Men, Women, and Boats

Men, Women, and Boats

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Crane #5 in our series by Stephen Crane
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Title: Men, Women, and Boats
Author: Stephen Crane
Release Date: January, 2005 [EBook #7239] [Yes, we are more than
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MEN, WOMEN, AND BOATS
By Stephen Crane
Edited With an Introduction by Vincent Starrett

NOTE
A Number of the tales and sketches here brought together appear now
for the first time between covers; others for the first time between
covers in this country. All have been gathered from out-of-print
volumes and old magazine files.
"The Open Boat," one of Stephen Crane's finest stories, is used with the
courteous permission of Doubleday, Page & Co., holders of the
copyright. Its companion masterpiece, "The Blue Hotel," because of
copyright complications, has had to be omitted, greatly to the regret of
the editor.
After the death of Stephen Crane, a haphazard and undiscriminating

gathering of his earlier tales and sketches appeared in London under the
misleading title, "Last Words." From this volume, now rarely met with,
a number of characteristic minor works have been selected, and these
will be new to Crane's American admirers; as follows: "The Reluctant
Voyagers," "The End of the Battle," "The Upturned Face," "An
Episode of War," "A Desertion," "Four Men in a Cave," "The
Mesmeric Mountain," "London Impressions," "The Snake."
Three of our present collection, printed by arrangement, appeared in the
London (1898) edition of "The Open Boat and Other Stories,"
published by William Heinemann, but did not occur in the American
volume of that title. They are "An Experiment in Misery," "The Duel
that was not Fought," and "The Pace of Youth."
For the rest, "A Dark Brown Dog," "A Tent in Agony," and "The
Scotch Express," are here printed for the first time in a book.
For the general title of the present collection, the editor alone is
responsible.
V. S.

MEN, WOMEN AND BOATS
CONTENTS
STEPHEN CRANE: An Estimate THE OPEN BOAT
THE RELUCTANT VOYAGERS
THE END OF THE BATTLE
THE UPTURNED FACE
AN EPISODE OF WAR
AN EXPERIMENT IN MISERY

THE DUEL THAT WAS NOT FOUGHT
A DESERTION
THE DARK-BROWN DOG
THE PACE OF YOUTH
SULLIVAN COUNTY SKETCHES
A TENT IN AGONY
FOUR MEN IN A CAVE
THE MESMERIC MOUNTAIN
THE SNAKE
LONDON IMPRESSIONS
THE SCOTCH EXPRESS

STEPHEN CRANE: AN ESTIMATE
It hardly profits us to conjecture what Stephen Crane might have
written about the World War had he lived. Certainly, he would have
been in it, in one capacity or another. No man had a greater talent for
war and personal adventure, nor a finer art in describing it. Few writers
of recent times could so well describe the poetry of motion as
manifested in the surge and flow of battle, or so well depict the isolated
deed of heroism in its stark simplicity and terror.
To such an undertaking as Henri Barbusse's "Under Fire," that powerful,
brutal book, Crane would have brought an analytical genius almost
clairvoyant. He possessed an uncanny vision; a descriptive ability
photographic in its clarity and its care for minutiae--yet unphotographic
in that the big central thing often is omitted, to be felt rather than seen

in the occult suggestion of detail. Crane would have seen and depicted
the grisly horror of it all, as did Barbusse, but also he would have seen
the glory and the ecstasy and the wonder of it, and over that his poetry
would have been spread.
While Stephen Crane was an excellent psychologist, he was also a true
poet. Frequently his prose was finer poetry than his deliberate essays in
poesy. His most famous book, "The Red