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##### June 6, 1900 OBITUARY ## Stephen Crane Dead ##### By THE NEW YORK TIMES BADENWEILER, Baden, June 5.--Stephen Crane, the American author and war correspondent, died here to-day, aged thirty years. Stephen Crane stepped early into literary notice because of his power in word painting. "The Red Badge of Courage," his first published novel, drew approving comment from various quarters, and some speculation regarding the author. In England the opinion was advanced that he must be a veteran soldier, since no one who had not been under fire could so well describe a battle. Mr. Crane dismissed this theory by saying that he got his ideas from the football field. After this introduction, in 1895, to book readers, Mr. Crane issued a book called "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets," which had been written by him when he was about sixteen years old and printed privately. In the five years between these books he occupied himself with miscellaneous newspaper and sketch work in this city, printing among other things verses entitled "The Black Riders, and Other Lines." He printed "George's Mother" in 1896, and "The Little Regiment," a war story, and "The Third Violet," in 1897, his books by that time having vogue both here and abroad. "The Red Badge of Courage" was written while he was in New York writing sketches for the various newspapers and in very indifferent financial circumstances. His inspiration for it came from an artist friend whose studio he was visiting. Crane had been reading a war story in a current magazine, which he finally tossed aside in disgust, saying that he could write a better story himself. "Why don't you do it, then?" said his friend. "I will," said Crane, snatching up his hat and leaving the room. The next three days he secured all the books he could find on the civil war in the various public libraries and read carefully the accounts of several battles. He knew little or nothing about the civil war when he started, but when he had finished his studies he was thoroughly imbued with local color. The story which he produced was refused by all the publishers, but was afterward accepted in a condensed form for $90 by a newspaper syndicate. When the Graeco-Turkish war broke out he was in London. He went into the field as correspondent for The Westminster Gazette and The New York Journal. After that he started for Cuba with a filibustering expedition, which was wrecked off the American coast. He then went to Cuba as The Journal's correspondent and witnessed the operations at Santiago and Havana and afterward in Porto Rico. After this experience he came to this city, intending to engage here and in London in book writing. While looking in the Tenderloin for "color" for a story of the seamy side of life he was arrested and had an experience with the police. In court the following day he pleaded his case so well that the Magistrate released him, and also the young woman arrested with him. He wrote in 1898 'The Open Boat" and "The Eternal Patience." For the last eighteen months Mr. Crane lived in England, having made his home on an estate in Essex since last Fall. He wrote, after leaving here, two novels and a volume of verse called "War Is Kind," all three books inspired by the Turkish war, and a volume of short stories entitled "The Monster." His last work, "Whilomville Stores," a series of tales of child life, is now in course of publication in American magazines. Mr. Crane was born in Newark, N. J., in 1871, and was the son of the Rev. Dr. J. I. Crane. He attended Lafayette College and Syracuse University, but was not graduated from either.
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