This collection offers the complete poems of Stephen Crane (1871 - 1900), as well as essays on him by Joseph Conrad and Willa Cather. One of the best short story writers of all time, Crane was also an important poet who established laconic precision as the dominant style of free verse. His followers included such authors as Carl Sandburg, William Carlos Williams and e.e. cummings. Without any doubt, Crane should be regarded as the father of modern-days' literary minimalism.

Stephen Crane has earned his place in the American literary canon largely on the basis of his novel "The Red Badge of Courage" and his psychologically compelling short fiction, he was also a remarkable poet whose poetry is full of irony and paradox, yet is often gentle and compassionate. "The Complete Poems" is a superb tribute to that poetic genius. In addition to collecting all 135 of Crane's known surviving poems, editor Joseph Katz has written a substantial introduction which places Crane's poetic achievement in context.

A LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE WINNER A BOSTON GLOBE BEST BOOK OF 2021 Booker Prize-shortlisted and New York Times bestselling author Paul Auster's comprehensive, landmark biography of the great American writer Stephen Crane. With Burning Boy, celebrated novelist Paul Auster tells the extraordinary story of Stephen Crane, best known as the author of The Red Badge of Courage, who transformed American literature through an avalanche of original short stories, novellas, poems, journalism, and war reportage before his life was cut short by tuberculosis at age twenty-eight. Auster’s probing account of this singular life tracks Crane as he rebounds from one perilous situation to the next: A controversial article written at twenty disrupts the course of the 1892 presidential campaign, a public battle with the New York police department over the false arrest of a prostitute effectively exiles him from the city, a star-crossed love affair with an unhappily married uptown girl tortures him, a common-law marriage to the proprietress of Jacksonville’s most elegant bawdyhouse endures, a shipwreck results in his near drowning, he withstands enemy fire to send dispatches from the Spanish-American War, and then he relocates to England, where Joseph Conrad becomes his closest friend and Henry James weeps over his tragic, early death. In Burning Boy, Auster not only puts forth an immersive read about an unforgettable life but also, casting a dazzled eye on Crane’s astonishing originality and productivity, provides uniquely knowing insight into Crane’s creative processes to produce the rarest of reading experiences—the dramatic biography of a brilliant writer as only another literary master could tell it.

This unique and meticulously edited collection of Stephen Crane's greatest poetical works includes:_x000D_ The Black Riders and Other Lines_x000D_ Black riders came from the sea_x000D_ Three little birds in a row_x000D_ In the desert_x000D_ Yes, I have a thousand tongues_x000D_ Once there came a man_x000D_ God fashioned the ship of the world carefully_x000D_ Mystic shadow, bending near me_x000D_ I looked here_x000D_ I stood upon a high place_x000D_ Should the wide world roll away_x000D_ In a lonely place_x000D_ And the sins of the fathers shall be_x000D_ If there is a witness to my little life_x000D_ There was a crimson clash of war_x000D_ Tell brave deeds of war_x000D_ Charity thou art a lie_x000D_ There were many who went in huddled procession_x000D_ In heaven_x000D_ A god in wrath_x000D_ A learned man came to me once_x000D_ There was, before me_x000D_ Once I saw mountains angry_x000D_ Places among the stars_x000D_ I saw a man pursuing the horizon_x000D_ Behold, the grave of a wicked man_x000D_ There was set before me a mighty hill_x000D_ A youth in apparel that glittered_x000D_ "Truth," said a traveller_x000D_ Behold, from the land of the farther suns_x000D_ Supposing that I should have the courage_x000D_ Many workmen_x000D_ Two or three angels_x000D_ There was one I met upon the road_x000D_ I stood upon a highway_x000D_ A man saw a ball of gold in the sky_x000D_ I met a seer_x000D_ On the horizon the peaks assembled_x000D_ The ocean said to me once_x000D_ The livid lightnings flashed in the clouds_x000D_ And you love me_x000D_ Love walked alone_x000D_ I walked in a desert_x000D_ There came whisperings in the winds_x000D_ I was in the darkness_x000D_ Tradition, thou art for suckling children_x000D_ Many red devils ran from my heart..._x000D_ War is Kind:_x000D_ Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind_x000D_ What says the sea, little shell?_x000D_ To the maiden_x000D_ A little ink more or less!_x000D_ Have you ever made a just man?_x000D_ I explain the silvered passing of a ship at night_x000D_ I have heard the sunset song of the birches_x000D_ Fast rode the knight_x000D_ Forth went the candid man_x000D_ You tell me this is God?_x000D_ On the desert_x000D_ A newspaper is a collection of half-injustices_x000D_ The wayfarer_x000D_ A slant of sun on dull brown walls_x000D_ Once a man clambering to the housetops_x000D_ The successful man has thrust himself_x000D_ In the Night_x000D_ The chatter of a death-demon from a tree-top..._x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_

Excellent collection offers new insight into the mind and poetic genius of an author primarily known for his fiction. Includes "The Black Riders," "War is Kind," and a selection from Crane's uncollected poetic works.