Rain” (1900), “Great Battles of the World” (1901), and “The O'Ruddy” (1903), were all published posthumously.
“Maggie: A Girl of the Streets” tells a tragedy of a common American girl, who was thrown by the society on the way of prostitution and persecuted by it. The novel's title character, Maggie, Johnson grows up among abuse and poverty in the Bowery neighborhood of New York's Lower East Side. Her mother, Mary, is a vicious alcoholic; her brother, Jimmie, is mean-spirited and brutish. But Maggie grows up a beautiful young lady with romantic hopes for a better life. She falls in love with Pete, whose show of confidence seems to promise wealth and culture. Seduced and abandoned by Pete, Maggie becomes a neighborhood scandal when she turns to prostitution. Crane leaves her death vague - she either commits suicide or is murdered. She seems a natural and hereditary victim, succumbing[4] finally to the forces of poverty and social injustice that built up against her even before her birth. Like all the people in this short novel, she seems chiefly a type rather than an individuated character, serving to illustrate principles about modern urban life.
We can notice three main themes in his creative work: life of the slums, the tragedy of the war, children’s destitution. His best pacifistic narrative is “The Red Badge of Courage” which tells the history of a soldier Henry Fleming. A son of a farmer, Henry Fleming, in spite of his mother’s protest, goes as a volunteer to the army of the northerners. During the battle the recruit is seized with fear, and he runs to the rear, having shamefully left his friends on a battle-field. During the battle there is a turning in favour of an enemy, and all the northerner’s army falls back, in panic, having raised to a deserter. The young man tries to stop one of the running men to know what has happened, but the man beats his head with a butt-stock, having become absolutely fear-stricken and having been afraid of being stopped. Having been wounded by “his own”, the young man falls behind the running men, and when he comes to a battalion, he is met as a hero!
MARK TWAIN
1835-1910
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, is a famous American humorist, novelist, writer and lecturer. Although he was confounded by financial and business affairs, his humor and wit was keen, and he enjoyed immense public popularity. At his peak, he was probably the most popular American celebrity of his time.
Born in the village, state Missouri, in 1835, Samuel was the third of four surviving children. His father was a poor lawyer who died when Samuel was 12 years old. When he was four years old, his family moved to Hannibal, a town on the Mississippi River much like the towns depicted in his novels. After father’s death Clemens left school, worked for a printer, and, in 1851, having finished his apprenticeship, Samuel began to work as a printer (Samuel's oldest brother Orion began publishing a newspaper “The Hannibal Journal”). While still in his early twenties, Clemens gave up his printing career and became a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi. He later stated in one of his books “Life on the Mississippi”(1883) that it would have held him to the end of his days. He said that the people he met on the river were a great help to improving his enjoyment of reading.
The Civil War and the advent[5] of railroads put an end to commercial steamboat traffic in 1861, and he had to look for a new job. He fell into newspaper work in Virginia City for the, where he adopted the pen name "Mark Twain" for the first time. His pen name came from his years on the riverboat, where two fathoms[6] (12 ft, approximately 3.7 m) or "safe water" was measured on the sounding line, was marked by calling "mark twain".
After the war, he went to Nevada with his brother Orion to prospect for silver and gold, but he did not like the life of the West. In 1864, he moved down to San Francisco and wrote for several papers there. In 1865, Twain had his first literary success. The story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (1865) brought him fame as a humorist. Having financial resources at his command, Samuel Clemens began to travel extensively. In 1866, he went to Hawaii, and the next year he toured Europe and the Holy Land, the basis for his travel book entitled “Innocents Abroad”. Wherever he went, Clemens observed life and people in order to gather material for his writings. He most appreciated the comedy he saw around him, but at times he also had a gloomy outlook. Both these views of life are developed in his novels.
On the European voyage, Clemens met Charles Langdon, who later introduced him in 1867 to his sister Olivia. Clemens immediately fell in love with her and married her in 1870 after a long courtship. They had a son who died in infancy and three daughters. The family lived in Hartford, Connecticut from 1871 until 1891, the period of Mark Twain’s best writing.
In 1876 he published “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”. This book was quite new and original in American literature. It was followed by “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (1884), “Tom Sawyer Abroad” (1894) and “Tom Sawyer the Detective” (1896). In “Tom Sawyer” the author gives a picture of contrasting ways of living of the folk and bourgeois society. In “Huckleberry Finn” he comes forward as an enemy of slavery. As Ernest Hemingway said, “all modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain – “Huckleberry Finn”. His other famous books are: “The Prince and the Pauper”, “A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court”, which criticized feudal English and monarchy in general.
In 1888, Twain earned a Master of Arts degree from Yale University. He then was awarded two honorary Doctor of Letters degrees from Yale in 1901, and the University of Missouri in 1902. In 1907, he received an honorary degree from Oxford. His last steady pleasure was endless games of billiards that he played with his biographer, Alber B Paine. In 1910, Samuel Langhorne Clemens died at age 75 in his Connecticut home.
QUOTATIONS
"I have never let my schooling get in the way of my education."
