Customer Reviews

The Crane Log: A Documentary Life of Stephen Crane, 1871-1900 (American Authors Log)

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Some of the above reviews seem to be totally uninformed about the nature of author logs. A log is a documentary life. It is often a useful reference book for those interested in the literary career of a writer hitherto shrouded in obscurity, myth, apocryphal misinformation and overdetermined criticism. There are consqeuntly fine documentary lives of such authors as Melville, Hawthorne, and Edgar Allan Poe. The Crane Log is perhaps the best of these. Although it is written as a reference book, it reads like a biography. The comment by one reviewer that the authors are interested in establishing their reputations is absurd. Stanley Wertheim is the dean of Stephen Crane scholars, and Paul Sorrentino ranks among the leading Crane critics of his generation.

The Crane Log is a wonderful book which I have been reading over the past few days. I am surprised by the many underserved poor reviews this book has gotten. It must be stressed that this is a reference work, and one that is probably best read in snatches, and not in chronological order. includes day by day accounts, including fascinating liberal excerpts from memoirs of the people who knew him that allows you to form your own conception of Crane as he lived. For the first time we have a biographical work of Crane that is free of the fictions of Crane's first biographer, Thomas Beer. That is not something to grouse about.

This documentary life of Stephen Crane is the ony book that attempts to locate persons and events in Stephen Crane's literary career accurately and objectively, avoiding the apocryphal stories and thesis-ridden interpretations that have plagued Crane biography. A must for anyone with an interest in this important American author.

This text, a thorough listing of dates and events pivotal in the life of American author Stephen Crane, is the most comprehensive and uncorrupted catalog of the author. It is far better than the biographies available on Crane, since all of them rely at least in part on Stephen Crane biography by Thomas Beer. Beer, a friend of Crane, seems to have made up quite a bit of information about the author and may have attributed to Crane events in his own life. Other biographies, such as the ones written by Berryman and Stallman, use Beer's suspect biography as an authority in completing their own. On the other hand, 'The Crane Log' goes straight to the original documentation on Crane's life to compile a chronology of the man and the author. Though not narrative in form, is it exhaustive in data.

Following in the footsteps of Jay Leda's pioneering A Melville Log and the Days and Hours of Emily Dickinson, Wertheim and Sorrentino have established an impeccably detailed and precise documentary of the short life of Stephen Crane. So well known is Crane that he has become mythologized by secondary and college teachers. Much about his life has been mired in myth and misinformation. The authors have stripped away the myths and revealed the actualities of his life and his writings. Anyone interested in recovering this remarkable artist will want to consult this book.

Avoid this book unless you REALLY need it and hate good literature. This author has difficulty writing a paragraph that won't put you and three other people in the room sound asleep. Stephen Crane (a great author)must be spinning in his grave...

The authors take a pedantic look at the life of this interesting author. But they seem to be more interested in establishing themselves as scholars than in honestly evaluating Stephen Crane's interesting life. Admittedly, Crane was a "one hit wonder", but these gents seem intent on making a career of him by standing on his less than broad shoulders. This tedious day by day account of the trivialities of Crane's life is ponderous, speculative and overblown.

It seems to me that much of this material is made up by the author. I could not understand how private facts of Crane's life would be known in this way. I find this book very disturbing because of this. I think Crane is a great author but this book did not help me understand his work at all.

Stephen Crane wrote some great books and lead a fascinating life, but this day to day rehash of every trivial detail with none of the excitement of this great author's life is terrible! This book does a disservice to Crane and his memory...confusing, loooong, and boring.