"You can have heaven, I’d rather go to Bermuda."
"Familiarity breeds contempt - and babies."
"Golf is a good walk spoilt."
"Truth is our most valuable commodity, so let us economize."
"Never put off until tomorrow that which could be done the day after tomorrow."
"A habit cannot be thrown out the window, it must be coaxed[7] down the stairs one step at a time."
"Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated".
"There are several good protections against temptations but the surest is cowardice."
"Suppose you were a congressman, and suppose you were an idiot. But, I repeat myself."
"Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody."
In the story "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg," Mark Twain explores many weaknesses of human nature. Hadleyburg was a town, noted, praised and envied of the citizens’ honesty and incorruptibility, until a single man corrupted and surfaced weaknesses of individuals and the community as a whole. Dishonesty, greed and falling into temptation are the stories greatest examples of human weakness.
“THE MAN THAT CORRUPTED HADLEYBURG”
The story is set in Hadleyburg, a small town renowned for its honesty. This reputation of honesty lasted for three generations and then something happened that disgraced Hadleyburg and robbed the town of its lofty name. The story shows how easily greedy people fall into temptations concerning money.
Hadleyburg had had the ill luck to offend a passing stranger. The stranger so much hated the snobbishness of its leading citizens that he burned with desire to revenge himself on them.
One night the offended stranger came to Hadleyburg and knocked on the door of Edward Richards, the cashier of bank, and gave him a sack to be put into the bank. He said the sack contained forty thousand dollars in gold and that a paper was attached to the sack that would explain everything, and then he went away. It said in the paper that the owner of the sack had been a ruined gambler and had one night come to their town to beg, and one of the citizens had given him $20 to help him out and had said something, certain remark that had made him stop gambling, and he had become a honest man. The owner of the sack wanted his benefactor to be identified by that remark and rewarded for his kind deed. That remark, the paper said, was sewn inside the sack. The stranger suggested that these facts be published and that the man who had made the remark should write down his words and appear in 30 days in the town hall where these words be read before witnesses. Should these words correspond with those in the sack, that person would be the right man and receive the sack.
The news about the gold spread rapidly. The town was unanimous in the belief that the man who had given the stranger $20 must have been Barclay Goodson. But Goodson had died in the meantime.
The excitement of the first week changed into a helpless worry in at least 19 of the principal households of the town. Just a week later the 19 principal families of the town received a letter each from a distant state. The writer of the letter said he had heard the news in Mexico and thought it is his duty to say that he had passed through Hadleyburg that night and had heard Goodson make the remark to the gambler; that he himself had chatted with Goodson until the midnight train came, and that Goodson had talked to him about Hadleyburg and had said that he didn’t like any person in the town – “not one: but that you - I think he said you - had done him a very great service once, and he wished he had a fortune, he would leave it to you when he died, and a curse apiece for the rest of the citizens. Now, then, if it was you that did that service, you are his legitimate heir, and entitled to the sack of gold... This is the remark: ‘You are far from being a bad man: go, and reform’. Howard L. Stephenson”. All 19 letters were exactly alike but for the name of the person they were addressed to in each case. All 19 families thought that only their family knew the secret remark.
When the day came to open the sack, all the town’s citizens were packed in the town hall. Mr. Burgess opened one letter after another and read the names of the claimants comparing their statements with the paper that was in the sack. The original remark was: “You are far from being a bad man: go, and reform - or, mark my words - some day for your sins you will die and go to hell or Hadleyburg - try and make it the former.” Roars of laughter from the poorer people! The names of the most notable citizens held up to derision. Then the inner sack was cut open but there were only gilded disks of lead in it, and another letter saying that it was all a hoax.
Thus the sacred 19 families fell prey to the miserable gold-sack: “the town was stripped of the last rag of its ancient glory.”
DISCUSSION:
Writing option:
The plot of "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg" ends pretty much as the stranger had planned it. Rewrite the end of the story in such a way that the town is somehow saved from dishonor. Which ending do you think is more realistic? Why?
“A DOG AND THREE DOLLARS”
I have always believed that a man must be honest. "Never ask for money you have not earned", I always said.
Now I shall tell you a story which will show you how honest I have always been all my life.
A few days ago at my friend's house I met General Miles. General Miles was a nice man and we became great friends very quickly.
"Did you live in Washington in 1867?" the general asked me.
"Yes, I did," I answered.
"How could it happen that we did not meet then?" said General Miles.
"General", said I. "We could not meet then. You forget that you were already a great general then, and I was a poor young writer whom nobody knew and whose books nobody read. You do not remember me, I thought, but we met once in Washington at that time."
I remember it very well. I was poor then and very often I did not have money even for my bread. I had a friend. He was a poor writer too. We lived together. We did everything together: worked, read books, went for walks together. And when we were hungry, we were both hungry. Once we were in need of three dollars. I don't remember why we needed these three dollars so much, but I remember well that we had to have the money by the evening.
"We must get these three dollars," said my friend. "I shall try to get the money, but you must also try."
I went out of the house, but I did not know where to go and how to get the three dollars. For an hour I was walking along the streets of Washington and was very tired. At last I came to a big hotel. "I shall go in and have a rest," I thought.
I went into the hall of the hotel and sat down on a sofa. I was sitting there when a beautiful small dog ran into the hall. It was looking for somebody. The dog was nice and I had nothing to do, so I called it and began to play with it.
I was playing with the dog, when a man came into the hall. He wore a beautiful uniform and I knew at once that he was General Miles. I knew him by his pictures in the newspapers. "What a beautiful dog!" said he. "Is it your dog?"
I did not have time to answer him when he said, "Do you want to sell it?"
"Three dollars", I answered at once.
"Three dollars?" he asked. "But that is very little. I can give you fifty dollars for it."
"No, no. I only want three dollars."
"Well, it is your dog. If you want three dollars for it, I shall be glad to buy your dog."
General Miles paid me three dollars, took the dog and went up to his room.
Ten minutes later an old man came into the hall. He looked round the hall. I could see that he was looking for something.
"Are you looking for a dog, sir?" I asked.
"Oh, yes! Have you seen it?" said the man.
"Your dog was here a few minutes ago and I saw how it went away with a man," I said. "If you want, I shall try to find it for you."
The man was very happy and asked me to help him.
"I shall be glad to help you, but it will take some of my time and..."
"I am ready to pay you for your time," cried the man. "How much do you want for it?"
"Three dollars," answered I.
"Three dollars?" said the man. "But it is a very good dog. I shall pay you ten dollars if you find it for me."
"No sir, I want three dollars and not a dollar more," said I.
Then I went up to General Miles's room. The General was playing with his new dog." I came here to take the dog back", said I.
"But it is not your dog now – I have bought it. I have paid you three dollars for it," said the General.
"I shall give you back your three dollars, but I must take the dog back", answered I. "But you have sold it to me, it is my dog now."
"I could not sell it to you, sir, because it was not my dog."
"Still you have sold it to me for three dollars."
"How could I sell it to you when it was not my dog? You asked me how much I wanted for the dog, and I said that I wanted three dollars. But I never told you that it was my dog."
General Miles was very angry now.
"Give me back my three dollars and take the dog," he shouted. When I brought the dog back to its master, he was very happy and paid me three dollars with joy. I was happy too because I had the money, and I felt I earned it.
Now you can see why I say that honesty is the best policy and that a man must never take anything that he has not earned.
COMPREHENSION AND DISCUSSION:
“THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER” (1876) is regarded as one of the best books for children in the world literature. The setting is a small Mississippi River town in the 1830’s. Having read many of books about Robin Hood, robbers, caves and hidden treasures, Tom Sawyer creates his own colourful world, which doesn’t look like surrounding reality. The principles of faithfulness and friendship, justice and courage are victorious in this world. Following them, Tom and Huck, having risked their lives, save an innocent man from death, having assured him of not implication in a crime.
DISCUSSION:
1. How does Tom Sawyer change over the course of the story?
2. Which of Tom’s deed and actions do you like and which do you dislike? Explain.
“THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER” (1881)
In this novel Mark Twain satirizes social conventions, concluding that appearances often hide a person’s true value. The novel shows England of the first half of the 16th century. Poverty reigns in the country. Superstitions and prejudices are widely spread among the people. In such conditions two identical-looking boys exchanged clothes. Prince Edward Tudor of Wales is expelled from the royal palace, and the poor Tom Canty appears on his place. Both are believed to be mad. Edward learns about the problems of commoners, while Tom learns to play the role of a prince and then a king.
DISCUSSION:
1. What problems does the writer rise in the novel?
2. Can we say that Tom’s childhood was happy? Explain.
3. What did Tom Canty and Prince Edward learn when they exchanged their places?
4. Why does Tom Canty adapt to his role as king more quickly than Edward Tudor adapts to his role as pauper?
5. Why is Tom Canty so willing to help Edward regain his throne?
6. Discuss the theme of clothes determining the way a person is treated.
“A CONNECTICUT YANKEE AT KING ARTHUR’s COURT” (1889)
The book is fantastic but there are many sad pages in it, which describe a hard life of English peasants in the 6th century. The action is set in Britain of the 6th century in the time of a legendary King Arthur. The wicked Queen Morgana and the magician Merlin are the embodiment of social evil. A common American Yankee is opposed to the kingdom of injustice and oppression. He exposes the swindles of Merlin, tries to destroy the most wild laws and customs. Having become the Prime Minister of the kingdom, he carries out a number of reforms, directed to ease the life of common people, promotes the development of trade, industry, crafts, education. In an effort to bring democratic principles and mechanical knowledge to the kingdom, Yankee strings telephone wire, starts schools, trains mechanics and teaches journalism. He also falls in love and marries. But when he tries to better the lot of the peasants, he meets opposition. He and Arthur, in disguise, travel among the miserable common folk, are taken captive and sold as slaves, and only at the last seconds are rescued by 500 knights on bicycles. Hank and his family briefly retire to the seaside. When they return they find the kingdom engulfed in civil war, Arthur killed, and Hank’s innovations abandoned.
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